larkspur HIGH
Perennial herbaceous plant with a cylindrical, erect, unbranched or bearing short lateral branches stem up to 2 m high, covered with alternate, palmately divided leaves with rounded or polygonal blades up to 4/5 of their length, divided into wide, oblong-rhombic at the end, triangular lobes, along the edges with large teeth. The inflorescence is a long rare, simple or branched raceme, consisting of relatively large bright flowers, sitting on the sides of the peduncle in the axils of entire (except for the lowest) narrow bracts on long pedicels. Flowers within 2 cm long, blue, with a long hollow spur, calyx five-leaved, blue with 5 free petals, many stamens. The fruits are trifoliate, naked. Blooms in June-August.
It grows in light forests, on the edges, glades. The plant is decorative and widely used in floriculture. In medicine, the herb collected during flowering is used, while the tops and side shoots are torn off, and the thick, stiff stems are discarded; dried in the shade, in attics.
The grass contains up to 1.3% of alkaloids: elantine, del-feline, etc. It serves as a raw material for obtaining the alkaloid elantine, used as a base. It has a curare-like action, similar to the action of tubocurarin, but unlike the latter, it is active not only when used parenterally, but also when administered into the stomach. .
It is used in powders and tablets to reduce muscle tone, also for vascular and traumatic disorders of the brain, accompanied by muscle hypertension; with lesions of the spinal cord, hyperkinesis.
In folk medicine, this is an old folk remedy used for bone fractures (hence – larkspur) in the form of lotions and healing compresses. It has an analgesic effect and speeds up recovery. Decoction treats all kinds of burns. An infusion of herbs is drunk for gastric diseases, for diseases of the throat it is used as a rinse.