ACTINIDIA KOLOMICTA (Amur gooseberry)
Actinidia kolomikta, or Amur gooseberry, is a climbing shrub liana, climbing trees to a height of 1-5 m (traditionally up to 2 m), with a thin branched trunk, in the absence of support, lying down and strengthening at the nodes. Young shoots curly; the bark of the trunk is brown, with yellowish lenticels. The leaves are alternate, 0.5-15 cm long, 3-12 cm wide, obovate, with a heart-shaped or rounded base, doubly acicular, pubescent along the veins with reddish hairs, without hairs below. The flowers are white or slightly pinkish on the outside, monocotyledonous and polygamous, less often bisexual, solitary paired and three-flowered, on drooping thin pubescent pedicels, with a pleasant smell. Stamens numerous, columns 8-12 (20). Berries 1.5-4 g, obtusely elliptical, smooth, without lenticels, green, striped, very juicy, sweet or sour-sweet, with numerous (up to 90) small seeds. Berries ripen in late August – early September.
In the wild, kolomikta lives in the cedar-broad-leaved forests of Primorsky Krai, along the Amur, Ussuri, on Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, in the Khabarovsk Territory.
Medicinal raw materials are fruits. The fruits contain 4.2-9.8% sugars (with a predominance of monosaccharides, sometimes up to 4% sucrose) and organic acids (0.78-2.48%); total acidity 0.78-2.14%. The content of vitamin C reaches 1430 mg%, i.e., it surpasses the best citrus fruits.
In folk medicine of the Far East, the fruits are used as a prophylactic and therapeutic agent for scurvy, as well as for bleeding, tuberculosis and whooping cough, dental caries, and as an antihelminthic.
Fruits are used in fresh and canned form, for the preparation of kissels, compotes and other dishes. Berries are well preserved frozen and dry.
It is noted that the juice of the actinidia fruit acts on cats like valerian.