Wallflower

WALLFLOWER

 

A perennial herbaceous plant up to 60 cm high with a branched root and a woody, branched, ribbed and pubescent stem at the base. The leaves are lanceolate, entire, or have 1-2 cloves along the edges. The flowers are collected in apical racemes, have a pleasant, pungent smell, are the same in structure as the rest of the cruciferous. Petals 20-25 mm long, golden yellow to orange-yellow. The fruit is a pod up to 6 cm long and 3 mm wide with many seeds. A highly variable look. Blooms in early summer.

Wallflower is a Mediterranean plant. Grown as a garden ornamental crop.

For medicinal purposes, flowers and fresh leaves, seeds are used. The flowers contain 0.06% essential oil, the flavones quercetin and isorhamnetin, and the enzyme myrosine. The seeds contain within 0.015% cheirotoxin and cheiroside (glycosides with a cardiac effect similar to digitalis glycosides), the substance cheirosin, within 1.5% glycopeirolin (thioglycoside, the hydrolysis of which releases mustard oil) and about 20-26% fatty oil.

Leaves also contain cardiac glycosides, and the action of fresh leaves is more powerful.

Application

An infusion of flowers (2 teaspoons per glass of boiling water) is recommended in folk medicine as a remedy for chronic constipation and liver diseases. A tincture of fresh leaves and seeds has been tried in heart failure. Cheirotoxin increases the amplitude of heart contractions and slows down its rhythm.

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