Viburnum opulus L. Ukrainian name – viburnum zvichayna.
Honeysuckle family – Caprifoliaceae.
For medicinal purposes, the bark and fruits are used.
It occurs almost throughout Ukraine, but in the steppe regions only along river valleys and wet beams, in the Carpathians and in the forest-steppe regions it is a traditional plant, a little less often in Polissya. It grows in fresh and moist forests and shrubs, especially in floodplains, on second terraces and beams. In some places it forms sparse thickets and borders, especially in alder forests. Widely bred in gardens and orchards.
Stocks of raw materials are large. Several tons of bark and tens of tons of fruits can be harvested annually. The main blanks are produced in the Transcarpathian, Lvov, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Ternopil, Khmelnytsky, Vinnitsa, Volyn, Rivne, Zhytomyr, Kyiv and other regions.
The average annual harvesting of viburnum bark in the republic for three years (1974-1976) amounted to 2.8 tons.
Viburnum vulgaris is a branched bush, 2-6 m high, with gray or brownish-gray bark and smooth, bare branches with lenticels. The leaves are opposite, petiolate, broadly ovate, 3-5-lobed, with large teeth, bright green above, glabrous, dull below, slightly pubescent. Petioles glabrous, with glandular warts at the base of the plate. The flowers are fragrant, collected in apical, flat, corymbose panicles. Marginal flowers are barren, white, with a large (up to 2.5 cm in diameter) 5-lobed wheel-shaped corolla; median – bisexual, yellowish-white, small bell-shaped (up to 0.5 cm in diameter). The fruits are oval, red (in everyday life called berries) drupes, 0.7-1 cm in diameter, with one flattened stone. Blooms in May. The fruits ripen in August.
The bark is prepared in the spring during the movement of juices (April-May). On cut branches, circular cuts are made with knives every 25 cm, they are connected with longitudinal cuts, after which the bark is easily removed.
Dry in attics under an iron roof, under sheds with good ventilation, laying out a thin layer (3-5 cm) on paper or cloth. The yield of dry raw materials is 38-40%.
According to GF-X Art. 185, GOST 8535-57, the raw material consists of tubular or groove-like pieces of bark 10-15 cm long and up to 2 mm thick, wrinkled on the outside, less often smooth, with small lenticels, brownish or greenish-gray, inside – smooth, light or brownish-yellow with small reddish spots and stripes. The smell is weak, peculiar. The taste is bitter, tart. Humidity is not higher than 14%. In raw materials, no more than 2% of pieces of bark with wood and branches, 15% of pieces of bark shorter than 10 cm, bark darkened from the inside – 5%, bark of other trees and mineral impurities 0.5% each.
The total ash content should not exceed 5%, and extractives extracted with 70-degree alcohol will need to contain at least 17%.
The bark, pressed, is packed in bales or bales of 50 or 75 kg. Store in packaged form in dry, well-ventilated areas on racks. Storage period up to 4 years. Raw materials are not subject to re-control.
The fruits are harvested when they are fully ripe (August-September). Whole bunches are cut with knives or sickles and put loosely in baskets.
Dry in ovens or dryers at a temperature of 50-60 °. Then they are threshed and separated on sieves from the stalks and branches.
According to FS 42-611-72, the raw material consists of flattened wrinkled rounded fruits 0.5-1.5 cm in diameter, from orange-red to dark red. The smell is weak. The taste is bitter-sour. Humidity is not more than 15%. In raw materials, no more than (percent) is allowed: unripe fruits – 4, burnt, blackened and damaged by pests – 1.5, other parts of viburnum – 2.5, organic impurities – 1, mineral – 0.5.
Dry fruits are packed in bags of 30-40 kg. Store in dry, well-ventilated areas on racks.
The bark contains the glycoside viburnin, tannins, flobofen, resins, which include organic acids and phytosterols. It is used as a decoction, liquid extract, as a hemostatic agent, especially in uterine bleeding.
The fruits contain invert sugar, organic acids, tannins, vitamin C.
They are used as a tonic and diuretic, for colds and as a source of vitamin C.