Name: Laxman’s tenacious gourd of Laxman (harvesting and storage)
Tenacious Laxman – Ajuga laxmannii (L.) Benth . The Ukrainian name is Laxman’s bottle gourd.
Lamiaceae (Labiatae) family.
The herb is used for medicinal purposes.
It occurs in the Forest-steppe and the northern part of the Steppe. Relatively more common in the basin of the Seversky Donets and on the northern slopes of the Crimean mountains (in Kharkov, Donetsk, Voroshilovgrad, Crimean regions). It grows in forest edges and clearings, among sparse steppe shrubs, on virgin steppe slopes of gullies and river valleys, and all kinds of outcrops. Usually there are separate bushes and groups, less often – small thickets.
Stocks of raw materials are small. Several hundred kilograms of grass can be harvested annually, but planting forests on the slopes and intensive grazing on them leads to a decrease in stocks.
Laxman’s tenacious is a perennial herbaceous plant with a thickened, branched rhizome and numerous erect or ascending stems 20-50 cm tall. Stems are tetrahedral, branched, woolly-hairy, densely covered with opposite leaves. The lower and middle stem leaves are obovate or oblong-ovate, up to 4-5 cm long, large-horn at the apex; apical leaves oblong, linear, entire, woolly-shaggy on both sides. The flowers, arranged in pairs in the axils of the apical leaves, form an elongated inflorescence. Calyx half as long as corolla, hairy inside and outside. Corolla greenish-yellow with purple veins, long-haired on the outside. Fruits are four-nut, yellowish-brown, reticulate-wrinkled. The plant blooms in May – June. The fruits ripen in July-August.
Grass is harvested in the flowering phase, cut with knives or sickles without coarse ground parts.
Dry it in attics under an iron roof or under sheds with good ventilation, spreading a thin layer (5-7 cm) on paper or cloth.
According to FS 42-12-72, the raw material consists of stems up to 20 cm long, with leaves up to 4 cm long, flowers with brownish corollas and partially immature fruits in the axils of the leaves. The color is greyish green. The smell is fragrant. The taste is bitter. Humidity is not higher than 13%. Not more than (percent) is allowed in raw materials: darkened and browned parts – 4, crushed parts (passing through a sieve with a hole diameter of 1 mm) – 3, organic and mineral impurities – 1 each.
Packed in bags of 15-20 kg. Store packed in dry, well-ventilated areas on pallets or racks. The retention period has not been set.
The chemical composition of the herb is not well understood. Used for stomach and colds.
Included in the collection for the preparation of the mixture of M. N. Zdrenko.