Name: Caucasian Dioscorea (veterinary practice)
Dioscorea Caucasian – dioscorea caucasica lipsky.
Botanical characteristic. Dioscoreaceae family. Perennial herbaceous vine. Rhizome horizontal thick long. Adventitious roots are long and thin. Stems curly up to 2.5-3 m in height. The leaves are petiolate, ovate-cordate with a pointed apex. In the lower part of the stem, the leaves are whorled, in the upper part they are alternate or almost opposite. The flowers are small, unisexual, yellowish-green. The fruit is a three-celled naked box. Blossoms in May -July, the fruits ripen in September (Fig. 17).
Spreading. Endemic plant of the Caucasus. It grows in the region of Adler and in several regions of the Abkhaz ASSR in oak and oak-hornbeam forests. Introduced into culture in the Krasnodar Territory.
Medicinal raw materials. Harvest rhizomes with roots in the spring before the start of sap flow or in late autumn during fruiting. They are dug up with a pick, with the help of potato harvesters. The aerial part is separated, the earth and rotten, damaged parts are removed, cut into pieces 5-7 cm long and dried at a temperature of 60-70 ° C in rooms or in attics, spreading in a thin layer. Dried rhizomes are light brown on the outside and creamy at the break.
Chemical composition. The rhizome contains up to 25% of the total steroidal saponins, among them dioscin, which is cleaved during hydrolysis into glucose, rhamnose and diosgenin.
pharmacological properties. Experimental studies conducted in the Department of Pharmacology of VILR showed that galenic forms of Dioscorea lower blood pressure in laboratory animals, increase the volume of coronary blood flow, increase the motor function of the stomach (experiments on dogs with gastric fistula according to Basov) and reduce the isolated segment of the intestine of rabbits and cats. The mechanism of these phenomena is associated with the M-cholinomimetic effect of the product and inhibition of the chemoreceptors of the coronary sinus.
Dioscorea preparations and isolated individual saponins have a positive effect on the course of experimental atherosclerosis in rabbits: they lower the amount of cholesterol in the blood, increase the lecithin-cholesterol ratio, reduce the deposition of lipoids in the skin, on the cornea, sclera, in arteries, liver and other internal organs. Under the influence of saponins, peripheral vessels expand and, as a result, blood pressure decreases, cardiac activity improves, and breathing becomes deeper.
Application. Alcohol tincture of Dioscorea is effective in the treatment of chronic gastritis with reduced secretory function of the stomach in the acute stage; it successfully prevents and treats atherosclerosis of cerebral vessels, cardiosclerosis and general atherosclerosis, is used as a hypocholesterolemic agent, also to lower blood pressure.
The industry produces diosponin, a novogalenic product of Caucasian Dioscorea, in the form of tablets. Each tablet contains 0.1 g of diosponin.
Rp.: Tabulettae Diosponini 0.1 Dtd N 30
S. As prescribed by a doctor for atherosclerosis.
Polysponin is a dry extract from the rhizomes and roots of Nippon Dioscorea. Creamy to brown hygroscopic amorphous powder. The drug has a moderate hypocholesterolemic effect – it lowers the level of cholesterol in the blood. It is especially effective in the treatment of the initial stages of atherosclerosis. Produced in tablets containing 0.1 g of the product.