Parts used: grass.
Pharmacy name: summer adonis herb -Adonidis aestivalis herba (formerly: Heiba Adonidis aestivalis).
Botanical description. This annual plant reaches a height of 30-50 cm. The erect stem sometimes branches in the upper part. The leaves are alternate, doubly or thrice pinnately divided into three or four lobed segments. On a long peduncle sits a single minium-red flower with a black spot in the depths. If you see it at least once, you will not confuse it with any other. Adonis blooms from July to September. It occurs as a weed in meadows, arable lands, fallow fields and wastelands.
Collection and preparation. During flowering, the plant is cut quite low above the ground, tied in bunches and dried in the shade in the air.
active ingredients. Glycosides, acting on the heart, were found in summer adonis. Their content is not cardinal, but this pharmacy remedy cannot be called inactive. It is believed that there are other active substances in the adonis, but they have not yet been sufficiently studied.
Healing action and application. In scientific medicine, this medicinal plant is not used, because it is not a full-fledged replacement for spring adonis (Adonis vernalis). Only in folk medicine they are used according to the instructions of the authors of old herbalists.
Application in folk medicine. A tea from this medicinal plant is commonly used to purify the blood, for coughs, as a mild sleeping pill for the elderly, and for swelling of the body.
- Summer Adonis tea: 2 teaspoons of pharmaceutical raw materials are poured into 1/4 liter of cold water and filtered after 10 hours. If necessary, drink a cup of tea or take a course of a cup 2 times every day. When coughing or as a sleeping pill, tea should be sweetened with honey (do not sweeten for diabetics!).
Side effects. If the spring adonis is considered a poisonous plant, then the designation “poisonous plant” for summer adonis, perhaps, does not fit: there are very few cardiac glycosides in it. And yet, despite this, I would not recommend using this medicinal plant for self-treatment.