spring primrose

Spring primrose (Primula veris L.)

Spring primrose is a perennial plant representing the family Primulaceae (Primulaceae). Other names: medicinal primrose, medicinal primrose, rams, paralytic grass, ears, heavenly keys, flowers of St. Peter, golden keys, key-grass, jaundice, yellow sage, sucker, yellow initial letter.

Description:

Perennial spring herbaceous plant with a leafless stem, a rosette of basal leaves and a short vertical rhizome with fine roots Leaves ovate or ovate-oblong, strongly wrinkled, slightly crenate along the edges, blunt at the apex, narrowed towards the base into a winged petiole, shortly pubescent, after flowering increasing. The flowers are bright yellow, 5-13 in number, drooping in one direction, collected at the top of a long flower arrow in an umbrella-shaped inflorescence. The calyx is bell-swollen, with sharply protruding 5 ribs, covering the corolla tube almost to the fold. The corolla is tubular, with a slight bend and a long tube, with an orange spot at the base of the petals. The fruit is a multi-seeded, ovoid capsule, surrounded by the remaining calyx, opening at the top with 10 small teeth.

Harvesting, description of raw materials:

In medicine, primrose leaves are used – Folium Primulae and rhizomes with roots called Radix Primulae. Primrose leaves are collected during the flowering period of the plant and dried in the shade. The raw material consists of leaves of the described structure. They are solid or partially broken. Color greyish green; the smell is weak, peculiar, slightly honey; the taste is sweet at first, then bitter, slightly burning. Rhizomes with roots are harvested in autumn. The raw material consists of short and small oblique or vertical brown rhizomes; in a break they are light, with numerous thin adventitious roots of a light brown color extending from them, within 5 cm long, 0.1 cm thick.

Contains active substances:

Spring primrose leaves contain up to 5.9% ascorbic acid (vitamin C), carotene, within 2% saponins. Primrose rhizomes contain up to 10% saponins, glycosides primulaverin and primverin.

Medicinal use:

Primrose leaves are used in medicine as a vitamin raw material, valuable because it can be prepared in early spring, when there are no other sources of vitamin C and when the need for it is great. Rhizomes are used as an expectorant, especially for bronchitis, in the form of infusion or primulin product. Primrose preparations are low-toxic and surpass senega in their activity. In folk medicine, a decoction of primrose flowers is drunk for diseases caused by weight lifting, heart disease, cough and chest pain, and consumption.

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