Orchid family – Orchidaceae.
Medicinal raw materials are tuber roots (salen).
They are found in forest, less often forest-steppe regions of Ukraine, in meadows, swamps, in forests and thickets of shrubs. They traditionally grow in small groups and even single specimens, and only in the forest belt of the Carpathians in meadows and swamps sometimes they form thickets on tens of hectares.
Stocks of raw materials are small (several centners of tuber roots can be harvested annually), but they are also rapidly declining due to the drainage of swamps and intensive grazing in meadows. The main preparations are possible in the Carpathians (Transcarpathian, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi regions).
A number of species of the genus orchid and anakamptis pyramidalis are included in the Red Book of the Soviet Union, and all representatives of the orchid family are included in the Red Book of Ukraine.
Orches are perennials with two tuber roots (young growing and old dying), palmate or round. Stem single, erect, not branched. The leaves are alternate, entire, linear or lanceolate with parallel veins. The flowers are irregular, brightly colored (purple, violet-red, etc.) in apical racemose inflorescences with bracts. Perianth simple corolla of six leaves in 2 circles. The outer leaflets are almost the same, from the inner lower one the larger one forms a lip with a spur at the base. The fruits of the box, opening with six longitudinal slits. Seeds numerous, very small. Blooms in May-June. The fruits ripen in July-August.
In Ukraine, there are 27 species of orchid that have medicinal properties. Of these, in the last time, species with palmate tubers were distinguished into an independent genus of palmate roots – Dactylorhiza, there are 9 of them in Ukraine, from which palmate tubers are collected. The remaining 18 species belong to the genus orchis – Orchis with round tubers.
Orchis mascula L. is a perennial herb with two round tubers with purple flowers in a dense cylindrical inflorescence up to 15–20 cm long. In dry meadows and in the bushes of the Forest-Steppe and Polissya, the Orchis mascula L. is found. morio L. with dark purple flowers in a small infrequent inflorescence, but in wet meadows, in shrubs and on slopes, occasionally in Polesie and in the Forest-Steppe, also in the foothills of the Carpathians, helmet-shaped orchis. O. militaris L., from which round tubers are harvested (best variety).
From other orchids, along with orchids, you can collect the tuber roots of the pyramidal anakamptis – Anacamptis piramidalis (L.) C. R i with h. ., often found in the Carpathian and Polissya regions and not often in the forest-steppe regions and mountainous regions of Crimea.
Tuber roots are harvested during the flowering period (May-June), dug up with shovels or knives. Shake off the ground, cut off the aerial parts and old tubers with knives. Then they are cleaned of the outer bark and dipped in boiling water for several minutes.
The harvested raw materials are dried in the open air, in attics under an iron roof or under sheds with good ventilation, laid out in a single layer on paper or fabric. It can be dried in ovens or dryers at a temperature of 50-55 ° or strung on threads or twine.
According to FS 42-1047-76, the raw material consists of hard, whole, heavy, slightly translucent, smooth or slightly wrinkled tubers, yellowish-white or yellowish-gray above. Odor and taste are absent. Humidity is not higher than 13%. No more than 3% of darkened tubers are allowed in raw materials. The total ash content must not exceed 3%. Foreign impurities and crushed parts should not be.
Raw materials are packed in tight bags weighing 40, 50 or 60 kg. Store in dry, well-ventilated areas. Storage period up to 6 years. Every 2 years a re-verification is carried out.
Tuber roots contain mucus (consisting mainly of mannan), starch. They are used as an enveloping remedy for intestinal diseases in the form of an infusion.