Perennial herbaceous plant 15-35 cm tall. The root is vertical, long, thick, fleshy, branched. Stems several, erect or ascending, tetrahedral, almost glabrous, reddening at the base, branched. Leaves opposite, ovate-lanceolate, short-petiolate, entire. The flowers are blue, large, two-lipped, in a one-sided leafy brush. The fruit is a nutlet, black, small-spiked. Blooms in June-July.
Baikal skullcap does not grow in the South-East. Found in Eastern Siberia and the Far East. Grows on dry slopes, steppes, fallows.
Medicinal raw materials are rhizomes and roots.
They contain the flavonoids baicalin, which hydrolytically breaks down into glucuronic acid, baicalein and scutellarin; wagonin, tannins, pyrocatechol-new group and resins.
Experimental and clinical studies have established that the products of Baikal skullcap are slightly toxic. The roots have a calming effect on the nervous system and lower blood pressure, in addition, they have a vasodilating effect with increased vascular tone. For the treatment of hypertension, a tincture is used (20% in 70 ° alcohol). The tincture has the ability to increase strength and slow down the contractions of the heart, lower the tone and eliminate spasms of the smooth muscles of the intestine. In the clinic, Scutellaria Baikal products have proven to be valuable hypotensive and sedative agents.
The main indications for the use of skullcap Baikal in the clinic are the initial forms of hypertension, functional disorders of the nervous system, occurring with phenomena of increased excitability, and insomnia. When taking skullcap products, blood pressure decreases in patients, headaches, noise in the head, discomfort in the heart area disappear, sleep is restored, and working capacity increases.
By the strength of the calming effect, the Baikal skullcap tincture is much superior to the valerian tincture.
In the medicine of Eastern countries (China), skullcap rhizome is widely used as a tonic, sedative and antipyretic. It is also prescribed for functional disorders of the central nervous system, epilepsy, chorea, insomnia, heart disease (acute rheumatic heart disease, myocarditis), as an antipyretic, as a cough soothing agent for pneumonia, bronchitis, whooping cough. Baikal skullcap is known in China as an antihelminthic. It is used to treat dysentery.
In domestic folk medicine, Baikal skullcap is used to treat myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle), with frequent heartbeats, high blood pressure, as an antihelminthic, hemostatic and antipyretic.
Application
Tincture: 25%; 25 drops 3 times daily before meals. It is a clear reddish-brown liquid with a peculiar bitter taste. The tincture is well tolerated by patients and with long-term use does not give side effects.
There is another type of skullcap – common skullcap. This is also a medicinal plant, common almost everywhere. Preparations from it are used by the people for bleeding.