Name: Laxative zhoster – zhostіr pronosny (preparation and storage)
Zhoster laxative (buckthorn laxative) – Rhamnus sa thartica L. Ukrainian name – zhostir pronosny, popular names – zhost, zherst, zhostor, zhostil, zhester, zherest, hrobost, proskurina, prickly buckthorn, etc.
Buckthorn family – Rhamnaceae.
The fruits are used for medicinal purposes.
It occurs throughout Ukraine, but more often in the Forest-steppe and Steppe, less often in Polissya; almost absent in the Carpathians and in the wormwood Steppe. It grows on dry forest edges and clearings, among shrubs, on the slopes of beams and river valleys, previously covered with forest, roadsides, outskirts of old gardens, in cemeteries. Sometimes forms a frame within forests on slopes.
Stocks of raw materials are large. Dozens of tons of fruits can be harvested annually. The main blanks are produced in Khmelnitsky, Odessa, Vinnitsa, Kirovograd, Cherkasy, Kyiv, Poltava, Dnepropetrovsk, Sumy, Kharkov, Donetsk, Voroshilovgrad regions. The average annual harvesting of joster fruits in the republic for three years (1974-1976) amounted to 11.7 tons.
Joster laxative is a dioecious branchy shrub or small tree. Branches and leaves are opposite. The flowers are unisexual, small, greenish, collected in bunches of 10-15 in the axils of the leaves. The fruits are black, drupe-like. Blooms in May-June. The fruits ripen in August-September. This plant must be distinguished from other black-fruited shrubs that inexperienced pickers may pick instead of joster berries.
Mature fruits are harvested by picking them with their hands and putting them in baskets or buckets.
They are dried in ovens or dryers at a temperature of 50-60 °, spreading a thin layer (2-3 cm) on sieves or sheets. The yield of dry raw materials is 17%.
According to the Global Fund – X Art. 292 The raw material consists of individual shiny, wrinkled fruits (5-8 mm in diameter) with remnants of a style and a depression at the place where the peduncle is torn off or with a peduncle, almost black on the outside, brownish-green on the inside, with three or four, rarely two, stones. The smell is weak, unpleasant. The taste is bittersweet. Humidity is not higher than 14%. In raw materials, no more than 4% underdeveloped, 5% burnt fruits, 2% parts and fruits of other plants, 0.5% mineral impurities are allowed.
Ash content should not exceed 4%.
Dry fruits are packed in bags of 50 kg. Store in dry, well-ventilated areas, preferably in a draft, on racks or storage boxes. They are easily damaged by barn pests. Storage period up to 4 years. Raw materials are not subject to re-control.
The fruits contain anthraglycosides, flavanol glycosides, pectin substances. Used as a laxative (decoction), are part of the laxative collection.