A small (60-180 cm tall), short-grayish, pressed-pubescent bush of the legume family. Shoots are erect, rod-like, few leaves. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, trifoliate; leaves are elliptic-lanceolate, entire, silver-gray from below. The flowers are bisexual, irregular, placed on (1) 3-5 in the axils of the leaves and collected in multi-flowered leafless spike-like inflorescences; corolla butterfly-like, separate-petalled, golden-yellow. The fruit is an oblong-linear pressed-hairy bean. Blooms in May-July.
Distribution . Zinovat Ruska grows throughout the territory of Ukraine, except for the highlands and sagebrush steppe, on steppe and stony slopes.
Raw material . For the manufacture of medicines, grass (herbaceous tops of shoots) is used, which is harvested during the flowering of the plant. Dry under cover in the open air or in a well-ventilated room.
The plant is unofficial.
Chemical composition . All parts of the plant contain alkaloids (the main one is cytisine).
Pharmacological properties and use . Alkaloid cytisine causes reflex excitation of the respiratory center, stimulates the vasomotor center, sympathetic ganglia and adrenal glands, which leads to an increase in blood pressure. In folk medicine, an infusion of the herb is drunk for pulmonary tuberculosis, jaundice, pain in the heart and lower back, and headaches.
Medicinal forms and applications. Internally – herbal infusion (1 teaspoon of raw material is infused for 1 hour in 700 ml of cold boiled water, filtered) 1 tablespoon 3 times a day after meals.
Zinovat Russian is a poisonous plant. Overdose is dangerous!