Highlander kidney (hemorrhoid grass, kidney grass)
An annual herbaceous plant with a taproot. Stem straight, slightly branched, slightly ascending at the bottom, 20-50 cm tall; leaves 3-10 cm long, lanceolate, almost sessile, glabrous, with or without brown spots on top. Stipules fused into a tube form bells, tightly adjacent to the stem, appressed hairy, with longish cilia along the upper edge. Racemes terminal, dense, thick, 2-3 cm long; within the flower bed five-membered, simple, corolla-shaped, pink, rarely whitish without glands; stamens six, one pistil with an upper, one-celled ovary and 2-3 columns. The fruits are ovoid nuts, flat-convex or almost trihedral on both sides, black, glossy, enclosed in a flower bed remaining within. Blooms from July to autumn.
It occurs in damp places, vegetable gardens, fields, along river banks.
Medicinal raw material is the aerial part – the herb collected during flowering. The grass is dried in the shade or in dryers. Store raw materials in a well-ventilated area.
The grass contains tannin, malic, acetic, gallic acids, essential oil; pectin, flavonoids; hyperoside, avicularin, quercetin, vitamins C and K, mucus, wax, etc.
In scientific medicine, it is used as a gentle laxative for atonic and spastic constipation, as a hemostatic agent for hemorrhoidal and uterine bleeding. The infusion and liquid extract have a diuretic, pronounced hemostatic properties, mainly in uterine and hemorrhoid bleeding. This application is confirmed by experiments that found that kidney grass products increase blood clotting, uterine and intestinal tone, constrict blood vessels, but without increasing blood pressure, increase heart activity.
Infusions of kidney grass are contraindicated in acute inflammation of the kidneys, but are useful for patients with kidney diseases accompanied by constipation.
In folk medicine, kidney grass is used more widely, for example: an aqueous decoction as a hemostatic agent, for colds, sexually transmitted diseases and in all the cases described above, in addition, an infusion or powder from bedbugs is used, externally for wound healing, fresh grass is applied for headaches to the back of the head, juice is poured (powdered) into purulent wounds.
Application
Decoction: 1 part of the herb to 20 parts of boiling water (or 10-15 parts), insist for 20-30 minutes; take 1 tbsp. spoon 3 times every day. The decoction is used externally by the people as a mustard plaster for tumors and headaches, as well as for lichen and rashes.