Quince oblong (common)
Tree or shrub up to 5 meters in height. Trunks and old branches with dark gray bark, smooth; young – woolly tomentose. The leaves are alternate, short-petiolate, elliptical, entire, shortly pointed, green above, grayish below from pubescence. Flowers solitary, regular, on pubescent pedicels. Perianth five-membered, hypanity – overgrown receptacle – pitcher-shaped, stamens 15-25, pistil with 5 columns. The fruit is false – “apple”, in a young state it is felt-pubescent, mature – naked. Seeds are reddish-brown, obovate, with strongly mucilaginous skin. Blooms in May-June. The fruits ripen in September-November.
Cultivated in the Crimea, the Caucasus, Central Asia, less often in the south of the European part of Russia. Wildly grows in the Caucasus, in Turkmenistan.
Medicinal raw materials are seeds and mucus from them. The finished raw material is seeds stuck together several times with a matte – whitish – film, odorless, with a taste of bitter almonds.
Quince juice contains pectin, tannins, malic, citric and tartaric acids, all kinds of sugars (from 5.3 to 12.1%), the predominant among which is fructose. Quince is rich in iron, copper and vitamin C (10-20 mg per 100 g of fresh fruit).
Quince seeds contain within 20% of mucus that easily swells in water, starch, fatty oil, protein, tannins, dyes and minerals, amygdalin and emulsin enzyme.
Due to the increased content of mucous and tannins in quince seeds, mucous decoctions are prepared from them, which are taken orally as a mild laxative and externally in the form of lotions as an enveloping, also for eye diseases. Sometimes quince seeds are brewed as a tea and taken for coughing.
Fresh fruits of quince, due to the significant content of iron in them, should be taken with anemia. From fresh fruits, you can prepare tinctures or extracts and use them for the same purpose, 15-20 drops 3 times every day.
The high content of pectin and tannins in the pulp of quince fruits determine their use since ancient times for intestinal diseases accompanied by diarrhea; quince juice poultices have a beneficial effect on prolapse of the rectum, anal fissures.
In folk medicine, seed decoctions are widely used for gastrointestinal diseases, diarrhea, hemoptysis, uterine bleeding, etc.
Quince fruits are widely used in confectionery and canning production. In the textile industry, quince seed mucus is used to polish fabrics.