A biennial herbaceous plant up to 1 m high. The root is white, taproot, branched. The stem is ascending, round at the base, angular at the top, strongly branched. The leaves are alternate, long-petiolate, trifoliate, glabrous, with stipules, serrated along the margin, obovate or lanceolate. Flowers irregular, yellow (or white), in long, axillary racemes. The fruit is a bean cross-wrinkled, brown. Seeds ovoid, yellow-brown. Blooms from June to September. The whole plant is fragrant.
Medicinal raw material is grass without coarse stems during flowering. Dry the grass in the air in the shade or in a well-ventilated area. Store in tightly closed glass or tin jars.
Found in sweet clover herb: coumarin (hydroxycoumaric acid lactone, the maximum content of coumarin is found in flowers), coumaric acid, melilotin (3,4-dihydrocoumarin), melitic acid, glycoside, melitoside, which decomposes into o-coumaric acid during hydrolysis and glucose. In addition, the herb contains purine derivatives, protein (up to 17%), fat-like substances (up to 4.3%) and essential oils. The seeds found: protein (up to 41.9%), starch (up to 9%) and fatty oils (8.3%). When sweet clover rots, dicu-marin appears, which can cause bleeding in animals that eat such a plant.
Medicinal raw materials are leafy tops of sweet clover grass with flowers, collected during the initial flowering period. The smell of dried raw materials is pleasant, the taste is salty-bitter. It has been established that coumarin depresses the central nervous system, has anticonvulsant and narcotic effects.
In official medicine, sweet clover grass is used, from which a green (blister) patch is prepared. In addition, it is part of the emollient fees for poultices.
In folk medicine sweet clover is used more widely. Inside – with chronic catarrh of the bronchi, dropsy, flatulence with the presence of pain in the abdomen, with pain in the bladder and kidneys, with migraines, headaches, complaints of pain due to high blood pressure, is also part of emollient fees (tea), as sedative for insomnia and carminative.
When used externally, the plant has a resolving effect on inflammation of the mammary glands, joint tumors caused by rheumatism, boils, carbuncles, purulent wounds, abscesses, cuts (ointment), inflammation of the middle ear with secretions (the infusion should be boiled).
Application
Decoction: 20 g per 200 ml; 1 st. spoon 3 times every day (carminative).
Infusion: 1 tablespoon herbs brew a glass of boiling water, leave for 20 minutes. Take 1/2-3/4 cup at night (carminative).
Outwardly: in the form of compresses, washes, plasters, baths as a soothing, emollient and analgesic. A decoction or infusion is made 20 g per 200 ml.
Ointment: 1 part of condensed broth to 4 parts of butter or vaseline.
Some women claim that donnik, mixed equally with coltsfoot flowers and boiled (1 tablespoon per cup of boiling water), helps with ovarian inflammation, cancer, psychosis and metabolic disorders (3-4 tablespoons 5 times every day ). The treatment period is 2-3 weeks. At the same time, complete abstinence from sexual activity is recommended.
Take sweet clover only under the supervision of a doctor: the wrong dosage causes vomiting, drowsiness and headache, and sometimes liver damage and hemorrhage.