Prickly prickly – Phlomis pungens W i l l d . The Ukrainian name is gostrokintsevy zalіznyak, folk names are kozachy zalіznyak, a letter.
Lamiaceae (Labiatae) family.
The herb is used for medicinal purposes.
It occurs in the Steppe and the southern part of the Forest-Steppe of Ukraine. It grows on the slopes of gullies and river valleys, rocky outcrops, forest edges and clearings, among rare steppe shrubs. Usually forms groups or small thickets.
Stocks of raw materials are relatively large. Dozens of centners of grass can be harvested annually in Voroshilovgrad, Donetsk, Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, Nikolaev, Odessa, Kirovograd, Cherkasy, Poltava regions.
Prickly prickly pear is a perennial herbaceous plant. The roots are thick, twisted, with exfoliating bark, often many-headed at the top. Stems (they are traditionally several) strongly branched from the base, 30-80 cm high, gray tomentose from dense pubescence with stellate and longer simple hairs. Leaves with flat, pubescent petioles, which are long in basal leaves and shorter in stem leaves. The leaf blades are rounded or broadly cuneate at the base, pointed at the tops, entire in the lower part, serrated above. Below the leaves are grayish or whitish-felt, shiny above, with scattered hairs. Flowers 3-10 are collected in false rings in the axils of the apical leaves. Corollas are two-lipped, pink, 10-13 mm long. Fruits are four-nut, dark brown, small tuberculate, in a calyx. Zopnik blooms in June – July.
Grass is harvested during flowering, cutting side stems with knives or sickles. Dry it in attics under an iron roof or under sheds with good ventilation, spreading loosely with a layer of 10-15 cm on paper or cloth. The yield of dry raw material has not been established.
According to FS 42 No. 18-72, the raw material consists of branched stems up to 30 cm long and up to 5 mm thick, with leaves up to 12 cm long, dark or brownish-green above, gray-green and pinkish-yellow flowers below. The smell is fragrant, characteristic. The taste is missing. Humidity is not higher than 13%. In raw materials, no more than 3% of blackened and 2% of crushed parts (passing through a sieve with a hole diameter of 2 mm), 1% of organic and 1% of mineral impurities are allowed.
Dry grass is packed in bags up to 25 kg or bales of 50 kg. Store packaged in dry, well-ventilated areas on pallets or racks. Storage period 3 years.
The herb contains an essential oil. Included in the collection for the preparation of Zdrenko’s mixture.