Name: Cat’s paws dioecious – cat’s paws are dioecious
Dioecious cat’s paws (Antennaria dioica); Asteraceae or Compositae family; cat’s paws are dioecious
There are plants that are nice to hold. These include cat’s paws: that’s how you want to stroke the fluffy flowers. They got their name for a reason – inflorescences really resemble soft cat paws without claws.
It is a herbaceous perennial with a height of 10-25 cm. The plant is dioecious, with prostrate shoots and basal rosettes of leaves. The flowering shoot is straight, unbranched. Stem leaves are bare on both sides, or white-felt, linear or linear-lanceolate, pressed to the stem. Basal leaves are inverted-ovate, obtuse. The flowers are pink, less often white,
in baskets, collected in cotyledon-headed inflorescences. They bloom in May-June. Cat’s paws grow on sandy places, dry meadows, forest edges, in light, often pine forests, on poor soils. In the south and southeast of the middle lane, the plant occurs less often. In Ukraine, it grows throughout the territory in mixed and pine forests, on forest edges, grassy slopes.
For the production of medicinal products, grass or only inflorescences are collected at the very beginning of flowering. Then the raw materials are dried in the shade in the open air or in a well-ventilated room. The plant is used only in folk medicine.
The composition of the herb includes tannins and resinous substances, saponins, vitamin K and phytosterol.
It has been experimentally proven that cat’s paws have a choleretic and hemostatic effect. In terms of hemostatic effect, they are stronger than adrenaline and calcium chloride, therefore herbal infusions are used for various bleedings (gastric, intestinal, nasal, uterine, hemorrhoidal, and others). Decoctions of plant flowers are used as a choleretic agent for the treatment of hepatitis and cholecystitis. These products are also recommended for hypertension, diseases of the upper respiratory tract and stool disorders (diarrhea). Traditional healers prescribe an infusion of the herb internally and poultices from it for allergic dermatitis.
Herbal infusion. 10 g of raw material per 200 ml of boiling water. Heat in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes, filter, wring out, bring to the original volume with warm boiled water. Take 1 tablespoon every 1-2 hours as a hemostatic agent.
Decoction of flowers. 8 g of dry flowers per 200 ml of boiling water. Boil for 5 minutes, filter. Take 1 tablespoon 3 times a day as a choleretic agent.
Poultices from herbs (external). The remains of the herb after filtering the infusion are used for poultices (2-3 times a day). With allergic dermatitis.