Popular names: bogan, liner, cowshed, wild flax, mother liquor, drunken grass, field rosemary, dogs, etc.
Botanical characteristic. Family norichnikovye. Perennial herbaceous plant with a longish thin woody rhizome. The stem is straight, simple or branched, up to 70 cm high, densely leafy to the very inflorescence, short glandular-hairy. The leaves are smooth, lanceolate-linear, entire, sharp, narrowed towards the base. Large pale yellow flowers are collected in a long apical raceme. Corolla two-lipped, pale yellow. Blooms from June to September.
Spreading. Grows in meadows, on the outskirts of roads, in weedy places and fallow lands, on slopes, cliffs, in pine forests, along the outskirts of fields and crops. It occurs almost throughout the European part of the USSR, in the Caucasus, in Western and Eastern Siberia, in Central Asia, in the Far East and the Urals.
Medicinal raw materials. Plant grass is harvested during flowering, cutting the stem 5-6 cm from the ground. Dry in the usual way.
Chemical composition. Flaxseed contains alkaloid 1-peganine, flavonoid glycosides (linarin, neolinarin, pectolinarin), phytosterol, ascorbic acid, etc.
pharmacological properties. Studies conducted at the Department of Pharmacology of the Troitsk Veterinary Institute found that galenic forms of toadflax are low toxic and have a pronounced cardiotonic and ruminatory effect. They increase blood pressure in animals, increase the amplitude of heart contractions and slow down their pace, increase blood flow velocity, increase the voltage of the R wave of the electrocardiogram, reduce the systolic index, and lengthen the diastolic period.
Toadflax preparations increase the tone and increase the amplitude of contractions of the muscles of the small intestine, strengthen and speed up the contractile activity of the scar. In cows, after giving the infusion of flaxseed, the strength and number of contractions of the scar increase inside.
Diseases of the cardiovascular system in animals are not often accompanied by hypotension of the proventriculus. At the same time, veterinary practice does not have complex action products that simultaneously stimulate the cardiovascular system and the secretory-motor function of the gastrointestinal tract. Common flaxseed can be attributed to such products of complex action. Galenic forms of this plant do not have irritating properties, which distinguishes them from foxglove and adonis. The latter cause irritation of the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines, dyspeptic disorders, and, therefore, their use inside in diseases of the cardiovascular system, accompanied by gastritis, enteritis, is undesirable.
Common flax has a diuretic effect, increases the amount of secreted gastric juice in animals and increases the digestive power of the protein enzyme. The alkaloid peganine has anticholinesterase properties, it moderately causes lacrimation, salivation, frequent urination, slows down cardiac activity and lowers blood pressure, increases intestinal motility, and is choleretic.
Application. Common flax is widely recommended as a diuretic and laxative, for heart disease, skin and other diseases. Flaxseed preparations are effective in the treatment of heart failure observed in myocardial dystrophy, cardiofibrosis, decompensated valvular heart disease, especially in cases where the role of heart muscle overwork was revealed in the etiology of these diseases (Anisimov).
The herb or infusion of the plant is administered orally at a dose of 0.05-0.06 g of dry material per 1 kg of live weight for the treatment of heart failure in farm animals, as well as a ruminator and diuretic.