European Kopitnyak (pidgorishnik) )
Perennial herbaceous plant up to 10 cm tall, shortly appressed hairy, with a peculiar smell. Rhizome creeping, branched. Wintering leaves, rounded kidney-shaped, dark green, shiny, leathery, 5-8 cm wide. Flowers singly at the top of the shoots, axillary on drooping pedicels. Perianth simple, bell-shaped, greenish-purple, tripartite. Stamens 12 with ligament elongated into styloid process. Pistil with lower ovary, columns 6, fused at the base into a furrowed column, expanded at the top into a six-rayed stigma. The fruit is a six-celled box with the remains of a dried-up flower bed on the top. Seeds are grayish-brown, finely wrinkled. Blossoms in May, fruits ripen in June.
Distributed in the Central zone of the European part of Russia and Western Siberia, and in the South-East in the forest-steppe regions. It occurs in deciduous and mixed forests, especially with hazel undergrowth.
Medicinal raw materials are rhizomes and roots soon after flowering and fruit ripening – in July; leaves – in July-August. The collected material is dried in the shade in the air.
All parts of the plant contain essential oil, which includes volatile toxic substances – azaron, diozarone, azaryl aldehyde, pinene, eugenol, etc., in addition, the plant contains glycosides – azarin alkaloid, tannins, starch, mucus, organic acids and resins.
In medicine, before the discovery of ipecac, hoof roots were used as an emetic and expectorant in the form of an aqueous infusion and powder, but not a decoction, since the active principle is volatile. The vomit powder was inhaled until the onset of action. The experiment also revealed a vasoconstrictive and cardiac contraction-enhancing effect of the plant.
In folk medicine, it is known from experience that wild ginger is an emetic, expectorant, anthelmintic, regulating the functional activity of the stomach, anti-inflammatory, partly cardiac, diuretic and anti-alcohol. It is also used for jaundice, dropsy, alcoholism (binge drinking). An infusion of the leaves is suggested as a cordial, and an infusion of the rhizome as an expectorant. Tincture of fresh hoof leaves is part of the product “Akofit No. 1”, used for radiculitis, ischalgia, lumbago and other neuralgia. Studies have shown that the glycoside contained in the leaves enhances heart contractions, asarone also has an exciting effect on the heart and has an emetic effect.
Vodka tincture is drunk for pulmonary tuberculosis, nervous agitation, migraine, fever, malaria.
A decoction of hoof root in water or goat’s milk is often used to improve digestion in dyspepsia, gastritis, enteritis, liver disease and jaundice.
To combat jaundice, it is better to mix the hoof with sandy cumin equally (1 tablespoon of the mixture per glass of boiling water, 1 tablespoon 3 times every day).
A decoction of wild hoof is recommended for heart disease as a sedative, especially useful for weak children and for convulsions in babies (weak ones do not walk for a long time).
Decoction: 1/2 teaspoon per glass of milk, use 1/2 teaspoon 1 time every day.
1 st. a spoonful of hoof decoction mixed with a glass of vodka can cause an aversion to alcoholic beverages in a person suffering from alcoholism.
The drug used as an expectorant for bronchitis is made from a mixture of herbs: wild hoof, budra leaves and cocklebur grass equally (inhale smoke) or drink.
Outwardly, a decoction of the root of the hoof is used as a lotion for headaches, applying a cloth soaked in the decoction to the head. A decoction of the leaves is also used as a lotion for eye diseases.
Leaves fresh and crushed are applied to abscesses.
A tincture of herbs in vinegar is rubbed on places affected by scabies.
Claw powder, taken orally in a dose of not more than 0.5 g, can cause (when necessary) vomiting, for example: in case of poisoning with poisonous mushrooms, etc.
Application
Decoction: 1 g per 200 ml; 1 st. spoon 3 times every day (heart).
Root decoction: 2 g per 200 ml or 1/2 teaspoon per cup of boiling water; 1 st. spoon 3-4 times every day (expectorant).
Leaf decoction: 1 g per 100 ml or 1/5 teaspoon per glass.
Mixture: hoof root, budry leaves and cocklebur grass mix, brew 3 tbsp. spoons of the mixture in 3 cups of boiling water; drink half a glass 5-6 times every day.
The most effective tincture (20%, 20 drops each).
A decoction of the rhizome: 5 g of root per glass of boiling water (for drunkards); 1 st. a spoonful of broth is imperceptibly poured into a glass of vodka.
And also give respect to the statue Kopitnyak European (pidgorishnik)