Perennial herbaceous plant with an underground hollow tuber. Stem erect, 10-35 cm tall, unbranched, bearing an inflorescence at the top in the form of a brush. Stem leaves, with petioles, twice pinnately incised, with rather wide lobes located on petioles. The inflorescence consists of 10-20 more or less densely arranged flowers; bracts are oval or broadly elliptical in shape with entire margins. Flowers 20-30 mm long, most often red, longitudinally zygomorphic, with two falling sepals and 4 sepals fused along the long axis, and in the upper part they form together a lip, and in the lower part – a spur; stamens 2, at the top they are tripartite, with 6 anthers; the pistil consists of 2 carpels with an upper ovary. The fruit is pod-shaped, many-seeded. The seeds have a comb-like process. Blooms from April to June. Corydalis Marshall. The flowers are irregular, with a spur. Corolla yellow 22-25 mm long. Fruits are cylindrical bivalve boxes (pods) with shiny black seeds. There are also other species of the Corydalis genus, the raw materials of which are approved for harvesting: Corydalis Gollar, in which the flowers are reddish-purple and white; corydalis intermediate – with pink-purple flowers, etc.
There are corydalis in Ukraine, less often in the Caucasus. Grow in thickets of bushes in beams.
Medicinal raw materials are all parts of the plant. The raw material contains alkaloids of the isoquinoline group – coridalin, coridine, etc.
The highly poisonous Corydalis alkaloids are used in very small doses in therapy, due to their narcotic effect, similar to morphine. In higher doses, they inhibit voluntary movements and reflex muscle activity and can cause catalepsy.
It is used in neurology and psychiatry for the treatment of nervous diseases (trembling paralysis, etc.) and for increasing muscle tone, under the strict supervision of a physician.