Shrub Gomphocarpus – A semi-shrub representing the family Asclepiadaceae. Other names: Kharg, Kharch
Description:
Perennial semi-shrub plant 40-150 cm high. Stems numerous, erect, slightly branched, densely leafy. Leaves opposite, lanceolate or lanceolate-linear. Flowers on long stalks, collected in umbellate inflorescences; whisk white. Fruit 2 – uhlistovka; seeds numerous, oblong, brown. Kharg blooms in June-July; seeds ripen in September-October. Grub is an African plant. It occurs on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus (Pota region) and in Central Asia (Fergana region). Gomphocarpus grows on sand and pebble banks of rivers, on the coast of the sea, on fallow lands and along ditches.
Contains active substances:
Medicinal raw materials are seeds and leafy shoots, from which cardiac glycosides are obtained. Cardiac glycosides have been isolated from the seeds of the kharga: gofruzid, frugoside, gomfokarpin, etc. Grub glycosides act on the cardiovascular system stronger than strophanthus and do not differ from the latter in terms of pharmacodynamics. Thus, the glycoside gomfokarpin has a high biological activity – 9090 KUD per 1 g and effectively restores the decompensation of the cardiovascular system.
Medicinal use:
Food preparations should be recommended in the treatment of heart failure, accompanied by a decrease in blood pressure and edema; for toning the cardiovascular system as a cardiotonic agent with the type of action of digitalis-strophanthus.