Buckthorn Fragile, Alder (Wolfberry)
Shrub or tree 1.5-3 m tall with smooth, gray, on young branches – reddish, bark with lenticels (white speckles). Leaves are alternate, entire, glabrous, petiolate, with a pointed apex, goal-marginal. The flowers are small, green, in loose bunches collected in the axils of the leaves. The fruit is a black drupe with several seeds. Blooms in May-July.
Medicinal raw material is bark from young branches (not older than 3 years) 0.5 cm thick, collected in early spring (March-April) before sap flow and leaves appear. In folk medicine, the collection of “berries” is sometimes used – shiny black drupes with two seeds.
The bark is used after 1-2 years of storage or hourly heating at a temperature of 100 degrees. The bark is dried in the air or in attics. The storage period is 5 years.
Brittle buckthorn bark contains anthraglucosides, anthraquinone derivatives, the main of which is frangulin, organic acids (chrysophanic and frangulic acids), emodin, isoemodin, anthranols, etc.
Buckthorn antraglucosides, when introduced into the body under the influence of digestive enzymes, are destroyed with the release of active principles (emodin and chrosophanoic acid) and contribute to increased peristalsis of the large intestine, do not irritate the mucous membrane of the rest of the intestine. Therefore, buckthorn bark is a mild laxative. In its effect it is similar to the action of the Alexandrian leaf and rhubarb.
Buckthorn is used as a gentle laxative for atonic constipation, spastic colitis and constipation during pregnancy, and also for softening stools with rectal fissures, hemorrhoids, etc.
Buckthorn is prescribed in the form of a decoction of the bark (1:10), a liquid and thick extract and a frangulen product. The action begins after 8-10 hours from the moment of admission, therefore, as a rule, buckthorn should be used at night.
In folk medicine, as in scientific medicine, a decoction of the bark and fruits infused with vodka are drunk as a laxative; with dysentery; with sugar in case of stomach disease, stomach ulcer; the bark is used as a laxative for typhoid fever, liver disease, hemorrhoids and fever; externally – with scabies in babies (wash the body with a decoction) – an effective remedy.
Application
A decoction of the bark: 20 g per 200 ml, and sometimes 500 ml; boil for 30 minutes; 1 teaspoon (sometimes 1 tablespoon); indications are individual.
Bark tincture: 30%; 25 drops 3 times every day.
Decoction: 1 tbsp. pour a spoonful of chopped bark with 1 cup of boiled water, boil for 20 minutes, strain in cooled water. Take 1/2 cup at night and in the morning (laxative).
Powder from the “berries” (three-year exposure) at a dose of 0.2 to 0.5 g (at the tip of a penknife) 3 times every day for diarrhea, anemia, dropsy (you can also decoction).
Decoction 2: 20 g of bark per 0.5 l of water. Boil 15 minutes. Drink per day in 5-6 doses for chronic constipation, liver tumors, hemorrhoids. The dose is determined individually.