Blue cyanosis (Polemonium coeruleum L.)

Blue cyanosis is a perennial plant from the cyanotic family (Polemoniaceae). Other names: mother liquor, harmful grass, azure cyanosis, Greek valerian.

Description:

Perennial herbaceous plant with an elevated (50 – 140 cm) erect, mostly single, evenly leafy stem and a short, thick, vertical rhizome with dense and thin fibrous roots. The leaves are alternate, unpaired-pinnately dissected; basal leaves are large, 25-40 cm long, with numerous leaflets. At the top, the leaves decrease in volume, respectively, the number of leaflets and the length of the petioles are reduced, so that the upper leaves are sessile. The flowers are collected in a multi-flowered apical panicle, the corolla is dark blue, wide, ringed, with 5 almost rounded lobes. The fruit is a spherical, tricuspid, easily cracking capsule enclosed in a calyx. Blue cyanosis blooms from May to autumn. Blue cyanosis grows in thickets of shrubs, along river banks, meadows, swamps, forest edges.

Harvesting, description of raw materials:

In medicine, rhizomes with cyanosis roots are used – Rhizoma cum radicibus Polemonii. They are harvested in the fall, digging them up with shovels or pitchforks, shake them off the ground, cut off the aerial part, cut the thick rhizomes lengthwise and quickly wash them in water, dry them in the air or in attics. When collecting medicinal raw materials, it is necessary to give preference to younger plants, since the rhizomes of old plants often rot inside. The raw materials consist of short vertical or shapeless multi-headed rhizomes up to 30 cm long and up to 1.5 cm thick with numerous cylindrical thin roots extending from them up to 15 cm long and 2 mm thick. The color of the rhizomes is grayish-white, the roots are yellowish on the outside, white in the break. A decoction of the roots with strong shaking gives abundant persistent foam, the smell is weak, the taste is bitter.

Contains active substances:

Rhizomes with cyanosis roots contain up to 30% triterpene saponins, resins, organic acids and traces of essential oil.

Medicinal use:

In the form of an infusion or decoction, it is used as a highly effective expectorant for chronic and acute bronchitis, pulmonary tuberculosis, and as a sedative. The strength of the action on the central nervous system is 8-10 times greater than () valerian. It is used for peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum. In folk medicine, the roots collected in the fall are infused with water in a light spirit and given to drink in case of severe nervous breakdown (psychosis), against rabies, in the form of poultices as an analgesic and emollient.