Name: Common barberry – wild barberry (veterinary practice)
Common barberry – berberis vulgaris l.
Botanical characteristic. The barberry family. Prickly, strongly branched shrub, up to 2.5 m high, with abundant root shoots. On the branches there are three-parted spines up to 2 cm long. The leaves are alternate, oblong-obovate, finely serrated along the edges, on short petioles. The flowers are light yellow in drooping racemes. Blooms in May – June. The berries ripen in September-October, they are oblong in shape, red and sour (Fig. 6).
Distribution – the middle and southern zone of the European part of the USSR. It grows on forest edges and clearings, in thickets of shrubs, on rocky slopes, in the mountains. Cultivated as an ornamental shrub in gardens.
Medicinal raw materials. The underground parts of the plant (roots with rhizomes) and leaves are harvested. The leaves are harvested in the phase of budding and flowering. The roots are uprooted in spring or autumn (the soil is dug up within the bush within a radius of 1 m), cleaned from the ground, but not washed. The leaves are dried in attics with good ventilation or under sheds, spread out in a thin layer and periodically mixed, the roots are cut into small pieces and placed in dryers at a temperature of 40-50 ° C. Storage period 3 years.
Among other species, the Amur barberry is known – Berberis amurensis Rupr. This is a thorny shrub, up to 2 m high. The branches are straight, slightly branched. The leaves are leathery, ovate or lanceolate, with small subulate teeth on the edges. The flowers are pale yellow. Blooms in May – June. It grows in the Ussuri region along the banks of mountain rivers, on forest edges, in broad-leaved and cedar-spruce forests.
Both types of barberry are allowed for use and harvesting, they differ from each other in leaves and flowers. The Amur barberry has leaves up to 7-12 cm, the ordinary one – up to 4 cm. The inflorescences of the Amur barberry are up to 7-10 cm.
Chemical composition. 11 alkaloids have been isolated from the underground parts of the Amur barberry. The leaves contain the alkaloid barbarine, vitamins C and E, carotene, malic and citric acids.
pharmacological properties. The experiment found that the tincture of Amur barberry leaves has hemostatic properties, causes contraction of the muscles of the uterus, speeds up the rhythm and increases the amplitude of heart contractions, and lowers blood pressure.
Preparations of common barberry lower the tone of the gallbladder, improve the outflow of bile, reduce inflammation.
The alkaloid barbarine lowers blood pressure, slows down the rate of heart contractions and increases the amplitude, reducing the muscles of the uterus and thereby compressing the vessels, has a hemostatic effect in uterine bleeding, promotes bile secretion by lowering the tone of the muscles of the gallbladder and reducing the amplitude of its contractions.
Application. Tincture of leaves of Amur barberry and common barberry is recommended as a choleretic agent for the treatment of hepatitis, cholecystitis and cholelithiasis; in obstetric and gynecological practice – to stop postpartum atonic bleeding; in combination with other uterine preparations – with subinvolution of the uterus after childbirth.
Approximate dose of tincture of Amur barberry leaves (1:5 in 40% alcohol) for large animals as a choleretic agent 3-4 ml 2-3 times a day, as a uterine hemostatic 4-5 ml 3 times.
From the leaves of the common barberry, you can prepare an infusion of 1:20, which is prescribed to small animals 1 teaspoon 3-4 times every day as an anti-inflammatory agent for diseases of the liver and biliary tract. Store it in a cool place for no more than 2 days.
cow
Rp.: —rае Berberis amurensis 30
DS 4 ml with water 3 times daily (uterine hemostatic)