An annual from the cruciferous family, 15–80 cm high, with an unpleasant odor. The stem is straight, branched, grayish-pubescent. Leaves twice or thrice pinnatisected, with auricles at the base. The flowers are small, pale yellow, collected in many-flowered racemes. The fruits are slightly curved and tuberculate pods up to 3 cm long, with numerous small, oval, brown seeds. Blossoms in May-August, fruits ripen in June-September.
Medicinal raw materials are the seeds of the gulyavik. Their chemical composition has not been studied enough, but it has been established that they contain a glycoside of the sinigrin type. The pods are cut or cut off with whole brushes as they ripen into tight bags, then dried in the open air. Then the pods are rubbed, the seeds are sifted through a sieve and harvested. Sometimes used in medicine and the entire aerial part of the plant.
In official medicine, gulavik seeds are used as a laxative that increases tone and enhances intestinal motility in atonic constipation, a liquid alcohol extract from gulavik seeds is used (15-20 drops 2 times every day after meals), also for fever, kidney diseases.
In folk medicine, other types of gulavik are also used. The whole plant is brewed as a tea and drunk with dysentery, with internal bleeding. An aqueous infusion of seeds or herbs is considered a diuretic, antihelminthic and hemostatic. Externally, the leaves are used to heal purulent and wormy wounds and chronic ulcers.
Galenic herbal products are recommended for low blood pressure (hypotension).
The juice of a fresh plant has long been recommended for washing and healing ulcerated tumors.
Application
Infusion: 1 tbsp. a spoonful of grass in a glass of boiling water, insist 2 hours. Accepted under Art. spoon after 2 hours.