Name: Adonis spring – spring flowers (harvesting and storage)
Adonis vernalis (spring flower ) — Adonis vernalis L. Ukrainian name — vernal vernal, folk names — spring yellow flower, black gorse, old oak, etc.
The buttercup family is Ranunculaceae.
The herb is used for medicinal purposes.
It occurs in the steppe and forest-steppe regions of Ukraine, in the Crimea on mountain pastures (yayly), sometimes in the southern parts of Polissya and Rostochya-Opole.
Not found in the Carpathians. It grows on the remaining unplowed steppe slopes of beams and watersheds, steppe areas, steppe forest edges and glades, among steppe shrubs. It usually forms groups and sparse thickets, the area of which can reach several hectares. Thickets of industrial importance have been preserved in the foothills of the Crimea and on the yayla, in smaller quantities they are found in Odessa, Vinnitsa, Cherkasy, Khmelnytsky, Kirovograd, Poltava, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Donetsk regions, where the industrial collection of raw materials of this plant is mainly carried out .
The average annual harvesting of spring adonis grass in the republic for three years (1974-1976) amounted to 31.5 tons.
Stocks of raw materials are small, and they are rapidly declining due to improper harvesting (picking plants with rhizome bases instead of cutting, harvesting on the same arrays until they are completely depleted, etc.). Carrying out forest plantations on slopes, edges and clearings, intensive grazing of cattle on them also lead to a decrease in the stocks of adonis. The plant will need to be introduced into industrial culture. It is included in the “Red Book” of the Soviet Union.
Spring Adonis is a perennial herbaceous plant with a dark brown, short, many-headed rhizome and brown-black cord-like roots. There are usually several stems. They are erect, branched in the upper part, and covered with scaly leaves in the lower part. Plant height at the beginning of flowering 10-15 cm, later – 35-40 cm. The flowers are solitary, large, on the tops of the stems and their branches. The calyx is green, five-leaved. Petals 12-20 up to 3 cm long, elongated, serrated at the apex. Numerous stamens and pistils are arranged spirally on a cone-shaped receptacle. The fruits are collapsible seeds. Individual achenes are oval or obovate, greenish, with a hooked nose, 4-5 mm long. Blooms in April – early May; fruits ripen in June. The plant is poisonous.
In Ukraine, in addition to spring Adonis, Volga Adonis is found in the southeastern regions, which is not used in medicine (has low biological activity). Both species differ in a number of features.
Grass is harvested from the beginning of flowering to shedding of fruits (April-June), but raw materials collected in the flowering phase have the best quality. After fruit shedding, the content of biologically active substances in plants is sharply reduced. Cut the grass with knives or sickles (at a height of 5-10 cm).
Dry raw materials in attics or under sheds with good ventilation, spreading a thin layer (3-5 cm) on cloth or paper and stirring frequently. It is better to dry in dryers at a temperature of 50-60 °, since with quick drying, glycosides are better preserved. The yield of dry raw materials is 22-23%.
According to the Global Fund – X Art. 32, GOST 2663-47, raw materials consist of stems with leaves and flowers or with young fruits, it is possible without them. The color of the leaves and stems is green, the corollas of the flowers are golden yellow. The smell is weak, uncharacteristic. The taste is bitter. Humidity is not higher than 13%. Not more than (percent) is allowed in raw materials: stems with basal brown membranous leaves – 2, parts with a changed color – 3, crushed parts – 2, organic impurities (parts of other plants) – 2, mineral – 0.5, shedding leaf lobes – 5.
Raw materials are packed by pressing into bags or bales of 25, 50, 75, 100 kg. Store in a group of potent raw materials in dry, dark, well-ventilated areas. The biological activity of raw materials is controlled annually.
All parts of the plant contain cardiac glycosides (cimarin, adonitoxin), saponins. The herb is used for cardiac insufficiency, to calm the nervous system, to manufacture all kinds of products of cardiac action (adonisid, adonisbrom, Bekhterev’s mixture, dry and liquid extracts). Adonis is part of the product cardiovalen, cordiazide.