Name: Dryweed marshmallow
Popular names: swamp cudweed, voloshka, toad grass, frog, cut grass.
FAMILY DRYER (Gnaphalium uliginosum L.)An annual herbaceous plant of the Asteraceae family (Compositae). Stem up to 30 cm in height, prostrate-branched from the base, covered with silvery-white felt. Taproot, short, thin. The leaves are alternate, small, narrowed towards the base into a petiole, densely pubescent. The flowers are light yellow, collected in small baskets, located in dense heads or bunches at the ends of the branches and surrounded by radially diverging upper leaves. The fruit is an oblong greenish-gray or light brown achene with a tuft. Flowering in June-August, fruiting in August-October. Propagated only by seeds. The fertility of one plant is from 100 to 500 seeds, which remain viable in the soil for up to 5 years. The average lifespan of a plant is 5 months. Distributed almost throughout the European part of the CIS, in Western and Eastern Siberia, Kazakhstan, in the Caucasus and the Far East. It grows on soils with high moisture: along damp forest roads, along the edge of marshes, along river banks, in ditches, but most often occurs as a weed in potato and rye fields. Most often settles in areas devoid of vegetation. Prefers heavy soils.
COLLECTION AND DRYING OF RAW MATERIALS
Medicinal raw material is cudweed herb (Herba Gnaphalii uliginosi), which is harvested during the flowering period. When harvesting, 2-4 plants per 1 m 2 should be left for seedingher thickets. Plants are pulled out, shaken off the ground and, without cutting off the root, dried in the open air, often turning over. In bad weather, they are dried under sheds, in attics or in dryers at a temperature of 40 ° C. The shelf life of raw materials is 3 years. The smell of raw materials is weak, peculiar, the taste is salty. The main areas for harvesting cudweed are Belarus and the central regions of Russia. As an organic impurity, forest cudweed and field frog can be found, similar to marsh cudweed. These plants are not medicinal raw materials. Sometimes they are harvested falsely. Forest clover (Gnaphalium sylvaticum L.) is a perennial herbaceous plant with rhizomes. The stem is straight, unbranched, only at the base with short shoots, up to 60 cm high. It is easily distinguished by larger cylindrical baskets collected at the top of the stem in a narrow spike-shaped inflorescence. Field toad (Filago arvensis L.) is an annual herbaceous plant with a simple or branched stem from the middle. Involucre leaves are white-tomentose-pubescent, not brown.
PHARMACOLOGICAL PROPERTIES
Dried cudweed preparations have anti-inflammatory, astringent and antibacterial properties. Dryweed accelerates the processes of repair, regeneration and epithelialization of wound and ulcerative surfaces of the skin and mucous membranes. The plant has vasodilating and hypotensive properties. The hypotensive effect is associated with flavonoids. Infusions of the plant enhance intestinal motility, increase blood clotting. Cudweed preparations slow down the rhythm of heart contractions and have a sedative effect. The therapeutic effect of cudweed is due to the complex effect of vitamins (primarily provitamin A – carotene, which increases the immunobiological properties of the body in all kinds of pathological processes) and other substances contained in the plant (resins, flavonoids, tannins).
APPLICATIONS IN MEDICINE
Aboveground part. Infusion and decoction (inside) – for gastric and duodenal ulcers, hypertension, angina pectoris, insomnia, migraine, spasms of blood vessels, nervous overexcitation, renal, uterine, hemorrhoidal bleeding, pulmonary tuberculosis, diabetes; in the form of rinses – with stomatitis, toothache, ulcers in the oral cavity, tonsillitis and chronic tonsillitis. Decoction, alcohol-oil extract (externally, in the form of baths, lotions, wet-drying compresses) – for difficult-to-heal wounds, ulcers, burns. Decoction (in the form of douching) – with erosion of the cervix, trichomonas colpitis. Infusion (local baths) – with increased sweating of the legs and palms. It is part of the fees used to treat stomach diseases.
DOSAGE FORMS, METHOD OF APPLICATION AND DOSES
An infusion of marsh cudweed herb (Infusum herbae Gnaphalii uliginosi): 10 g (2 tablespoons) of raw materials are placed in an enamel bowl, pour 200 ml of hot boiled water, cover with a lid and heat in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes, cool at room temperature for 45 minutes , filter, the remaining raw material is squeezed out. The volume of the resulting infusion is adjusted with boiled water to 200 ml. The prepared infusion is stored in a cool place for no more than 2 days. Take 1/3-1/2 cup 2-3 times every day after meals as an anti-inflammatory and hypotensive agent. It is taken in the same way as the infusion of cudweed. ♦ Oil extract of cudweed marshmallow: 6 g of raw material is poured into 200 ml of vegetable oil, insisted for 10 days,
APPLICATIONS IN OTHER FIELDS
It is used in the form of an alcohol-oil extract as a wound healing agent in veterinary medicine.
ELEMENTS OF AGROTECHNICAL CULTIVATION
Cudweed seeds are very small, germinate in the light much better than in the dark, so mulching the row significantly reduces the density of seedlings. Stratification of seeds increases the friendliness of their germination. To obtain normal seedlings, high humidity is required, when sowing seeds in the soil, a compacted bed plays an important role. The sucrose responds well to the application of full mineral fertilizer for digging the soil. It reacts especially strongly to the application of phosphate fertilizers from the very beginning of development. The site for cudweed should be sufficiently moist, with a light mechanical composition, clean from weeds and protected from the wind so that the seeds do not blow away .50 g nitrophoska. The site is carefully loosened and compacted. Podzimny sowing at the end of October is more reliable for getting good shoots. Early spring sowing with stratified seeds can give a yield no lower if the condition for carrying it out in the earliest periods is observed. 0.2 g of seeds mixed with a pinch of granular superphosphate are sown per 1 m 2 in a continuous scattered way, if the plot is free of weeds, or in an ordinary way with row spacing of 45 cm. Up to 5 g of seeds can be collected from 1 m 2 .