Bindweed field – convolvulus arvencis l.
Common names: birch.
Botanical characteristic. The bindweed family. A perennial herbaceous plant with a climbing or creeping stem up to 1 m long and a powerfully developed root system. The rhizome is long, branched. The leaves are alternate, sagittate, long-petiolate. The flowers are white or pink. Blooms from June to September.
Spreading. It grows on abandoned cultivated lands, weedy places, less often along river banks in shrubs in the European part of the USSR, in the Crimea, in the Caucasus, in Siberia, in the Far East. Widely known weed of fields, vegetable gardens, melons.
Medicinal raw materials. Roots, leaves, flowers, grass (stems, leaves) are used. Roots are harvested in autumn or early spring, leaves – in June-August. Drying and storage is traditional. After drying, the herb loses much of its medicinal properties.
– Chemical composition. In all parts of the plant, especially in the rhizomes and roots, there is a glycoside convulvin, which has a strong laxative effect, as well as carotene, vitamin C and E, saponins, resins.
pharmacological properties. Under experimental conditions, field bindweed extract at doses of 10–50 mg/kg caused a hypotensive effect in cats, and at doses of 50–100 mg/kg it increased the amplitude of heart contractions and slowed down the rhythm. When administered to animals at a dose of 10 mg/kg for 10-12 days, normalization of blood pressure occurred.
Application. The rhizome of the plant is used as a laxative, and the leaves as a wound healing agent. The laxative effect of bindweed is apparently associated with the cholinomimetic effect of the glycoside convulvin. The rhizome extract with positive results was tested as a laxative by I. E. Mozgov.
Approximate doses for large animals: 5-6 g in the form of infusion.