AUTUMN TIMELESS. TIMELESS BEAUTIFUL. colchicum Merry
Perennial herbaceous plants that look similar to each other. Colchicum autumn – a plant with an underground modified stem – a corm. The leaves are broadly lanceolate and remain fresh almost all summer. The flowers of autumn colchicum are light pink-violet, those of beautiful colchicum are large, pinkish-purple. The flowers of all species are large, in the lower part they form a thin and long tube and come out directly from the corm, and in the upper part they are six-lobed; autumn colchicum has six stamens; the pistil is composed of three carpels, with an upper three-celled ovary and three filiform columns. Flowers in all species develop in autumn, and leaves for the next spring. The fruit, which takes shape the following spring and ripens in the summer, is green at first, then forms a brown, leathery, shriveled box,
Characteristic features of colchicum species. In the underground part, a corm of considerable size appears, covered with black-brown membranous sheaths of dead leaves.
Seeds and corms are used for medicinal purposes. Seeds contain 0.2-1.44% (bulbs – a much smaller number) colchicine – an alkaloid that does not form salts with acids and dissolves in water. The seeds contain 17% fatty oil; some sugar and tannic substances in its seed coat.
Colchicum grows in forest glades, in grassy places, among shrubs, in some mountain meadows of the Stavropol, Krasnodar Territories, the Central Caucasus, and in Transcaucasia.
Colchicine dilates the capillaries in small doses, and this is probably the reason for its therapeutic effect (seed tincture) in gout, rheumatic diseases and neuralgia. The use of products containing colchicine in gout is effective, but risky, since the range between therapeutic and toxic doses is very small. The dose should not exceed 0.0001 g 3-4 times every day (calculated in relation to colchicine). Treatment with products containing colchicine should only be carried out under the direct supervision of a physician.
Colchicine is a mitotic poison. It delays the splitting of chromosomes, which prevents cell division. This property of colchicine was tested to delay the development of malignant neoplasms. Experiments have shown that colchicine stops the development of malignant tumors. With good results, 0.5% ointment from kolhamin (omain) is now used in some forms of skin cancer.
Kolhamin ointment is recommended for exophytic and endophytic forms of skin cancer stage I and II. Ointment in the amount of 1 – 1.5 g is applied with a spatula directly to the surface of the tumor and the surrounding skin (0.5-1 cm), covered with a gauze bandage and sealed with adhesive tape. The ointment is applied every day. When dressing, the remnants of the previously applied ointment, decaying tumor tissue, fibrin plaques are carefully removed both directly from the tumor and from the surrounding skin areas.
The action of the ointment on the tumor does not often begin 2-3 days after the start of treatment.
Kolhamin (Omain) ointment is yellowish in color, a mass of a rather thick consistency with a peculiar odor, with a high degree of dispersion, consisting of omain (colhamin) – 0.5%, emulsifier, synthomycin (later to prevent secondary infection) and water. Store in tightly sealed jars.