KUPENA MEDICINAL, or PHARMACY (larch, Solomon seal)
Perennial herbaceous plant with a thick, gnarled horizontal rhizome. Stem arcuate-bent, faceted, strong, 30-40 cm tall; the leaves are oblong-elliptical, facing down to one side and placed along the entire stem. In the axils of the leaves there are drooping whitish or light purple flowers, irregular, collected in an ear (with a tubular flower within), 6 stamens, a pistil with a longish filiform column and a three-lobed stigma. The fruit is a bluish-black berry. Blooms in June.
Grows in forests, bushes.
A peculiar sign of the plant: on the rhizome, in place of last year’s dead stems, there are round marks, depressions, as if traces of some kind of seal (hence the name – Solomon’s seal).
For medicinal purposes, rhizomes with roots, grass, the whole plant are used in folk medicine. Roots are harvested in autumn.
All parts are bought, especially the fruits, have an emetic effect.
The plant is poisonous.
Alkaloids, glycokinin, cardiac glycosides, saponins, mucus were found in the rhizomes.
In folk medicine, kupene products are used for acute bronchitis, pneumonia.
Rhizomes in the form of a decoction are used to treat peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum, also from a hernia, freckles are reduced with juice.
Use kupena for worms. Juice from fresh rhizomes or a decoction of dry ones is poured into wounds.
Application
Decoction: 20 g per 200 ml; 1 st. spoon 3 times every day.
Infusion for external use: Boil 50 g of rhizomes in 0.5 liters of water, leave for 4 hours. For compresses with bruises, pain in the joints.