Arnica mountain

It grows in Europe . On the territory of the former USSR it is found only in the most western regions - mainly in the Carpathian regions of the western regions of Ukraine , less often in Western Belarus ^[3] , Lithuania and Latvia .

It grows in pine forests , pine- birch and beech forests , in forest meadows and glades , edges , meadows , among shrubs, in clearings and upland meadows, sometimes in swampy meadows. In the mountains it rises to the alpine zone , usually up to 500-1000 m above sea ​​level . In the Alps, it grows at an altitude of up to 2800 m. It prefers sandy, medium-moist, but not swampy, acidic soils , areas with high air humidity. It grows absent-mindedly or in small thickets.

Included in the Red Book of Belarus and the USSR .

Grassy winter-green polycarpic perennial with a peculiar pleasant smell.

The rhizome is creeping, horizontally branched or oblique, cylindrical, many-headed, short (up to 15 cm long), about 1 cm thick, with numerous filiform (up to 1 mm in diameter) subordinate roots , brown or reddish-brown on the outside. On the upper side of the rhizome there are rounded scars - the remains of old stems.

The stem is erect, often branched at the top, 15–80 cm high, pubescent with short simple and glandular hairs, especially dense in the upper part.

In the first year of life, the plant forms only a rosette of six to eight leaves. In the second year, a stem develops with four to six basal leaves collected in a rosette. The leaves of the outlet are opposite, wide, oval or oblong-oval, whole-edge, blunt, with five to seven lateral longitudinal veins protruding from the underside of the leaf blade; above with scattered hairs, below bare or only veins not very hairy, shortly narrowed into petiole or almost sessile. In addition, the stem carries one or three pairs of sessile, semi-stalky, whole-marginal, less often slightly serrated leaves. Stem leaves are opposite, 15-17 cm long, up to 4-5 cm wide, oblong or lanceolate, rarely oblong-oval (lower pair), in the upper half of the stem, especially on the branches, with one or several alternating, linear, pointed leaves. The leaves above are darker, below are light green.

Flowers are collected in erect or slightly drooping flower baskets. Each plant carries one or three baskets at the top of the stem and lateral shoots. Baskets are hemispherical, with a diameter of 2-3 (5-8 ^[2] ) cm. The hemispherical wrapper is two-rowed, consists of 16-26 lanceolate, island, green, often with anthocyanin color, along the edge of the red-brown leaves , after flowering, bent downwards, length 14-17 mm, 2-5 mm wide, covered on the outside with simple, often glandular hairs, along the edges and at the apex of the hairy-ciliated. The receptacle is cellular, hairy, flat during flowering, convex after flowering. Reed marginal flowers are egg-yellow, 11–20 in number, with three-toothed (rarely 2–4 toothed) tongues and with a long hairy tube, almost equal to a volatility . These flowers are barren, two to three times the length of the wrapper, have a pistil with a cylindrical column; the limb of their corolla is flat, with seven to nine veins. Median tubular flowers (50 or more in a basket) are small, bisexual, orange or dark yellow, short-toothed, also with a hairy corolla and equal to or greater than their volatility. The pistil of the middle flowers has an oblong lower ovary , a thin club-shaped column and two linear villous stigmas arched bent downward. Five stamens , with free stamen filaments and anthers fused into the tube. Pollen grains are spherical, prickly. Flowers in a basket blossom from the edges to the center.

Fruits are 5-10-furrowed, cylindrical, tapered achenes 6-10 mm long, narrowed to the base and from both ends, with a well-developed tuft of single-row rough pale yellow hairs about 1 cm long. The color of the achenes is from yellowish-green to dark gray or blackish. The weight of 1000 seeds (achenes) is 1.3-1.5 g ^[4] .

It blooms in June - August (in the highlands in July - September). The fruits ripen in July - September.

Collection and drying

For medicinal purposes, flower baskets are prepared - lat. Flores Arnicae . Harvesting is carried out during flowering in the second and third decades of June and early July, starting from the second year of the plant's life, in dry, clear weather after drying of the dew. Flower baskets are cut at the very base without pedicels.

The collected raw materials are dried in dark ventilated rooms or in the shade in the fresh air, while the raw material dries in 7-10 days. In dryers, raw materials are dried at a temperature of 55-60 ° C. It is not recommended to turn raw materials during drying, as the baskets will crumble. Store raw materials for 2 years.

Harvesting of mountain arnica is associated with significant difficulties, since it grows absent-mindedly and its natural reserves are limited. Attempts to introduce mountain arnica into the culture in the USSR were unsuccessful ^[4] .

Chemical Composition

Rhizomes contain tannins (up to 32%) and bitter substances , phytosterols , resins , wax , gum , and essential oil (up to 1.5%). The composition of this oil includes: hexylcapronate , caproic , caprylic , angelic , formic and isobutyric acids , florol (ethylphenol), floraisobutyric ether , thiohydrochioionomethyl ether and floromethyl ether . Rhizome essential oil is a light yellow liquid.

The action of Arnica flowers is attributed to the dye Arnitsin , contained in flowers in an amount of up to 4%. The bitter substance arnitsin consists of a mixture of three substances: two triterpendiols such as betulin - arnidiol ( arnidenediol ), faradiol ( isoarnidiol ) - and a saturated hydrocarbon. In addition, essential oils (0.04-0.14%), tannins (about 5%), dyes ( lutein , arnidiol, faradiol), ascorbic acid , carotenoids , cynarin (0.05%) were found in inflorescences. betaine , choline , gelenin , alkaloids , phytosterols, fatty oil , sugars , organic acids , gum , inulin polysaccharide, vitamin C (about 21 mg%). Essential oil from flowers is a liquid of red-yellow or blue-green color with a strong odor similar to that of chamomile , this oil contains fumaric , malic , lactic , auric and palmitic acids , as well as palmitin .

Substances contained in flowers and roots are also found in leaves and stems, but in smaller quantities ^[4] .

Pharmacological properties

Arnica flowers have choleretic properties, and also have a hemostatic effect, increase tone and uterine contractions . Preparations from Arnica flowers in small doses have a tonic effect on the central nervous system , and in large doses they have a sedative effect and prevent the development of seizures . Arnica flowers also have the ability to lower the reflex excitability of the brain and expand the cerebral vessels. On this basis, earlier arnica was used in the recovery period after cerebral hemorrhage in order to more quickly restore the functional state of the nervous system. The best results were observed from the use of tinctures from fresh Arnica flowers. Unlike ergot drugs, arnica lowers blood pressure . Side effects when using tincture of arnica in patients are not observed.

Otherwise, drugs from the roots of arnica act. They excite the cardiovascular system , increase coronary blood flow , dilate coronary vessels in various pathological conditions, atherosclerosis , myocarditis and cardiac angiospasm .

Arnica flowers as a spice are used in distillery production. Flowers and roots are widely used in the pharmaceutical industry.

In some countries of Western Europe, leaves are used instead of tobacco ^[5] .

Used as an ornamental plant .

Honey plant .

Medical Use

Arnica is an ancient medicine used in the countries of Western Europe in the XI century ^[5] . In modern allopathic medicine, it is not very common, but it was part of the pharmacopeia of the USSR. For medical purposes, flower baskets are used, as well as a decoction and alcohol tincture from them. In other countries, they use only extract from flowers or in the form of plasters, sometimes rhizomes for the preparation of tinctures and extracts.

In medicine, alcohol tincture of inflorescences is used as a hemostatic agent for uterine and nosebleeds , in obstetric and gynecological practice, with insufficient reverse development of the uterus after childbirth and inflammatory processes of the genital area, as well as edema and heart weakness.

A favorable effect was noted for angina pectoris and heart weakness. In an animal experiment, Arnica preparations cause increased contractions of the uterine muscles, and also have an exciting effect on the heart and central nervous system . In addition, they expand the coronary vessels of an isolated heart, have a choleretic effect, and lower blood cholesterol , which is due to the presence of cynarin in arnica ^[4] .

Arnica preparations are used externally for bruises and bruises , carbuncles , boils, and abscesses as a resorption and distracting agent.

In homeopathic medicine it is used as a heart remedy, as a hemostatic, for various injuries: in the form of tinctures from dried rhizomes with roots oressences from fresh flowering grass ^[3] .

In folk medicine, it is used for fever, as a diuretic , diaphoretic, astringent for gastrointestinal disorders, as an anti-inflammatory for gynecological diseases, bronchitis and flu , as well as for epilepsy and concussion. Externally, water infusion of flower baskets was used for skin rashes (especially on the lips), furunculosis , ulcers , bruises, rheumatism , gout , neuralgia , lumbago , toothache. Tincture of the roots was used internally for cardiac angiospasm, cardiosclerosis , myocarditis , as an aphrodisiac; with bruising, bruises, minor injuries, abscesses.

The mountain Arnica species is part of the genus Arnica of the tribe Madieae of the subfamily Astra ( Asteroideae ) of the Asteraceae family of the Asterales order .

Synonyms

According to The Plant List for 2013, the synonymy of the species includes:

• Arnica alpina Willd. ex Steud. , nom. inval.
• Arnica angustifolia Turcz. ex Ledeb. , nom. illeg.
• Arnica helvetica G. Don ex Loudon
• Arnica lowii holm
• Arnica petiolata schur
• Arnica plantaginifolia Gilib. , nom. inval.
• Cineraria cernua thore
• Doronicum arnica Garsault , nom. inval.
• Doronicum montanum ( L. ) Lam.
• Doronicum oppositifolium Lam.

• Ilyin M.M. Genus 1558. Arnica - Arnica L. // Flora of the USSR : 30 tons / started at hand. and under chap. ed. V. L. Komarova . - M .; L .: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR , 1961. - T. 26 / ed. volumes B.K. Shishkin , E.G. Bobrov . - S. 663-664. - 938 p. - 2400 copies.
• Dudchenko L.G., Koziakov A.S., Krivenko V.V. Spicy-aromatic and spicy-flavoring plants: Reference book / Otv. ed. K. M. Sytnik. - K .: Naukova Dumka , 1989 .-- 304 p. - 100,000 copies. - ISBN 5-12-000483-0 .
• Universal Encyclopedia of Medicinal Plants / comp. I.N. Putyrsky, V.N. Prokhorov. - M .: Machaon, 2000 .-- S. 58-60. - 15,000 copies. - ISBN 5-88215-969-5 .
• Maznev N.I. Encyclopedia of medicinal plants. - 3rd ed., Rev. and additional .. - M .: Martin, 2004 .-- 496 p. - 10,000 copies. - ISBN 5-8475-0213-3 .
• Through the pages of the Red Book. Minsk, Belarusian Soviet Encyclopedia, 1987

• Arnica montana : information on the taxon in the Plantarium project (identifier of plants and illustrated atlas of species). (Retrieved February 4, 2014)