WOLF CURLY
Herbaceous one-two-year-old plant. The stem is strongly branched from the root. The leaves are oblong, almost all sessile, wavy or pinnately dissected, with large, rather coarse veins forming a network, with spines on the denticles of the leaf blade. The whole plant is densely pubescent. The flowers are tubular and similar in structure to the rest of the Compositae. Baskets are surrounded by upper leaves. The leaflets of the inner wrapper of the basket end in a pinnate spine; leaflets of the outer involucre are large, herbaceous and continued into a spine; the bottom of the basket is covered with membranous bracts. The fruits are cylindrical with a tuft composed of 8-10 toothed setae and numerous shorter hairs. Blooms in early and mid-summer.
Distributed in dry meadows and among sparse shrubs in the southernmost regions and on the Black Sea coast.
For medicinal purposes, the leaves and upper parts of the stems with flower baskets are used.
Application
Curly thistle is used for digestive disorders (flatulence, constipation, atony of the intestines as a result of inflammatory processes, gastric and intestinal ulcers), for liver diseases, jaundice, as a stimulant for the nervous system, for palpitations, anemia, and also for diseases of the respiratory tract (with bronchial catarrh , asthma), externally with gangrene, wounds.
Wolf grass is used as an infusion: 1.5 tbsp. spoons per 400 ml of boiling water (daily dose). Curly Wolf is a part of many collections.
Higher doses cause nausea and vomiting.
In Bulgarian folk medicine, thistle is recommended as a decoction for acute and chronic inflammation of the respiratory organs (pneumonia, dry cough, tonsillitis, asthma), chronic catarrhs of the stomach and intestines (constipation, jaundice). It is also used externally for gangrene and difficult-to-heal wounds.