Name: Caucasian Dioscorea – Caucasian Dioscorea (growing and cultivation)
Caucasian Dioscorea (Caucasian Dioscorea) Dioscorea caucasica L ur s (named after Dioscorides. Annenkov, 1878).
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Description. Perennial, with climbing stems, a plant from the Dioscoreaceae family (Dioscoreaceae) up to 4 m high. The rhizome is horizontal, thick, long; numerous thin roots depart from it. Leaves are ovate-heart-shaped, up to 15 cm long; lower whorled, middle opposite, upper alternate or opposite. The flowers are small, inconspicuous, unisexual, dioecious. The fruits are trihedral, three-celled capsules with a diameter of 34 cm. Seeds with a wing surrounding them from all sides. Flowering in May June, fruiting in July.
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Medicinal raw materials: rhizomes and roots.
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Habitat. It grows along forest edges and shrubs, less often in broad-leaved forests, at an altitude of up to 5,001,000 m above sea level.
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Spreading. Dioscorea Caucasian is an endemic plant that is found only in the Abkhaz ASSR and in the Adler region of the Krasnodar Territory.
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Composition of active substances. In the rhizomes and roots of Caucasian Dioscorea, it is within 10% of steroid saponins, including 0.4% of diosgene.
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Application. Saponins obtained from the rhizomes and roots of Dioscorea help lower blood cholesterol levels, reduce lipid deposits in the aorta and lower blood pressure by expanding peripheral vessels. Therefore, the total product obtained from the roots and rhizomes of Dioscorea, diosponin, in which the main active ingredient is saponins, is used in medicine as an anti-sclerotic agent.
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Diosponin is also used in atherosclerosis of the cerebral vessels, both for the purpose of prevention and in severe stages of the disease. It is also prescribed for general atherosclerosis and for atherosclerosis associated with hypertension (Turova, 1967). The extract of the rhizomes of the Caucasian Dioscorea is part of the complex product of cholelithin.
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quality requirements . According to MRTU-42 No. 72062, the medicinal raw material of Caucasian Dioscorea should consist of pieces of rhizomes of different lengths with a diameter of 0.5-4 cm and roots up to 30 cm long / 0.51 mm in diameter, light brown on the outside and creamy at the break, odorless , with a bitter, slightly pungent taste. Allowed: moisture 13%; ash 4%; organic and mineral impurities, 0.5% each.