Salvia officinalis – shavliya likarska

Lamiaceae (Labiatae) family.

Leaves are used for medicinal purposes.

It does not occur in the wild in the USSR, it comes from the Mediterranean. It is widely cultivated in the Crimea, the southern steppe regions of Ukraine in the state farms of Soyuzlekrasprom. Plantation is used from the first year for 4-5 years.

Sage officinalis is a semi-shrub 20-70 cm high with a branched lignified root. Stems numerous, erect, tetrahedral, densely leafy. The leaves are opposite, long-petioled, the upper ones are sessile, oblong with a blunt apex, pubescent, grayish-green, the venation is densely reticulate, the surface is evenly wrinkled. Inflorescences are apical, spicate, discontinuous with 6-9 flower whorls. The flowers are two-lipped, almost sessile, with a blue-violet corolla 20-30 mm long. Stamens 2, ovary four-celled, style protruding. Seeds are almost spherical, dark brown four-nutlets up to 3 mm in diameter, enclosed in a calyx.

Blooms in June – July. The fruits ripen in July-August.

Harvesting meadow sage leaves is not allowed.

Leaves are removed at the beginning of flowering. Plants of the first year of development have a sales list by August – September, in subsequent years – in June – July. They are harvested by hand, breaking off the plates with petioles not less than 2 cm long as they are at a distance 3-4 times per season. In the fall, the plants are cut with bare headers at a height of 13-15 cm.

Dry in the open air or under canopies with good ventilation on tarpaulins or cloth, spreading a layer up to 3-5 cm and periodically mixed. It can be dried in fire dryers at a temperature of 25-35°. The end of drying is determined by the fragility of petioles of leaves and shoots.

Dry grass is threshed by machines and coarse parts are separated on sieves or shakers. The yield of dry leaves is 20%.

The yield of leaves is 6-12 centners per hectare, herbs 20-30 centners.

According to GF-X Art. 282 raw material consists of whole leaves with petioles from 2 to 10 cm in length and within 0.8 cm in diameter. Color greyish green. The smell is fragrant. The taste is spicy and astringent. Milk raw materials should have a particle size of 1-10 mm. Humidity should not exceed 14%.

The raw materials are allowed: brown and blackened leaves – no more than 5%, stems and inflorescences up to 3 cm in length – no more than 10, organic and mineral impurities – no more than 0.5, crushed parts (passing through a sieve with a hole diameter of 3 mm ) – no more than 3%.

The essential oil content is required – no more than 1% in leaves and 0.8% in milk cheese, which is controlled annually.

Packed in bags weighing up to 50 kg, bales – up to 100 kg. It is stored in the group of essential oil raw materials in dry, well-ventilated rooms on pedestals or racks.

The raw material contains up to 2.5% essential oil, the main component of which is cineole (15%), also thujone, terpenes, tannins. An infusion of leaves, an essential oil, a salvin product is used as an antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory agent for diseases of the nasopharynx, stomatitis, etc. It is part of the chest, gastric and emollient fees.