Name: Sorbus ordinary

 

Mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia L.)

Rowan ordinary – a tree from the Rosaceae family (Rosaceae). Other names: gorobina, orobina, yarobina.

Description:

Tree of medium size (sometimes shrub), with gray smooth bark; young branches are fluffy, hairy-felt buds. Leaves alternate, pinnate, petiolate, with 7-11 lateral leaflets, 3-6 cm long and 1-2 cm wide, on very short petioles; leaflets are oblong, pointed, sharply serrate at the tops, glands are located at the base of each pair. Inflorescences many-flowered, corymbs 5-10 cm across; the flowers are regular, white, with the smell of bitter almonds, with a woolly 5-toothed calyx and 5 rounded petals. Stamens 20, equal in length to petals, columns 2-5. The fruits are juicy, apple-shaped. Blossoms in May-June, bears fruit in September-October. Mountain ash is found in forests, especially often in blueberry and bracken oak forests, along shrubs. It is bred in gardens and parks as an ornamental, and is also found in plantings along highways.

Harvesting, description of raw materials:

In medicine, the fruits of mountain ash – Fructus Sorbi are used. Mature fruits are harvested in the fall before frost, cutting off the shields. After harvesting, they are separated from the stalks and dried in the sun, in ovens or dryers. The raw material consists of spherical (up to 6 mm in diameter) strongly wrinkled, shiny red-orange fruits. At the top of the fruit there is a remnant of the calyx in the form of five small teeth, in the center of which dried stamens often remain. The fruits contain from 2 to 7 crescent-curved brown seeds, the taste is bitter-sour.

Contains active substances:

The fruits contain carotene, vitamin C, sugars, organic acids, traces of tannins. The seeds contain amygdalin and fatty oil.

Medicinal use:

Rowan fruits are used as a vitamin remedy with a significant content of carotene. They are brewed as tea and used to prepare vitamin preparations. In folk medicine, a decoction of rowan flowers is drunk for liver disease, cough, hemorrhoids, female diseases, goiter; berries are used fresh or as jam for heart disease, low acidity of the stomach, liver disease, colds; berries in alcohol for chest pain, as a mild laxative and for hemorrhoids, for inflammation of the glands.