Description:
Shrub, sometimes a tree 3-4 m in height, with an irregularly branched crown, white fragrant flowers collected in a flat corymbose inflorescence, and with three-less often five-lobed leaves. The branches are opposite, covered at first with gray, later with brown bark. The leaves are opposite, 5-10 cm long, unequally large-toothed, with pointed tips of the lobes, almost entire at the base, bright bluish-green above, bluish-green on the underside, petioles shorter than leaf blades, stipules bristly. Inflorescences 7-beam, 6-10 cm in diameter, marginal sterile flowers enlarged, wheel-shaped, five-lobed, median flowers are small, bearing fruit. Fruits are bright red, oval, up to 1 cm long, with a large flat stone, bitter taste and unpleasant odor, edible after frost. Blooms in late May – early June.
Harvesting, description of raw materials:
In medicine, viburnum bark is used – Cortex Viburni, which is harvested in early spring during the sap flow and dried in the open air or in attics. The raw material consists of tubular, grooved or flat pieces of viburnum bark that are not nested one into another and not connected in bundles. The outer surface is wrinkled or smooth, brownish or greenish-gray, with a reddish tinge, with grayish or brownish lenticels, when the cork is scraped off, the green underlying tissue is found (in the primary cortex). The inner side is smooth, brownish or greenish-yellow, with reddish spots and stripes. The smell is weak, peculiar, the taste is bitter, astringent. The length of the pieces of viburnum bark is 10-25 cm, the thickness is not more than 2 mm. The viburnum fruits used in folk medicine are harvested in the fall and used fresh to make liqueurs or dried in ovens.
Contains active substances:
Viburnum bark contains up to 2% tannins, a poorly studied glycoside viburin and up to 6.5% yellow-red resin.
Medicinal use:
Viburnum is used in the form of a decoction and liquid extract as a hemostatic agent in obstetric and gynecological practice. Flowers and fruits of viburnum are used in folk medicine. An aqueous decoction of flowers is drunk for coughs, colds, shortness of breath, sclerosis, pulmonary tuberculosis, stomach diseases, cancer, give drinks and bathe babies with diathesis, childhood eczema, skin tuberculosis. The fruits of viburnum are eaten in their pure form, or with honey, or with sugar for hypertension; in case of heart disease, the best remedy is to eat berries with seeds; they are also used for coughs, colds, pulmonary tuberculosis, shortness of breath, for diseases of the kidneys, stomach, as a diaphoretic, for fumes they put the fetus in the ear. Rarely used fruits as vitamin raw materials.