Perennial herbaceous pressed-hairy plant of the legume family. Flowering stems are erect, ascending at the base, unbranched, 20-70 cm high. Leaves trifoliate; the leaves are elongated elliptic or lanceolate, hard, with very distinct veins, finely and sharply serrate, hairy below. The flowers are small, irregular, white, in multi-flowered dense single (or two) heads. The fruit is a bean. Blooms in May – August.
Distribution . It grows throughout the territory of Ukraine in light forests on forest edges, among shrubs, on dry meadows, slopes of streams, on meadow steppes.
Raw. Herbs (Nerba Trifolii montani) or separate inflorescences (Flores Trifolii montani) are used to make medicines. Harvesting is carried out during the flowering of the plant. The plant is unofficial.
Chemical composition . The herb contains glycosides, tripholin, isotrifolin, essential oil, fatty oil, vitamin C (about 200 mg in the leaves).
Pharmacological properties and use. In folk medicine, the plant is known as an expectorant, diuretic and anti-inflammatory agent. It is used in the form of an infusion or decoction of the herb for diseases of the bronchi and lungs, for edema of various origins, as a stomach remedy, for abdominal pain. A strong decoction of herbs is drunk on an empty stomach with a hernia. Inflorescences are brewed as tea and drunk for baldness in women and hemorrhoids. Externally, in the form of poultices, a decoction of flowers is used for abscesses and burns, and in the form of sitz baths – for hemorrhoids.
Medicinal forms and applications . Internally – infusion of the herb (1 tablespoon of the herb per 200 ml of boiling water, infuse for 1-2 hours) for a third of a glass 3 times a day;
herb decoction (1 tablespoon of herb per 200 ml of boiling water, boil for 5 min., infuse for 30-40 min.) a third of a glass 3 times a day.
Externally – a decoction of flowers (prepared as in the previous recipe) for poultices and local baths.