Name: One-year sunflower – one-year sunflower
Annual sunflower (Helianthus annuus); common sunflower; annual sunflower
One-year hard pubescent plant of the aster family (complex flowers). The stem is straight, simple, with lateral axillary branches, 1-2.5 m high. The leaves are alternate, petiolate, heart-shaped, irregularly serrated and toothed along the edge. The flowers are yellow, in apical drooping large baskets (20-30 (70) cm in diameter; the marginal flowers are ligulate, infertile; the middle ones are tubular, bisexual, fertile. The fruit is an achene. It blooms in June-July.
Spread. Annual sunflower is cultivated throughout Ukraine as a valuable oil plant.
Procurement and storage . For medicinal purposes, leaves (Folium Helianthi annui), reed flowers (Flores Helianthi annui) and sunflower oil (Oleum Helianthi annui) are used. The leaves are harvested at the beginning of the flowering of the plant, breaking off by hand so that the remains of the petioles do not exceed 3 cm. The collected material is dried under cover in the open air or in a ventilated room, spreading it in one layer on paper or cloth or stringing it on twine. Lilium flowers, which are collected during the period of full flowering of the plant, are recommended to be dried in a darkened room, spreading in a thin (1-2 cm) layer and stirring from time to time. 20% of dry leaves are obtained, 14% of dry flowers. The shelf life of dry flowers and leaves is 2 years. Oil is extracted from seeds.
Chemical composition. Sunflower leaves and reed flowers contain betaine, choline, arnidiol, faradiol, flavonoids (quercimethrin and cyanidin glycoside), carotenoids and pectin. In addition, the leaves contain solantic, succinic, fumaric and citric acids, resinous substances (up to 3%); in yarrow flowers – saponins, phenolic acids (chlorogenic, neochlorogenic, caffeic, salicylic). Sunflower oil contains glycerides of oleic, palmitic, stearic, arachinic and lignoceric acids and carotenoids.
Pharmacological properties and use . Sunflower oil is used as a basis for ointments, plasters and rubs, it is used as a choleretic agent in chronic diseases of the liver and biliary tract (cholecystitis, cholangitis, cholangiohepatitis, calculous cholecystitis). In addition, it is part of the aerosol “Livian” (Aerosolum “Livianum”), which is used for the treatment of burn wounds. Tincture or infusion of ligular flowers of sunflower is given internally as an antipyretic and antispasmodic agent for malaria, bronchial spasm and gastrointestinal colic. As a bitter to stimulate the appetite, in the case of malaria, flu and catarrh of the upper respiratory tract, with rashes on the skin and old ulcers, drink a tincture made from a mixture of sunflower leaves and reed flowers.
Medicinal forms and applications .
Internally – tincture of flowers (made with 10% alcohol in a ratio of 1:5) 20 drops per spoonful of water 3 times a day;
infusion of flowers (2 tablespoons of raw materials per 300 ml of boiling water, infuse for 2 hours) half a glass 3 times a day before meals;
tincture of a mixture (equally) of leaves and flowers (1 part of the mixture to 5 parts of 70% alcohol) 30-40 drops per spoonful of water 3-4 times a day;
drink a quarter of a glass of refined sunflower oil in the morning on an empty stomach and lie on your right side to release bile; a tablespoon of a mixture of the leaves of nettle dicotyledons, the reed flowers of the annual sunflower, the grass of the three-leaved cowberry and the roots of licorice root, taken in a ratio of 5:5:10:3, infuse for 30 minutes in a glass of boiling water and drink 1 glass 3 times a day in case of malaria ; a tablespoon of a mixture of St. John’s wort and bitter wormwood, annual sunflower flowers and medicinal herbs, taken in a ratio of 10:3:5:2, infuse for 10 minutes in a glass of boiling water and drink 2 glasses a day for malaria.