Hellebore Lobel

Puppeteer, chemer, chemerka, chemerika, chemerichny root, chemeris, cheremig, zhymeritsa, chikhotka.

A herbaceous perennial plant (life span is usually not less than 50 years ^[1] ) (15-160 cm tall) with a shortened vertical rhizome and numerous subordinate cord-like roots and a straight, thick (2-3 cm in diameter), round stem .

The leaves are stalk-bearing, alternating, numerous, lower widely elliptic (8-12 cm long, 5-7 cm wide) with short sheaths , the upper ones gradually taper to lanceolate , with long sheaths. All leaves are folded, pubescent below, with arched venation.

The flowers are collected in the apical pyramidal panicle of spikelets 20-60 cm long. The pedicels and peduncles are pubescent. Bracts are ovoid or round-ovate, longer than the peduncle. Flowers (up to 2.5 cm in diameter ^[1] ) are regular, free- petalled , six-membered with a simple corolla perianth . The flowers are bisexual, sometimes unisexual, yellowish or whitish. Six stamens , one pistil , upper ovary . An inflorescence in the kidney was formed in the fall ^[1] .

The fruit is an egg-shaped capsule (up to 2.5 cm long), up to three parts in the middle. Seeds are yellowish-brown, flat, elliptical , wide-winged, 6-10 mm long.

It blooms in June - August; fruits ripen in August - September. Mass flowering is repeated after two to three years. The first flowering in 10-30 years. Propagated by seeds and vegetatively ^[1] .

Lobel's hellebore is a Eurasian species. Distributed in Central and Eastern Europe , the Mediterranean , Asia Minor , Central Asia ( Balkhash and Tien Shan ), Northern Mongolia ; in Russia - in most of the European part (except for the northwestern and arid regions), in the Caucasus , in Western and Eastern Siberia , in the Far East .

It grows on dry and floodplain meadows , clearings. Mesophyte . It is confined to places with a close occurrence of groundwater ; avoids places with stagnant moisture and dry areas. Photophilous, but can grow in partial shade conditions. Frost resistant; able to grow in different, contrasting climatic conditions - from the Arctic to the Caucasus . It has a wide range of habitats: from gley soils to chernozem , from poor to rich and medium solonchak soils , it is common on clay and loamy soils with a slightly alkaline or neutral reaction . Can dominate meadow communities. It grows on pastures, as it is not eaten by cattle ^[1] .

In the Caucasus and Tien Shan - in the upper forest and subalpine zones ^[1] .

The species is protected in the republics of Karelia and Mari El , Belgorod , Vologda , Kaluga, Kurgan , Leningrad regions ^[2] , Rostov , Yaroslavl regions of Russia, Poltava and Kharkov regions of Ukraine, the Republic of Lithuania , and also in the Finnish part of Fennoscandia ^[3] .

Chemeritsa belongs to officinal plants and is used in the manufacture of tinctures of hellebore and hellebore water intended for external use ^[4] . However, it is not included in the modern pharmacopoeia as a raw material for obtaining medicines. Chemeritsa is included in the list of plants prohibited for use as a component of active food additives ^[5] .

In folk medicine, roots and rhizomes are used for eczema , internally as an antipyretic, for pneumonia , rheumatism , and typhoid .

As veterinary medicine, dried rhizomes with roots ( lat. Rhizoma cum radicibus Veratri ) are used as a medicinal raw material ^[6] .

In veterinary medicine infusion of hellebore is often used as an antiparasitic agent (from lice , gadfly ); as a means of improving digestion (to enhance burping in cattle ), as an emetic for pigs and dogs; with cattle hypodermatosis . The root extract has an antiparasitic effect. By spring, horses , cattle , and sheep are poisoned in spring.

Hellebore is a very poisonous plant, its roots contain 5-6 alkaloids , of which the most poisonous protoveratrin , which is able to suppress the central nervous system , has a harmful effect on the gastrointestinal tract and cardiovascular system .

When inhaling even a small amount of hellebore dust, severe sneezing and tearing occur. When the hellebore juice gets on the skin, warmth is first felt, then a burning sensation, followed by a feeling of cold, after which there is an almost complete loss of sensitivity. When parts of the plant enter, burning and tingling in the throat, profuse salivation, lacrimation, runny nose , vomiting , diarrhea , headache, dizziness, general agitation, convulsions, weakening of cardiac activity (severe bradycardia ), hypotension and shock . Consciousness persists until death. In case of especially severe poisoning, death can occur 3 hours after ingestion of plant toxins into the body ^[7] . Atropine and dopamine are used as active detoxification agents. However, the use of these and other drugs for emergency treatment of hellebore poisoning is not effective enough ^[8] .

Recently, information has been circulated on the use of crushed hellebore roots as an effective alternative to traditional medicine, which makes it possible to cure alcoholism without the knowledge of the patient. The anti-alcoholic effect of hellebore is based on the realization of its general toxic effect, used for conditioned reflex therapy of alcoholism. Veratum alkaloids intoxication is prolonged in time from several hours to several days, which complicates the combination of the time of its maximum toxic effect with alcohol intake to develop a negative conditioned reflex reaction specifically to alcohol.

It should also be borne in mind that hellebore preparations prepared at home are a source of potent steroid alkaloids , the slightest overdose of which can lead to serious poisoning and can even lead to death . The use of these drugs for the treatment of alcoholism is so dangerous that their use is unacceptable not only at home, but also in specialized medical institutions due to the insufficient effectiveness of emergency care in cases of overdose ^[7] .

The insecticidal and raticidal action of hellebore roots was known even during the time of the Roman Empire . For this purpose, used infusions of rhizomes with roots, or water decoctions . Spraying destroys the nests of fruit moths , silkworms , pseudo-caterpillars of the cherry mucous sawfly , aphids , cabbage blanc , etc. Infusions are effective not only against larvae , but also against adult insects . Hellebore is especially valuable in that it can also be used during the ripening of fruits. In 2010, D. Elisovetska from the Institute for Plant Protection of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Moldova showed the effectiveness of extracts of hellebore Lobel against the Colorado potato beetle ^[9] .

Poisoning of farm animals on pastures is possible (although in the Altai highlands, horses, red deer and sika deer eat hellebore), it is poisonous to bees ^[1] .

Gather roots in the fall, less often in the spring, digging them along with rhizomes. Thick rhizomes are cut lengthwise, washed and dried in air. Dried in the shade or in the attics, spreading the roots with a layer of 5-10 cm on paper or fabric. Dried raw materials are packed in bales weighing 25 or 50 kg. Store in a dry, ventilated area. Shelf life - three years, stored separately from other plants. When processing the roots, care must be taken, because small pieces cause inflammation of the mucous membranes .

• Gubanov I.A. et al. 368. Veratrum lobelianum Bernh. - Helper Lobel // Illustrated identifier of plants of Central Russia. In 3 t . - M .: T-in scientific. ed. KMK, Institute of Technology. ISS., 2002. - T. 1. Ferns, horsetails, crowns, gymnosperms, angiosperms (monocotyledons). - S. 478. - ISBN 8-87317-091-6 .

• Lobel’s Chemeritza (English) : information on the GRIN website.