SPRING ADONIS
Perennial herbaceous plant up to 60 cm tall. The rhizome is vertical, short, dark brown in color. Stems are rounded, glabrous, erect. Basal and lower stem leaves are in the form of brownish scales, other stem leaves are sessile, many-parted, their lobes are narrow-linear, entire. Flowers solitary, large, light yellow. Fruits are spherical-obovate, wrinkled, their columns are bent down, hooked. Blooms in April-May.
The whole plant is poisonous.
Distributed in the black earth zone of the European part of Russia, in Ciscaucasia, in Western and Eastern Siberia, in Ukraine, in the Crimea. It grows on the outskirts of forests and groves, on hills and mountain slopes, in the steppe.
The active principles of spring adonis are cardiac glycosides (cimarin and adonitoxin) and saponins.
Spring adonis is used as a means of regulating cardiac activity, as well as a general sedative and diuretic. Unlike foxglove products, Adonis vernalis glycosides do not cumulate, which makes it possible to treat people who become ill with Adonis vernalis products on an outpatient basis.
Among the people, spring adonis has long been known as a good remedy for colds, pneumonia, dropsy and other similar diseases, when it is necessary to raise the vitality of the body and normalize cardiac activity, with neurosis and insufficiency.
Due to the presence of a cardiac glycoside in Adonis, it has a calming effect on the heart, strengthens the nervous system, raises vitality and increases diuresis (urination), which prevents swelling and regulates the activity of the heart. In addition, it is used as a decoction for convulsions, coughs, colic as a sedative, for bone pain and headache, fever, inflammation and tuberculosis of the lungs, emphysema, and hysteria.
Harvested herb adonis spring only for one year. Dry and store the aerial part according to the general rules.
Folk application.
Decoction of herbs: 1) for adults: 4-10 g per 200 ml or 1-2 teaspoons of chopped dry herbs per cup of boiling water; use 1 tbsp. spoon three times every day; 2) for babies of 2 years old – 5-6 drops, six-year-olds – 15 drops, twelve-year-olds – 2 teaspoons 5-6 times every day.
In the southern regions of the South-East, Volga Adonis (Adonis Volga) is widespread. It differs from spring Adonis in a smaller height (25-40 cm), branched stem almost from the base, smaller flowers and wider, short linear-lanceolate leaf lobes. The whole plant is lighter in color of leaves and flowers. Medicinally, Volga Adonis is in many ways inferior to Spring Adonis.
For medicinal purposes, the entire above-ground leafy part, collected during flowering, is used.
Application
Infusion: 6 g of herb per 200 ml of water, take 1 tbsp. spoon 2-3 times every day.