Medicinal verbena (Verbena officinalis); dry disease; medicinal verbena
Perennial herbaceous plant of the verbena family. The stem is four-sided, erect or ascending, 25–100 cm high, mostly branched. The leaves are 2–10 cm long, short-petiolate, ovate-oblong or oblong, pinnately cut, the middle ones are pinnately cut or three-lobed, with unevenly serrated lobes, the upper ones are sessile, oblong, pinnately cut. The flowers are bisexual, fused-petalled, irregular, in long spike-shaped inflorescences. The corolla is funnel-shaped, light purple. Fruits are nuts. Blooms in April – October.
Distribution . It grows throughout the territory of Ukraine on weedy places, roadsides and wet sands.
Procurement and storage . They use grass collected during the flowering of the plant. Dry in warm, well-ventilated rooms or in the attic, spreading in a thin layer on clean paper or gauze. Store in paper bags or wooden boxes in a dry place.
The plant is unofficial .
Chemical composition. Verbena herb contains verbenalin, verbena, alkaloids, mucilage, bitter substance, tannins, essential oil, a lot of silicic acid.
Pharmacological properties and use . Medicinal verbena preparations have choleretic, antiallergic and tonic effects. In folk medicine, medicinal verbena is used as an external remedy for boils (boils), rashes on the body, scrofula and various ulcers. An infusion of the herb is drunk internally for exhaustion, weakness, anemia, scanty menstruation and diseases of the liver and spleen, for jaundice, indigestion, bronchitis, to purify the blood for rashes on the body, as well as for atherosclerosis and thrombosis.
Medicinal forms and applications .
Internally – infusion of leaves (1 teaspoon of leaves per 1 cup of boiling water, infuse for 10 minutes) 1 cup a day, sips;
herbal infusion (1 tablespoon of grass per 1 cup of boiling water, insist until clear) 1 tablespoon 3-4 times a day.