Small centaury – centaurium minus moench.
Popular names: scrofula, seven-strength, centuria.
Botanical characteristic. Gentian family. Biennial or annual small herbaceous plant with a thin root. Stem erect, solitary, unbranched, tetrahedral, sometimes forked at the top, 15-35 cm tall. Basal leaves are collected in a rosette, oblong-obovate, narrowed towards the base, stem opposite, sessile, elliptical. The flowers are small pink or white, collected in corymbose inflorescences. Blooms in June until autumn (Fig. 23).
Spreading. It grows in upland and water meadows, forest edges, clearings, among bushes, along the banks of rivers and lakes. It occurs in the middle and southern regions of the European part of the USSR, in the Caucasus, in Western Siberia, and Central Asia.
Medicinal raw materials. Use the aerial part (grass) of the plant. It is harvested at the beginning of flowering, when the leaves in the rosette have not yet begun to turn yellow and dry out. The grass is cut with a knife, secateurs with basal rosettes, tied into bundles and hung in the shade or in well-ventilated rooms. Store dry in bags for no more than 2 years.
Chemical composition. Alkaloids were found in all parts of the centaury. The herb of the plant contains bitter glycoside eritaurin and non-bitter erythrocentaurin, flavone glycoside centaurin, up to 0.95% of little-studied alkaloids, oleic and ascorbic acids, essential oils, resins, mucus, wax.
pharmacological properties. As bitter herb plants increase appetite, improve digestion and enhance intestinal motility. It has been experimentally established that the alkaloid gentianine has anthelmintic properties.
Application. Centaury grass is part of the bitter tincture – Tinctura amara (centaury herb 60 g, water shamrock leaves 60 g, calamus rhizome 30 g, wormwood herb 30 g, coriander fruit 15 g and ethyl alcohol 40% in the amount necessary for obtaining by percolation method 1 liter of tincture). It is recommended to increase appetite and improve digestion orally in doses: horses 1-3 ml, cattle 2-8, sheep 0.3-2, dogs 0.2-0.5, pigs 0.2-0.5 ml .
The herb of the plant in the form of a 1:20 infusion is used as a bitter to stimulate appetite and improve digestion. Approximate dose for calves: 1 tablespoon 2-3 times daily.