Polygonum persiearia L. Polygonum persiearia L.
The buckwheat family is Polygonaceae.
The herb is used for medicinal purposes.
It occurs almost throughout Ukraine. It grows along the banks of rivers, streams, oxbow lakes, ponds, in alder groves, on roadsides, wet meadows, as well as a weed in vegetable gardens and fields in low places. Often forms dense thickets, pure or mixed with other bog plants. Sometimes it occupies large areas in the fields as a stubble weed, also on
young deposits (in the lowlands). The main preparations are made in Polissya and in the northern part of the Forest-Steppe.
Stocks of raw materials are large, tens of tons of grass can be harvested annually.
Highlander pochechuyny – an annual with a taproot slightly branched root. The stem is erect or ascending, branched, 30-100 cm high. The leaves are alternate, short-petiolate, broadly lanceolate, pointed, entire, often with a brown spot on the upper plane. Stipules grow together and form a bell with smooth edges and long straight cilia. The flowers are small (2.5-3 mm long), greenish-pink or white, collected in a dense, spike-shaped, straight inflorescence 2-3 cm long at the top of the stem and branches. The fruits are trihedral, black, shiny nuts within the flower bed, 2-2.5 mm long. The plant blooms in July – August. The fruits ripen in August – September.
Grass is harvested in the flowering phase, cutting off the tops of plants with a knife or sickle without coarse, almost leafless lower parts, and with a dense herbage – mowing with a scythe.
They dry the grass in attics under an iron roof or under sheds with good ventilation, spreading a thin layer (3-5 cm) on paper or cloth and stirring frequently. If the raw material lies in a thick layer and drying is slow, it turns black, and in the sun it turns brown. The yield of dry raw materials is 20-22%.
According to FS 42-414-72, the raw material consists of stems up to 40 cm long, with leaves (their length is 12-16 cm, width 2.5-5 cm) and flowers. The stems and leaves are green (the dark spot on the leaves disappears when dried), the bells are brownish, the flowers are pink or white. There is no smell. The taste is bitter. Humidity is not higher than 13%. Not more than (percent) is allowed in raw materials: crushed parts passing through a sieve with a hole diameter of 2 mm – 5, grass that has lost its natural color – 10, organic impurities – 3, mineral – 1.
Dry grass is packed in bales of 50 kg or in bags of 20-25 kg. Store in dry, well-ventilated areas on pallets or racks. Storage period 2 years.
Instead of the kidney mountaineer, it is impossible to harvest other types of the mountaineer genus, which often grow with it.
The grass contains tannin, gallic acid, essential oil, flobafen, flavones (hyperoside, avicularin, persicarin, quercitron), vitamins C and K, pectin substances.
The infusion and liquid extract are used as a hemostatic and mild laxative, for chronic constipation, especially for uterine bleeding and hemorrhoids.