BLEEDER MEDICINAL
Perennial herbaceous plant up to 1 m tall. The root is powerful, developing a basal rosette of leaves and mostly a single stem. Stems erect, ribbed, hollow inside. Basal leaves are long-petiolate with numerous (7-25) leaflets, rarely with stipules. The flowers are dark red in ovoid or short-cylindrical heads on long stalks. Blooms from June to September.
It grows in water meadows, cliffs, in thickets of shrubs, along the banks of swamps and rivers. In the northern regions of Russia, the plant is not frequent.
Medicinal raw materials are rhizomes with roots up to 20 cm long, collected during the withering of plants – in September; in folk medicine, rhizomes with roots are used, collected from the time the plant blooms until autumn. The smell of raw materials is weak, the taste is astringent. Collected, cleaned from the ground, washed in cold water, the rhizomes are dried in the air. Final drying takes place in ovens. The finished raw material is brittle, dark brown in color, the fracture is yellow. The roots and rhizomes of burnet are rich in tannins, their roots contain up to 17%, in the rhizome – 12-13%, in the influx of roots up to 23.6%. The underground parts of the plant also contain starch (29%), calcium oxalate (3%), dyes, vitamins C and A, phytoncides, traces of essential oils, gallic and ellagic acids. Burnet roots, in addition, contain 2.5-3% saponin – sanguisorbin.
As a medicinal plant, burnet has been known since ancient times. It is widely used today in many countries as an astringent, analgesic and hemostatic agent.
It has been established that a decoction from the root of a plant collected in autumn has a bactericidal effect against viruses of the dysentery and typhoid fever groups. Decoctions from the roots of the autumn collection kill typhoid and paratyphoid groups of viruses for 15 minutes, and dysentery bacteria for 5 minutes.
A decoction of the roots has the property of inhibiting intestinal motility. The extract from the roots, applied externally, has an anti-inflammatory and vasoconstrictive effect.
The medicinal value of burnet is indicated as an astringent, anti-inflammatory, disinfectant and analgesic in the treatment of acute enteritis, gastrogenous and toxic diarrhea, especially in children, intestinal catarrhs, in the complex treatment of patients with cholecystitis.
In scientific medicine, burnet is successfully used in the treatment of acute enterocolitis, dysentery in case of intolerance to sulfa products.
Burnet is also used as a hemostatic agent for all kinds of bleeding – pulmonary, gastric, intestinal, hemorrhoidal, uterine, bloody vomiting, bloody diarrhea. It is prescribed for hypertension, flushing of blood to the head. The anti-inflammatory properties of burnet allow it to be used externally for inflammation of the veins and the treatment of burns.
In recent years, burnet products have been used in the treatment of stomatitis, gingivitis and trichomonas colpitis.
In folk medicine, burnet is used more widely in the form of a decoction and liquid extract for headaches, throat diseases, hemoptysis, pulmonary tuberculosis, for all significant disorders of the functional activity of the gastrointestinal tract: enterocolitis, diarrhea, as a hemostatic agent for gastrointestinal, uterine and hepatic bleeding.
It is recommended to use burnet products for inflammation of the mucous membranes (mouth, nose, etc.), especially for bacterial ones: Trichomonas inflammation of the vagina, tonsillitis, etc. in the form of rinses; 10-minute baths from the infusion are taken for hemorrhoids.
Application
Tincture: 20 g per 200 ml; 1 st. spoon 5-6 times every day with pulmonary bleeding.
A decoction of burnet roots can be prepared at home: 1 tbsp. a spoonful of chopped roots is poured with a glass of boiling water, boiled for 30 minutes, then allowed to cool, filtered and taken 1 tbsp. spoon