Perennial herbaceous plant up to 1.5 m tall. The rhizome is thick, fleshy, dark brown on the outside, with longish thick roots. Stems are straight, angular, shaggy upwards. The leaves are alternate, basal, petiolate, oblong-elliptical, cauline, amplexicaul. Flowers in large axillary baskets, yellow; marginal – reed, internal – tubular. Wrappers of baskets are multi-leaved, with leaves protruding outwards. The fruit is a seed. Blooms from July to September. Elecampane replaces imported senega.
Medicinal raw material is a rhizome with roots, collected in autumn (October) or spring (April-May). It is cleaned from the ground, washed in cold water, cut into pieces; dry in the shade of a well-ventilated area. The smell of raw materials is aromatic: fresh roots smell like camphor, dried ones smell like violet; taste spicy bitter; color is gray-brown, in a break white. Storage period up to 3 years.
The active principles of elecampane are inulin, chapelin, essential oil containing allantolactan and iso-alantolactone, as well as bitter substances, polysaccharides and saponins.
Preparations from elecampane are mainly used as an expectorant, antihelminthic, diuretic and choleretic agent. Due to the anti-inflammatory action, elecampane products are an effective remedy for the treatment of the gastrointestinal tract, because it helps to reduce its increased motor and secretory function, improve appetite.
Elecampane products have a beneficial effect in diseases of the kidneys, liver, hemorrhoids, and externally – with skin itching with skin rashes, inflammation of the gums.
In folk medicine, elecampane is also used in the treatment of diseases such as stomach ulcers, gastritis; fried eggs sprinkled with root powder and eaten in diseases caused by weight lifting; tincture of vodka is drunk with pulmonary tuberculosis; inside or outside – with radiculitis, nervous diseases, goiter, stomach and duodenal ulcers, heart diseases, colds, high blood pressure, toothache; a decoction of flowers is drunk as tea for suffocation; they drink a decoction of the roots and wash their head from a tangle; drink with uterine pain, exhaustion; root powder is melted or overcooked with pork fat and applied on a linen cloth to tumors and wounds; fresh leaves are applied to erysipelatous and scrofulous places, ulcers, tumors; water decoction is drunk for stomach and chest pains, thinness, flu.
Application
Tincture 25%: 25-30 drops, then take 2-3 tbsp. spoons of pork (internal) fat for peptic ulcer of the stomach or duodenum.
Elecampane wine: for a bottle of Cahors or port, take 1 full tbsp. a spoonful of fresh root and cook for 10 minutes, preferably with Art. a spoonful of honey; take 2-3 glasses (50 g each) after eating with catarrh of the intestines and low acidity, for recovering weak people.
Decoction: 15 g per 200 ml (1 dessert or incomplete tablespoon per glass of water) boil for 30 minutes, strain and take 1 tbsp warm. spoon 3 times every day as a choleretic.
Root tincture in cold water: take 1 tbsp. a spoonful of crushed root in 2 cups of water and leave for 8 hours; drink half a cup slightly warmed 4 times every day (preferably with a teaspoon of honey) half an hour or an hour before meals for respiratory diseases (bronchitis, etc.).
Pills: the root ground into flour is mixed with honey and made into pills; take 2-3 pieces and 3-4 times every day before meals.
In addition to British elecampane and high elecampane, elecampane is also found, an infusion of the leaves of which is used as an anti-inflammatory and astringent in the complex of wound healing.