Name: Bells crowded – crowded bell
Campanula glomerata; Bellflower family (Satrapiaceae); the bell is crowded
Bells, and there are many types of them, always attract people’s attention. Apparently, they are one of the first plants that children get to know. The shape of bellflower flowers is so characteristic that there is no need to explain where the name of the genus comes from. Poets and artists did not neglect the plant.
Clustered bells do not occur as often as common bells spread out, but they are quite common inhabitants of meadows, forest glades and forest edges. This is a perennial herbaceous plant 25-80 cm tall. Its rhizome is thick, woody. The stem is simple, slightly ridged, covered with hairs, sometimes it is reddish in color. The leaves are green, entire, pubescent or rough. The lower ones are long-petioled, oblong-ovate or oblong-lanceolate, with a rounded or heart-shaped base; upper ones are sessile, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, notched-serrate. The flowers are dark purple, their corolla up to 1/3 of the height is divided into lobes. The inflorescence is intermittent, the flowers are clustered in a dense apical head and thick axillary bunches. They bloom from July to September. The fruit is a box. This type of bells is widespread in all regions of the middle lane of the European part of Russia. In Ukraine, it grows throughout the territory on dry meadows, forest edges, in forests, among shrubs.
The aerial part of the plant, which is harvested during flowering, has healing properties.
The collected raw materials are dried in the open air under shelter. Bells are used only in folk medicine.
The herb contains alkaloids (some authors question this fact), flavonoids: quercetin, kaempferol; organic acids, as well as carotene (provitamin A) and ascorbic acid (vitamin C).
Traditional healers use the antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, sedative (calming) and pain-relieving properties of the plant. An infusion of the herb is prescribed internally for febrile conditions, bone ache, cough, hepatitis (jaundice), stomach ache, migraine, atherosclerosis, hyperpolymenorrhea (excessive menstruation). An infusion of the herb is used externally in the form of gargles for stomatitis, gingivitis, tonsillitis, baths with it are recommended for epilepsy. Fresh leaves (or dried and steamed) are applied to the skin in case of hysteria, boils, skin ulcers, panaritiums and purulent wounds. Baths made from a decoction of the herb in combination with taking the infusion internally are prescribed for various nervous disorders, including in children.
Herbal infusion. 2 teaspoons of raw materials per 200 ml of boiling water. Insist for 2 hours, filter. Take 1 tablespoon three times a day.