Name: Aconite turnip – aconite r_povidny (growing and cultivation)
Aconite turnip (Aconite rіpovidny) Aconite napellus L.
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Synonyms: poisonous aconite, onion aconite, wrestler, wolf slayer, wolf root, blue buttercup, wolf venom (Ukrainian tsar-zilla, wrestler, zozulin cherevichki, vovcha otruta).
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Description . A herbaceous perennial plant from the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae), up to 100-120 cm high. Rhizome in the form of a chain of clearly fused root tubers. The leaves are dark green, petiolate, dissected to the base into wedge-shaped lobes. The flowers are bluish-violet, zygomorphic, commonly called “slipper”, collected in a long brush. The calyx of the flower consists of five sepals of different shapes: the upper one is helmet-shaped, large, with a nose turned down. The fruit consists of one, less often three leaflets, the seeds are black-brown in color, trihedral in shape, when the fruit ripens, they easily spill out. Blooms in July August. Seeds ripen in September. The plant is highly poisonous.
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Medicinal raw materials: root tubers.
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biological features . Aconite turnip is a composite species, which in later years was divided into many smaller species.
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collection . Gathered during the flowering period, when the root tubers are the richest in alkaloids, that is, in September-October. The dug roots are immediately thoroughly cleaned of the earth, old tubers, washed in water.
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Drying. Root tubers are dried in attics or in well-ventilated areas.
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Pack. Packed in tin or wooden boxes.
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Storage. Raw materials are stored in a packaged, well-ventilated area, in compliance with the rules for storing poisonous plants.
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quality requirements. In accordance with the State Pharmacopoeia VIII, dried root tubers on a fracture and cross section should be smooth, odorless, tubers length 38 cm, color black-brown outside, yellowish or grayish-brown inside. According to GOST 389247, it is allowed: ash 6%; moisture13; organic and mineral impurities, 1% each; alkaloids not less than 0.65%.
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In view of the strong toxicity of aconite, all work on the collection, processing and storage of raw materials should be carried out with great care, since the poison can enter the body not only through the mouth, but even through the skin when in contact with the plant.
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Other types.
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Under natural conditions, there are several dozen other types of aconite, of which Dzhungarian aconite (A. songaricum Starf.) and Karakol aconite (L. caracolicum Rap.) are used in medicine. These two species in the State Pharmacopoeia VIII are united under the general name Tien Shan aconite (L. tianschanicum). They are perennial herbaceous plants with similar morphological and chemical features. They differ from turnip aconite only in the structure of the rhizome; their root tubers have grown together into a horizontal chain.
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Talas aconite (L. talassicum M. R o r.), which, like the two previous species, grows in the mountains of Central Asia, also has medicinal value. It differs in that it is almost non-toxic to warm-blooded animals. All of these species have the same use in medicine as turnip aconite.