THE ORDINARY WOLF (wolf bast, wolf berries)
Low shrub with yellow-gray wrinkled bark. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, green above, glaucous below, wedge-shaped narrowed at the base into a short petiole, alternate, crowded at the ends of the branches. The flowers are pink, sessile, fragrant, with a nail-shaped corolla, arranged in bunches in the axils of last year’s leaves and blooming in early spring before the leaves appear; drupes are oval, bright red berries located in the middle of the stem, below the leaves of the upper part of the stem. Blooms in April – early May.
The bark of the plant is very poisonous, and the berries are also poisonous, which are often the cause of poisoning.
It grows in the forests of the northern and central strip of the European part of Russia, in the Caucasus, in Northern and Central Europe, Asia Minor.
The flowers contain up to 22% coumarins, the bark contains glycoside, daphnin, resin, moserein, dye, wax, gum.
For medicinal purposes, flowering branches and bark of the plant are used.
In folk medicine, the bark of the plant is used instead of mustard plaster as a distraction (bark soaked in water or vinegar) for rheumatism and neuralgia; externally it is used as an ointment. The bark of the plant is also used for paralysis of the muscles of the tongue (it is necessary to hold the tincture of the bark in the mouth for some time).
Inside, products from the common wolfberry (bark extract) are taken with caution in scrofula and dropsy.
A tincture of flowering branches on vodka is used as a rub for rheumatism, gout, neuralgia, and paralysis.
Application
Extract: decoction (20 g per 200 ml) evaporate to half; 1-2 drops 3 times every day.
Tincture: 1 g of bark per 64 g of alcohol or vodka; 1 – 2 drops three times every day.
Ointment: five parts tincture to ten parts vaseline or butter, as a distraction for rheumatic, neuralgic and arthritic pains.
Infusion of fruits in distilled water for stomach cancer.