Adonis spring - adonis vernalis l.

Family of Ranches - Ranunculaceae

Botanical characteristics. Perennial herbaceous plant up to 40 cm tall. It grows in meadows, fallow lands, stony slopes. Rhizome thick, short with long black-brown cord-like lobed roots. Stems erect, simple or branched, with a base with brown scales. Leaves sessile, to the base palchate-separate, lobules of leaves linear, entire. The flowers are yellow. Sepals are ovate, blunt, green, thinly pubescent. The petals of the flowers are oblong-elliptical, to the apex somewhat narrowed and unevenly jagged. Fruits are oval nuts. Seeds are retina-wrinkled, pubescent with a short bent spout. Blossoms in March - April. Fruits ripen until August.

Used parts of the plant. The medicinal raw material is the aboveground part of the plant, flowers, leaves, seeds, rarely roots. Collect the aerial part from the beginning of flowering to the shedding of fruits; Roots - in autumn until the plant withers, or early spring before the flowering of the plant. The raw material is dried in dryers at a temperature of no higher than 50 ° C or outdoors in the shade. Long-term drying is not allowed.

Chemical composition. The whole plant contains carbohydrates and related compounds, coumarins: umbelliferone, scopoletin; Flavonoids: orientin, adoniverit, their derivatives and microelements.

In the aerial part of the plant and roots, there are cardedenols - derivatives of strophanthidine, adonitoxigenin, adonitoxol and strophadogenin; Vitamins, tannins, pigments. Fruits contain fatty oil.

Application. Preparations adonis spring have cardiotonic, diuretic and sedative properties. They are used for chronic circulatory failure as a calming central nervous system, with neuroses and cardiovascular diseases.

Infusion from the grass of spring Gorietsveta is part of the official Bechterew mixture, used as a sedative. According to the nature of the action, the glycosides of Adonis spring are close to the glycosides of the poisonous plant of digitalis, but in comparison with the preparations of digitalis in the body they do not accumulate, however they are less active, much less resistant in the body and have less prolonged action. In medical practice, adonis drugs are used for mild forms of chronic circulatory insufficiency and diseases of the nervous system.

In folk medicine infusions and decoctions of the aboveground part of the plant are used in feverish conditions, dropsy, jaundice, infectious diseases, typhoid, influenza, scarlet fever and as a soothing central nervous system remedy.

In medicine is well known galenic drug adonis spring - "Adoniside", used in the initial stages of circulatory failure. Adonis is a part of the drug "Cardiovalin" and tablets "Adonis-brom", used for cardiovascular diseases and neuroses.

Preparation. For infusion take 20 g fresh overground part of the plant pour 200 ml of boiling water, insist on a boiling water bath for 15 minutes, cool 45 minutes, filter and take 1 tbsp. Spoon at the reception 2-3 times a day.