Dymyanka medicinal – Fumaria oflicinalis L. Ukrainian name – rutka likarska, popular names – dimnitsya, wild rue; liver grass.
Fumariaceae family – Fumariaceae.
The herb is used for medicinal purposes.
It occurs throughout Ukraine, in fields, vegetable gardens, roadsides, near forest belts, less often in gardens, yards.
Usually grows in groups or forms small thickets.
Stocks of raw materials are small. Several centners of grass can be harvested annually, and an increase in farming culture leads to a further decrease in the number of plants.
Dymyanka medicinal – an annual weed with a poorly developed, slightly branched, taproot. Stem single, erect or ascending, 20-30 cm tall, spreading-branched, thin. The leaves are alternate, thrice dissected into short linear pointed segments. Flowers in axillary racemes. Corolla purple-pink, greenish at the apex, irregular, with a spur, 7-9 mm long. The fruit is an obovate nutlet, depressed at the apex. Blooms in May – June. The fruits ripen in July. After seeding, the plant dies. In years with heavy rainfall, seedlings are found almost all summer.
Grass is cut with knives or sickles in the flowering phase.
They dry it in attics under an iron roof or under sheds with good ventilation, spreading it in a thin layer (3-5 cm)
on paper or fabric. When dried in a thick layer or at low temperatures, the grass becomes moldy easily.
The raw material is exported and, in agreement with foreign firms, it consists of stems with gray-green leaves, pink or pale purple flowers. There is no smell. The taste is bitter. Humidity is not higher than 13%. In raw materials, no more than (percentage) is allowed: 5% yellowed and browned parts, 5% crushed parts (passing through a sieve with 3 mm holes), 2% organic and 0.5% mineral impurities.
Grass is packed in bales of 50 kg. Store in dry, well-ventilated areas on pallets or racks.
The herb contains fumaric acid, fumarin alkaloid, protopan, bitterness, vitamins C and K, organic acids. It is used as an appetite stimulant, improves the activity of the gastrointestinal tract, as a hypotensive and choleretic agent.