Normal common - pecainum harmala l.

Family of Paranoid - Zygophyllaceae

Botanical characteristics. Perennial herbaceous plant up to 80 cm high with an unpleasant strong odor. It grows on clayey, sandy-loamy, solonetzic, saline, fine-grained soils, in lowland semi-deserts, foothills, pastures, like weeds in crops.

Roots are powerful up to 3 m long. Leaves are palmate-dissected. The flowers are white or pale yellow about 2 cm in diameter, numerous. The fruit is a flattened-globular box with small dark brown wedge-shaped seeds. Blossoms in May - June, fructifies in July - August.

Used parts of the plant. The medicinal raw material is the whole plant. The above-ground part and roots are harvested during flowering, since in the beginning and at the end of vegetation the plant contains large amounts of alkaloids, especially in fruits.

Chemical composition. All parts of the plant contain alkaloid peganin. In addition to the rhizome are alkaloids: harmine, harmaline, garmalol; Saponins.

In the above part of the harmaly contains alkaloids; Organic acids, saponins; In seeds - a large set of alkaloids and fatty oil, it contains acids; Carotenoids; steroids.

Application. Since ancient times, harmal has been used in various diseases, mainly as an external remedy, pain reliever for joint pains, for snake and scorpion bites, for skin diseases.

In Ukraine, a decoction of roots in the form of baths was used and is currently used for rheumatism, scabies, convulsions.

Roots and seeds were included in the domestic pharmacopoeia of the 8th edition as a source of obtaining garmina, used in postencephalitic parkinsonism.

The drug from the aerial part of the plant "Peganin" was approved for use in myasthenia, myopathy, as a laxative. Currently withdrawn from the use of these diseases. In clinical study, "Peganin" was effective in the recovery period of epidemic poliomyelitis, infectious neuritis of the facial nerve, postgrippos arachnoiditis.

In folk medicine, the decoction of the aerial part of the harmaly is used for neurasthenia, epilepsy, syphilis, malaria, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract; Externally - in cases of rheumatoid diseases, skin diseases, especially scabies, and as a potentiating agent.

Fresh juice dissolves cataract in front of eyes.

In Indian medicine the seeds of harmal are widely used as antipyretic, sedative, hypnotic, with impotence, diuretic, with asthma, as abortive.

In the experiment, harmine exerted a sedative and hypnotic effect.

Preparation

• For a bath 100 g of the aboveground part is boiled in 5 liters of water 10-15 minutes, insist 2-3 hours filter and add to the bath, which is taken 2 times a week for 15-20 minutes.
• Tincture is prepared on 70% alcohol at a rate of 1:10, insist 15 -20 days in a dark place, periodically shaking, filter and rub the sore spots once a day for no more than 30 ml per session.
• Fresh juice for eye treatment should be diluted 1:10 with the addition of 3-5 drops of honey (per 10 ml).

Contraindications. In the literature there is evidence of the virulence of the plant.

In connection with the poisonousness of the plant, the preparation of medicinal preparations at home requires caution, since in large doses it can cause hallucinations, drowsiness, convulsions, lowering of body temperature, a state of half-loss, respiratory failure, etc. It is better to use the ready-made drug "Garmin" as directed by a doctor and According to the instructions to the drug.

Attention! The preparations should be hidden from children, stored separately with a label, in a closed container.