Shrub gomphocarpus (harg) – gomphocarpus fruticosus (l.) r. v r .
Botanical characteristic. Family gossips. Perennial semi-shrub plant 40-100 cm high. Stems numerous erect, slightly branched, densely leafy. Leaves opposite, lanceolate or lanceolate-linear. Flowers on long stalks, collected in umbellate inflorescences, white corolla. The fruit is a 2-leaf, numerous oblong brown seeds.
Blossoms in June-July, seeds ripen in September-October.
Spreading. Harg is an African plant. In the Soviet Union, it is found on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus (Poti region) and in Central Asia (Fergana region). Grows on sandy and pebbly river banks, sea coasts, fallow lands and ditches.
Medicinal raw materials. Seeds and leafy shoots are collected, from which cardiac glycosides are obtained.
Chemical composition. Cardiac glycosides gofruzide, frugoside were isolated from the seeds of the plant; the leaves contain glycosides gomfozid, gomfokarpin, etc.
pharmacological properties. Galenic products of the plant have pronounced cardiotonic properties (Govorov). Glycosides act on the cardiovascular system stronger than strophanthus and do not differ from the latter in terms of pharmacodynamics. Thus, the glycoside gomfokarpin has biological activity – 9090 KUD per 1 g and effectively restores the decompensation of the cardiovascular system. In a dose of 1 – 2 mg / kg in dogs, it restores cardiac activity, weakened by quinine.
Application. Kharga preparations should be recommended in the treatment of heart failure, accompanied by a decrease in blood pressure and edema, for toning the cardiovascular system as a cardiotonic agent with the type of action of digitalis – strophanthus.