One-year or two-year cobweb-hairy plant of the aster family (complex flowers). The stem is erect, simple or branched, ribbed, 15-50 cm high. The leaves are pinnate or pinnate, with elongated segments, on the edge are unevenly notched-toothed or ciliated-bladed. The flowers are tubular, yellow, collected in baskets, forming a sparse paniculate-scutellum inflorescence. The fruit is an achene. Blooms in April – November.
Spread. It grows as a weed near roads, near houses, in fields and gardens throughout the territory of Ukraine.
Raw material . The herb is used for medicinal purposes and is harvested from May to August.
The plant is unofficial .
Chemical composition . The herb of yellow-green grass contains alkaloids (leaves – 0.49-3.5%; stems – 0.2-12%; flowers – about 3%) platyphyllin, seneciphyllin, saracin, retrorsin and senecionine, ascorbic acid, rutin, dye, inulin and mineral salts. 54-61 mg% of carotene was found in the leaves.
Pharmacological properties and use . The plant has wound-healing, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, hypotensive and hemostatic properties, in small doses it excites, and in large doses it depresses the central nervous system, it has an effect similar to that of atropine. In traditional medicine, preparations from the plant are used as a means that regulates and conditions menstruation, they are used for exacerbation of peptic ulcer disease of the stomach and duodenum, inflammation of the colon and gall bladder, for acute stomach and intestinal spasms, hyperacid gastritis, uterine and various internal bleeding, bronchial asthma and angina pectoris. Only the juice is effective for convulsions.
Medicinal forms and applications .
Internally – herbal tincture (10 g of raw material per 40 g of alcohol) 30-40 drops 3 times a day;
infusion (1 teaspoon of grass per 2 cups of boiling water, infuse for 1 hour, strain) 1 tablespoon 2-3 times a day.
Externally , the herb ground with sunflower oil is used for hardening of the glands, for hemorrhoids and furunculosis.