Yellowish jaundice is a biennial herbaceous plant up to 80 cm tall. Taproot, small. Stems erect, weak. Leaves are linear with small teeth or entire, short-petiolate. The flowers are yellow in rare racemes. Fruits – pods 4-10 mm long, thin, tetrahedral, column shorter than the width of the pod. The whole plant is gray from strong pubescence of adpressed hairs. Blooms in May-August.
It grows scattered on the steppes, rocky slopes, among shrubs, in pine forests, along the Cretaceous mountains of the Volga region, the Caucasus.
Along with grayish jaundice, the herb of Marshall’s jaundice and levkoy jaundice can be used; both species are found more often in forest-steppe regions along shrubs, edges (first), grassy slopes, river valleys and littered places (second) in the Volgograd, Oryol, Tula, Tambov regions, the Chuvash Autonomous Republic.
Medicinal raw material is grass, only its upper part is better, without coarse lower stems, collected during the period of budding and flowering. The grass is dried in the shade, in attics under an iron roof or in dryers at a temperature within 50 degrees. The period of storage of raw materials is 6 months.
Jaundice herb contains cardiac glycosides, which are similar in effect to strophanthin.
Jaundice products are used as a means of emergency care for disorders of the functions of the cardiovascular system. Jaundice preparations contribute to the normalization of the functions of the neuromuscular apparatus of the heart, hemodynamics. Jaundice preparations do not accumulate in the body, but due to their high biological activity, they require caution in prescribing. Stored under lock and key (list A) in a place protected from light.
Juice from fresh jaundice herb is part of the widely used drug for heart diseases – cardiovalen.
In folk medicine, it is used in the form of a decoction and tinctures as a diuretic, expectorant, for lung disease, dropsy, and as a sedative for heart diseases.
Application
Decoction: 2 teaspoons per cup of boiling water; use 1 teaspoon three times every day.
Tincture or extract (i.e. thickened decoction): 20%; 10 drops 3 times every day – with sudden organic changes in the heart and blood vessels, acute myocarditis, endocarditis, severe atherosclerosis.