Roundhead head ( Echinops sphaerocephalus); ball-headed muzzle
A perennial herbaceous plant of the asteraceae (complex-flowered) family. The stem is straight, branched at the top, 50-150 cm tall. Leaves from above – with sticky glands, from below – grayish downy; stems – ovate-lanceolate, pinnate, with elongated or triangular-lanceolate, mostly pointed lobes, which end in spikes. The flowers are bisexual, tubular, whitish-bluish, with dark blue anthers, in one-flowered baskets that form spherical heads. The fruit is an achene. Blooms in June – July.
Spread. It grows on the edges of forests, on shrubs, on slopes in the forest-steppe and in the steppe.
Procurement and storage . Use seeds. Collected during the browning of the baskets. The dried baskets are broken, and the seeds are separated on fans. The validity period is 1 year.
Chemical composition . The seeds contain the alkaloid echinopsin (1.5-2%), fatty oil (26-28%), etc.
Pharmacological properties and use . The alkaloid echinopsin extracted from the seeds stimulates the central nervous system, tones the heart, increases blood pressure, activates the peripheral nervous system, increases vascular muscle tone, reduces headache, fatigue, eliminates general weakness, restores sleep and appetite. When the dose is increased, the product causes a decrease in blood pressure, causes convulsions. The drug echinopsin (Echinopsini nitras) was used in the treatment of various neurological and therapeutic diseases (atrophy of the optic nerve, paresis and paralysis, poliomyelitis, radiculitis, hypotonia, myopathy, etc.). The product has recently been discontinued. At the same time, the development of new, more advanced products from the seeds of common tadpole continues.