Popular names: oil color, early lettuce, poisonous leaf.
Parts Used: Fresh herb.
Pharmacy name: Chistyak herb – Ranunculi ficariae herba (formerly: Herba Ranunculi ficariae).
Botanical description.It is one of the most visible spring plants. In early spring, fleshy cone-shaped tubers develop leaves of a basal rosette with a wide sheath, heart-shaped or kidney-shaped, serrated or serrated along the edge, juicy, with an oily shiny surface. Sometimes they spread along the plane of the soil with a whole carpet. A weakly branched stem bears larger leaves similar to basal ones. The flowers are located at the ends of the stems, solitary, similar to bright yellow stars, the upper side of the petals is oily, shiny. In the axils of the upper leaves, brood nodules (they look like wheat grains) are often formed, which serve for vegetative propagation. As they mature, they fall off and develop into new young plants. Sometimes there are so many of these white nodules,
active substances. Caustic substances characteristic of ranunculus – protoanemonin and, accordingly, anemonin – are contained in a small amount of chistyak. But it contains vitamin C and saponins.
Healing action and application. Due to being one of the first spring plants to contain vitamin C, chistyak has long been used as a so-called blood-purifying spring salad. And as an actual drug, a chistyak can hardly be used, at least official medicine is silent about this.
Application in folk medicine. In the spring, fresh herb chistyak is used in folk medicine as a salad to replenish vitamin C deficiency or juice is squeezed out of it, which is then mixed with milk and taken with spoons. blood. Tea from the dried plant is given against skin diseases.
- Chistyak tea: 2-3 teaspoons of chistyak herb are poured into 1/4 liter of water, heated slowly, brought to a boil and filtered.
This tea is drunk to cleanse the skin several sips throughout the day, they also make warm baths for certain areas of the skin, diluting it with the same amount of chamomile tea. This combination also helps with hemorrhoids (sitz baths).
Side effects. Since the fresh plant contains a certain amount of caustic substances characteristic of ranunculus, avoid overdose, otherwise irritation of the stomach, intestines and kidneys may occur. Chistyak tea is less dangerous, because when dried, caustic substances are destroyed and become harmless.