Toadflax is a perennial herbaceous plant of the norichnikov family (Scrophulariaceae). Other names: wild snapdragon, gill, chistik, wild flax, female flax, frog, yellow snapdragon, flax, head grass, bogan, inner, barn, wild flax, mother liquor, rams, vidalnik
Description:
Fairly tall perennial herbaceous plant with a longish, cord-like, creeping rhizome. The stem is straight, usually simple, densely covered with alternate, irregularly arranged leaves. The latter are linear-lanceolate, narrowed towards the base, sessile, slightly incurved along the edges, with 3 veins, of which the middle one is deeply depressed, and convex below. The flowers are light yellow, with a two-lipped corolla, at the base with a rather long, almost straight spur; the upper lip is two-lobed, the lower one is three-lobed, at the base with a large orange bulge covering the fauces. Flowers one by one sit on axillary pedicels and form dense terminal racemes at the end of the stem; the fruit is an oval smooth box. Flax blooms all summer long. An ordinary plant that can be found in meadows, along the outskirts of field roads, in wastelands and in weedy places, crops. There is also another species close to the common toadflax (Linaria vulgaris) – drocolist toadflax – (Linaria genistifolia), which has no medicinal value. The latter differs from the common toadflax in the following features: the whole plant is bluish from the wax coating covering it, with a paniculate-branched stem erect in the upper part. The flowers are pale yellow, small, collected in sparse brushes. Seeds without membranous margin. Blooms in June-July. It grows in fields, sandy places, in light pine forests. The flowers are pale yellow, small, collected in sparse brushes. Seeds without membranous margin. Blooms in June-July. It grows in fields, sandy places, in light pine forests. The flowers are pale yellow, small, collected in sparse brushes. Seeds without membranous margin. Blooms in June-July. It grows in fields, sandy places, in light pine forests.
Harvesting, description of raw materials:
For medicinal purposes, the toadflax herb (Herba linariae) is used. Harvesting of raw materials is carried out during flowering in June-August, cutting the grass 5-6 cm from the ground. Dry in the shade so that the raw material has 14% moisture. In the fresh state, the grass has an unpleasant odor, which intensifies when dried, the taste is pungent, salty-bitter
Contains active substances:
Toadflax grass contains the alkaloid peganin, an unknown glycoside that cleaves hydrocyanic acid, flavone glycosides linarin, neolinarin and others, ascorbic acid and other organic acids.
Medicinal use:
In medical practice, a liquid extract of flaxseed is used for hemorrhoids and as a laxative; very rarely, for skin diseases, the so-called gill ointment is used externally, which is an alcohol extract from grass mixed with lard (alcohol is removed by heating in a water bath). Flaxseed preparations (extract and infusion) were tested with a positive effect first on animals, then in the clinic as a laxative for intestinal atony, flatulence and prolonged constipation. In experiments on pig roundworms, their antihelminthic effect was also established. The alkaloid peganin contained in the toadflax herb has a powerful stimulating effect on the smooth muscles of the intestines and uterus, has a choleretic effect. In folk medicine, a decoction of the toadflax herb is drunk as a laxative, gastric, diuretic;