Perennial herbaceous plant 20-60 cm tall. Stem erect, branched from base, obtuse, tetrahedral, whitish-pubescent. The leaves are opposite, crosswise with petioles, rounded-ovate, unevenly crenate, with a wrinkled plate, the veins on the upper plane of the leaf are sunken, on the lower they are strongly convex, covered with dense hairs, narrowed, the lower leaves are heart-shaped. Flowers without pedicels, small, several in whorls. Calyx five-parted, tubular, with 10 prickly and bent outwards, lowered cloves from above; corolla five-leaved, fused, white, two-lipped in the upper part, the upper lip is bent from the middle, bifid; the lower lip is curved downwards, its lateral lobes are shorter, and the middle lobe is wide; stamens 4, 2 outer longer. The fruit is dry, splits into 4 nuts (for 2 cups). Blooms in summer.
It is most common in dry gravelly, grassy and weedy places, mainly in the warmer regions of the country.
Medicinal raw material is the aerial part of the plant, collected in the flowering stage.
The raw material contains 0.3-1% of the bitter substance of marrubine, within 7% of tannins, 0.05% of essential oil, resinous substances.
Shandra promotes sputum production in case of inflammation of the respiratory tract, acute and chronic bronchitis, whooping cough, senile and spastic asthma. It is also recommended for diseases of the liver and gallbladder, jaundice, gastrointestinal inflammation, painful and insufficient menstruation in anemic women.
In Bulgarian folk medicine, shandra is recommended for laryngitis, bronchitis, tracheitis, whooping cough, tuberculosis cough, also for inflammation of the kidneys and bladder, mowing, cramps in the abdominal organs, fever, rashes, scrofula, inflammation of the lymph nodes, hemorrhoids, irregular and insufficient menstruation. Shandra decoction is used for baths against skin rashes in babies.
Application
Infusion: 2 teaspoons of crushed raw materials are poured into a glass of cold water and kept for 3-4 hours (daily dose).
Powder: 4 g of raw materials in 2-3 doses every day. Cough medicine: 100 g of raw materials are boiled with 3/4 l of water for 30 minutes (until the water boils away to 0.5 l), filtered and mixed with 500 g of sugar.