Gentian - gentiana l.

Family Gentianaceae - Gentianaceae

Горечавка крупнолистная – G. macrophylla Pal. Горечавка шероховатая – G. scarba Bun.

Botanical characteristics. Herbaceous perennial plant. Rhizome thick, short with cordlike, thin roots. Stalk straight or raised. Leaves opposite from ovate to elongated lanceolate. Flowers are tubular-campanulate. A cup with five-part lobes. Fruit is a box. Blooms in August - September, fruiting until late autumn.

There are several species. The most common, possessing medicinal properties, are the species:

  • Gentian large-leaf - G. macrophylla Pal. The stem is raised, with 2-4 pairs of elongated lanceolate leaves up to 20 cm long or longer. Flowers are blue-violet, collected in bundles on the top of the stems, up to 20 mm in length.
  • Gentian rough - G. scarba Bun. Stems are straight. The leaves are ovate, acute at the tip, rough on the underside of the veins. The flowers are blue in the sinuses of the upper leaves to 50 mm in length.

Both species are similar in chemical composition, can be used in medicine similarly.

Spread. It grows in meadows, in steppes, along valleys of rivers and lakes, in thickets of bushes.

Chemical composition. All parts of the plant contain alkaloids, iridoids (scabroside, triflurozide, gentionikrozid).

The aerial part of the gentian contains carbohydrates and related compounds, coumarins, flavonoids, vitamins.

Application. The roots of gentian are included in the pharmacopoeias of many countries of the world.

In folk medicine, gentian preparations are used as arousing appetite and improving digestion, choleretic, with gout, hyperhidrosis stop, hemostatic, for the treatment of purulent non-healing wounds and eye diseases.

The hypotensive, analgesic effect was experimentally confirmed, antitussive, sedative properties, bacteriostatic activity of gentian were revealed. Preparations of gentian in Korean and Japanese medicine are used as antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, detoxicant for poisoning, antiplatelet, antihelminthic, as a memory-strengthening agent in hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, encephalitis, diarrhea, throat diseases, scalp skin. Infusions and broths of flowers - with cystitis, noise in the ears, conjunctivitis and trophic ulcers. The clinic received positive results in the treatment of hepatitis.

Gentian in Chinese medicine is used for stroke on the soil of atherosclerosis, with jaundice, nephritis, as potentiating potency, in the treatment of epidemic influenza, leprosy, rheumatism; In Tibetan medicine - with tumors, neurasthenia, respiratory diseases, as regulating metabolism, with female diseases, tuberculosis of the spine and bones, as haemostatic; In Mongolian medicine - with a fever of an epidemic nature, chronic tracheitis, laryngitis.

Infusions of gentian flowers are used in folk medicine for infiltration of the breast, pulmonary tuberculosis, with meno- and metrorrhagia before and after childbirth, amenorrhea, hepatitis, jaundice, influenza.

Preparation

  • For broth take 15 g of ground roots, pour 180 ml of boiling water, insist on a boiling water bath for 30 minutes, cool, filter, bring to 180 ml. Take should be 1 tbsp. Spoon 3-4 times a day after meals.
  • To obtain infusion of 20 grams of leaves and flowers, pour 200 ml of boiling water, insist on a water bath for 15 minutes, cool 45 minutes, filter, bring up to 200 ml. Take 2 tbsp. Spoon 3 times a day after meals.