Name: Elecampane high – Oman high (harvesting and storage)
Elecampane high – Inula helenium L. Ukrainian name – high Oman, popular names – elecampane, divosil, wild sunflower.
Compositae family – Asteraceae (Compositae).
For medicinal purposes, rhizomes with roots are used.
It occurs almost throughout Ukraine, more often on the Right Bank, especially in the Forest-Steppe. Not found in the Carpathians. Occasionally found in the mountainous part of the Crimea. Grows in damp places along the valleys of rivers and gullies, in meadows, swamps among shrubs, on forest edges and glades, along the banks of small rivers and streams, in places where soil water comes out. The main thickets are concentrated in Podolia (Ternopil, Khmelnitsky, Vinnitsa, north of the Odessa region) and Bukovina (Chernivtsi region).
Stocks of raw materials are quite large, however, due to the drainage of excessively wet areas, they are decreasing.
Elecampane tall is a perennial herbaceous plant, 1–2 m high, with a thick (up to 5 cm), fleshy, dark brown, whitish inside, often many-headed rhizome, from which a few long (up to 50 cm) adventitious roots extend. The stems are straight, soft-haired below, felted above. The leaves are large, wrinkled, unevenly serrate-toothed, coarsely hairy above, velvety gray felt below; basal leaves on petioles are oblong; the middle and upper ones are sessile, semi-steole-embracing, gradually decreasing, oblong-ovate, pointed, with a heart-shaped base. Inflorescences (baskets) are large, up to 8 cm in diameter. Baskets at the top of the main stem and branches form loose panicles or corymbs. The flowers are golden-yellow, extreme reed, the rest are tubular. Anthers at the base with longish appendages. Hemicarps prismatic, tetrahedral, half as long as pappus. The plant blooms in July – August. The fruits ripen in August – September.
Harvest rhizomes with roots in the fall after the death of the aerial parts (August-September) or early spring before regrowth (April). They dig them up with shovels, shake off the ground, cut off the aerial parts with knives and quickly wash them in cold water. Thick and long rhizomes and roots are first cut into pieces 10-15 cm long, then cut them lengthwise, cutting off the dead parts at the same time.
Harvested raw materials are dried in attics under an iron roof or under sheds with good ventilation, spreading a layer of 5-7 cm on paper or cloth and stirring frequently. It can be dried in dryers or ovens at a temperature not exceeding 40 ° after preliminary drying for 2-3 days. The yield of dry raw materials is 28-30%.
According to GOST 15056-69, the raw material consists of whole or cut along roots and rhizomes 2-20 cm long and 0.5-3 cm thick, wrinkled gray-brown on the outside, yellowish-white inside. The smell is peculiar, fragrant. The taste is bitter-spicy, pungent. Humidity is not higher than 13%.
In raw materials, no more than (percent) is allowed: rhizomes and roots darkened at a break – 5, pieces of roots less than 2 cm long – 5, other parts of elecampane, dead roots and rhizomes – 5, organic impurities – 0.5, mineral – 1.
Packed in bales of 50 or in bags no more than 25-30 kg. They snort in the group of essential oil raw materials in dry, well-ventilated rooms on pedestals or racks. Storage period up to 3 years.
Rhizomes with roots contain 1-3% essential oil, consisting of sesquiterpene lactones (alantolactone, etc.), as well as inulin, pseudoinulin, acetic and benzoic acids. It is used as an expectorant in chronic respiratory diseases. Included in expectorant fees.