Name: Veronica officinalis – veronika likarska (preparation and storage)
Veronica medicinal – Veronica officinalis L. Ukrainian name – Veronica lіkarska, popular names – viper, viper.
Norichnikovye family – Scrophulariaceae.
The herb is used for medicinal purposes.
It occurs almost throughout Ukraine, but in the north of the Steppe it is not often, and in the southeast it is almost absent. Grows in sparse forests, forest edges and clearings, as well as in forest clearings. Sometimes it gives small thickets-spots, which are formed as a result of vegetative propagation, especially in Polissya, in the Forest-Steppe and the Carpathians.
Veronica medicinal is a perennial herbaceous plant. Stems creeping, 10-30 cm long, branched, rooting, with a raised apex. The leaves are opposite, serrated along the edge. The inflorescence is an upright spike-shaped thick brush. Corollas are cleft-lobed, with a short tube and a four-lobed limb. The fruit is a bilocular capsule. Blooms in June-July. The fruits ripen in August – September.
It is not allowed to harvest other similar species of Veronica, which are often found in the same habitats. According to a number of features, they are easy to distinguish from Veronica officinalis.
Grass is harvested in the flowering phase, cutting it with knives or sickles.
Dry in attics under an iron roof or under sheds with good ventilation, spreading a thin layer (3-5 cm) on paper or cloth and stirring occasionally.
Raw materials are exported and, according to the requirement of foreign firms, they must consist of stems with leaves and inflorescences, crumbled corollas and whole flowers. Leaves and stems are grey-green, flowers are pale blue. There is no smell. The taste is bitter. Humidity is not higher than 14%. In raw materials, no more than (percent) is allowed: darkened and browned parts – 5, organic impurities – 2, mineral – 0.5.
Dry grass is packed in bales of 50 kg. Store in dry, well-ventilated areas on pallets or racks.
The herb contains bitterness, essential oil, saponins, glycoside, resin. It is used as an expectorant and anti-inflammatory agent for gastrointestinal diseases, as well as for wound healing.