A deciduous, up to 30 m tall tree of the olive family. The bark is gray, on young branches it is greenish-gray with whitish lenticels. The leaves are opposite, pinnate, 15-20 cm long, leaflets (7-15 of them) oblong or lanceolate, pointed, toothed on the edge, sessile, glabrous, hairy only on the underside along the veins. The flowers are bisexual and male, without perianth, collected in short bunches that come out in bunches from the axils of last year’s leaves. The fruit is lanceolate, linear-lanceolate, obtuse or with a notch at the top, glabrous. Blooms in May.
Distribution . Common ash grows wild in deciduous forests in forest and forest-steppe areas and in the Crimea. It is cultivated throughout Ukraine as a decorative and phytoremedial plant.
Procurement and storage . For medical purposes, bark (Cortex Fraxini) and leaves (Folia Fraxini) of ash are used. Bark is collected in the spring, from young branches (for harvesting and drying rules, see the article Common oak). Ash leaves (fully developed) are harvested in May-June and used fresh (in the form of juice or crushed into pulp) or dried, spreading it in a thin layer on a clean litter in the shade in the open air or in a well-ventilated room. Ash leaves are official in German and Swiss medicine. On the territory of the former USSR, gums are used only in folk medicine.
Chemical composition. Ash leaves contain tannins, flavone glycoside quercitrin, mannitol, inositol, tannins (4.11%), traces of essential oil, ascorbic acid, carotene, etc. Ash bark contains coumarin glycoside fraxin, phenol glycoside syringin, tanids (3.81%), mannitol, inositol, vitamin C, quercetin, malic acid, etc.
Фармакологічні властивості і використання. Ясен звичайний використовують як протизапальний, сечогінний, жовчогінний, послаблюючий, кровоспинний і глистогінний засіб. Настій з кори або листя (перевагу віддають настоєві з листя) дають усередину при ревматичних захворюваннях, особливо при ревматоїдному поліартриті, нирковокам’яній хворобі (часто в суміші з іншими лікарськими рослинами), хворобах печінки, жовтяниці, гарячці, спастичному коліті й маткових кровотечах. Використовують ясен і як зовнішній засіб: свіжий сік листків закапують у вухо при запаленні, а подрібнене до стану кашки листя і кусочки свіжої кори прикладають до ран.
Лікарські форми і застосування.
Internally – infusion (3 teaspoons of bark or leaves are infused for 10-15 minutes in two glasses of boiling water, filtered) half a glass 4 times a day;
60 g of a mixture of common ash bark, lingonberry leaves, common motherwort grass and common hop cones, taken in a ratio of 6:3:2:1, pour 1 liter of boiling water, boil for 10 minutes and drink half a glass of the resulting decoction 3 times a day day for kidney stone disease complicated by pyelonephritis (course of treatment — 3-4 weeks).
Common ash belongs to poisonous plants. It should be used carefully, without exceeding the permissible doses.