White cuckoo (Melandrium album); doze is white
Two-year dioecious hairy pubescent herbaceous plant of the carnation family. The stem is ascending, branched at the top, 40-100 cm high. The leaves are opposite, entire, entire, elliptic, 4-8 cm long; the lower ones are narrowed into a short wide petiole, the upper ones are sessile. Flowers unisexual, in apical branches; the petals are white, their plate is more than half bipartite. The fruit is a box. Blooms in May – October.
Spread. It grows in meadows, on the edges of forests, in bushes, as a weed in crops, in gardens and in gardens throughout the territory of Ukraine.
Raw material . They use the grass collected during the flowering of the plant, and the roots, which are dug in the fall.
The plant is unofficial .
Chemical composition . The herb contains triterpenoids, traces of alkaloids, ascorbic acid (80 mg %) and triterpene saponins in the root.
Pharmacological properties and use . The plant has anti-inflammatory, emollient, analgesic, hemostatic, sedative and hypnotic properties. In folk medicine, an infusion of the herb is used for insomnia, colic in the stomach and other internal organs, and a decoction of the roots is used for heart palpitations, joint rheumatism, and kidney diseases.
Medicinal forms and applications . Internally – infusion (1 tablespoon of dry grass per 200 ml of boiling water, infuse for 1-2 hours, filter) 1 tablespoon 3 times a day for various colic conditions or half a glass at night for insomnia.