Small-leaved linden – a tree of the linden family (Tiliaceae) Other names: lutoshka, lubnyak, mochadnik.
Description:
Tall tree, up to 25-30 m in height, with almost black bark and a wide-cylindrical crown. Leaves on thin and rather long petioles, heart-shaped, unequal at the base, attenuately pointed at the apex, unevenly serrate along the edge, dark green above, glabrous, grayish-green below with beards of delicate reddish-yellow hairs in the corners of large veins and especially at the base sheet. Linden flowers are yellowish-green, fragrant, collected 5-11 in drooping half-umbels. The bract is folded, growing together with a common peduncle. The fruit is a more or less pubescent oval nutlet. Linden blossoms from late June to mid-July. Small-leaved linden grows in broad-leaved forests, is found in park and street plantings. In addition to small-leaved linden (Tilia cordata), large-leaved linden (Tilia platyphyllos) is often found in parks and street plantings, with pubescent below, larger than the previous species, leaves with beards of whitish hairs in the corners of the veins. Semi-umbels are rarer of 2-5 flowers. Pear-shaped nuts.
Harvesting, description of raw materials:
In medicine, linden flowers (“linden blossom” – Flores Tiliae) are used, which are harvested in June – July, when most of the flowers have blossomed, and the other is in the budding stage. To do this, cut off the branches with garden shears (secateurs) and cut off the inflorescences with bracts. Collection of inflorescences with bracts affected by leaf beetles, which eat the flesh of the leaf, leaving veins, should be avoided; the defeat is determined by examining the bracts in the light (rounded holes are found). Dried in the shade. The raw material consists of whole inflorescences in the form of semi-umbels with blossoming 2-11 flowers, partly in the form of linden buds with single oblong bracts fused to the middle with peduncles. The flowers have a five-leaved calyx and a five-petal corolla, many stamens with yellow anthers and one pistil with upper pubescent ovary. Flowers yellowish,
Contains active substances:
Linden flowers contain an essential oil, the smell of which causes farnesol alcohol, hyperidin flavone glycoside, tilifcin glycoside, saponins, tannins and ascorbic acid.
Medicinal use:
Linden is used in the form of an infusion as a diaphoretic for colds and for rinsing the mouth as a bactericidal agent. In folk medicine, lime blossom is a favorite remedy for coughs, colds, headaches, sore throats, bleeding, leucorrhoea, infertility, nervous system disorders. Pounded coal from dried wood is drunk in a teaspoon with goat’s milk for pulmonary tuberculosis; products of dry distillation of wood (tar) lubricate the places affected by eczema. A decoction of linden flowers is drunk for pneumonia, as an anti-measles; leaves are applied to boils.