Zmin sandy is a perennial herbaceous plant representing the Asteraceae family (Compositae). Other names: immortelle, yellow cumin, sand immortelle, dried flower
Description:
Perennial herbaceous plant, grayish from dense felt pubescence. Stems up to 40 cm long, solitary or in several. The leaves are alternate, entire, oblong-elliptical, the lower ones gradually narrowed into a petiole, the upper and middle ones are sessile. Flowers in small, spherical baskets, collected at the top of the stem in a dense corymbose inflorescence. The wrapper of each basket consists of smooth and shiny lemon-yellow or orange leaves, all flowers are bisexual with a tubular funnel-shaped corolla of yellow or orange and are equipped with a tuft of yellowish hairs, almost equal to the corolla. Blooms in July-August. Helichrysum grows in pine forests (on the edges and forest clearings), along dry slopes, fallows – everywhere on sandy soil. Common, rarely forms large thickets.
Harvesting, description of raw materials:
For medicinal purposes, flower baskets of sandy cumin – Flores Helichrysi arenarii are used. Harvesting of raw materials is carried out at a time when the baskets are fully developed, but the flowers have not completely blossomed. Whole corymbose inflorescences are cut off with the rest of the stem 1-2 cm long and dried in the shade in the open air or in well-ventilated rooms, laying out the raw material in a thin layer. With a belated collection, the flowers crumble during drying.
Contains active substances:
Flower baskets contain flavone glycosides, steroid compounds, dyes, fatty acids, inositol alcohol and traces of essential oil (up to 0.04%). Of the flavone glycosides, the following have been isolated: salipurposide, which breaks down during hydrolysis into aglycone naringenin and glucose; isosalipurposide, also apigenin glycoside, naringenin and kaempferol diglycosides, etc. The composition of the essential oil includes cresol, free acids, including caproic acid. The cumin herb also contains essential oil, tannins and vitamin K.
Medicinal use:
In medical practice, products from sandy cumin flowers (decoction, liquid and dry extracts) are used as a choleretic agent for diseases of the liver and gallbladder. For the same purpose, the product “Flamin” is used, which is a sum of flavone glycosides of cumin purified from ballast substances. Cumin flowers are part of the choleretic and other fees, including the mixture prescribed by M.N. Zdrenko for the treatment of bladder papillomatosis and anacid gastritis. In folk medicine, an aqueous decoction of flower baskets is used. They drink for diseases of the liver and gallbladder, for jaundice, kidney stones, pulmonary tuberculosis, diseases of the kidneys, stomach, women’s diseases, for bleeding after childbirth, malaria, bites from rabid animals, from an eyesore, babies are fumigated when frightened.