Name: Common bruise
Common name: night blindness.
BLUE ORDINARY (Echium vulgare L.)A biennial herbaceous plant of the borage family (Boraginaceae), up to 1 m high, with a spindle-shaped root. The stem is solitary, erect, thick, often branched, with red spots, like the leaves, covered with long, erect, bristly hairs sitting on white tubercles. Basal leaves are collected in a rosette, spatulate-lanceolate; lower stem – oblong-lanceolate, at the base narrowed into a petiole; the rest are narrowly linear, pointed, sessile, with one median vein, entire. The flowers are bisexual, first pink, then turning blue, occasionally white, sessile or on very short pedicels, collected in simple curls, forming a large paniculate inflorescence; corolla fluffy outside. The fruit is dry, breaks up into 4 trihedral tuberculate nuts, pointed at the top. Blossoms in June – July, fruits ripen in July – August. Propagated by seeds. It grows in weedy places, fallow fields, dry slopes, along roads, on forest edges, on fallow lands. The plant is poisonous!
COLLECTION AND DRYING OF RAW MATERIALS
For medicinal purposes, mainly flowers and leaves of the common bruise are used, which are harvested during the flowering period of plants. Dry outdoors in the shade, in well-ventilated areas or in dryers.
PHARMACOLOGICAL PROPERTIES
The aqueous extract in the experiment has an antihormonal effect, the alcohol extract has a curare-like effect. Roots (bark) exhibit antibacterial and antifungal activity. The plant has expectorant, diuretic and sedative properties; infusion of the aerial part in the experiment increases blood clotting, increases the number of leukocytes and lymphocytes.
APPLICATIONS IN MEDICINE
Aboveground part. Decoction – as an expectorant and sedative; with cough, whooping cough, epilepsy; externally – with sprained tendons, rheumatism. Leaves. In the Crimea (fresh) – as a wound healing agent. Flowers. Infusion – diuretic. In Ukraine and the Caucasus – with colic.
DOSAGE FORMS, METHOD OF APPLICATION AND DOSES
♦ Bruise herb decoction: boil 1 dessert spoon of raw materials in 200 ml of water, then filter. Take 1/4-1/2 cup 2-3 times every day. CONTRAINDICATIONS AND POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS: When using internally, care must be taken, as the whole plant contains alkaloids that paralyze the nervous system. * When eaten by animals, they experience symptoms of damage gastrointestinal tract.
APPLICATIONS IN OTHER FIELDS
Flowers and roots produce a carmine red coat dye. The fatty drying oil contained in the seeds can be used in the paint and varnish industry. Feed for sheep. The plant is especially valued as a honey plant, which provides a rich and long bribe. High quality honey, pleasant to the taste, thick, light amber in color, but does not crystallize for a long time. One flower produces 0.8-2.5 mg of nectar with an average sugar content of 36%. From 1 ha, 200-300 kg of honey is obtained per season, in especially favorable years – up to 1 ton. Decorative. Cultivated in forest parks, along the roads as a honey plant.