Motherwort

Cardiac motherwort is widespread in the Mediterranean , , Central and Eastern Europe , Scandinavia , Asia Minor , Mongolia , China , as an alien plant in North America ^[2] .

The birthplace of the plant is Asia . Cardiac motherwort is not native to Europe - this species has naturalized here over the last millennium: since the healing properties of the plant were known from ancient times, it was specially grown next to housing, in the Middle Ages planting plants were common for every monastery and university botanical garden . At the same time, the plant in Europe did not spread too much. This is due to the fact that its habitat coincides with those of plants from the genus Nettle ( Urtica ), which are more competitive compared to motherwort ^[3] .

Perennial herb up to two meters high (usually 50 to 160 cm high). The stems are straight, tetrahedral. Outside the inflorescences, the stems are bare or pubescent with pressed hairs only in the corners - this symptom is diagnostic for distinguishing plants from the motherwort five-lobed ( Leonurus quinquelobatus ), in which the stalk is completely covered with long protruding hairs ^[2] . Each plant most often forms several stems (less often - one stalk), branching in the upper part ^[5] .

The leaves are dark green with petioles . In the lower and upper parts of the shoot, the leaves differ: the upper ones are usually whole (or three-lobed), oblong-rhombic; the lower ones are three- or five-divided, cut to about half, with wide, wedge-shaped (elongated-lanceolate) lobes, with coarse-toothed edges of leaf blades, while the teeth differ from each other in size ^{[5] [2]} .

Zygomorphic flowers , with adjoining awl-shaped bracts ; collected in the axils of the upper leaves in multifloral false whorls , which, in turn, form a long intermittent spike-shaped apical inflorescence ^[2] . A calyx with a distinct tube, glabrous (in the motherwort five-lobed - pubescent), has a length of about 8 mm , consists of five teeth ending with a prickly point, while the two lower teeth are larger in comparison with others and bent down ^[2] . Corolla pink-purple or light pink, five-membered, spine-lobed, two-lipped. Its length reaches 14 mm , in size it significantly exceeds the cup. The corolla tube has an oblique hairy ring inside. The upper lip is elliptical , with a solid edge, slightly concave, densely furry ^[2] . The lower lip is three-lobed with well-developed lateral lobes ^[2] . There are four stamens , they are collected under the upper lip; two rear (upper) shorter than two front (lower); all stamens are fertile ^[5] . Anthers are intrusive . The pistil alone, with the upper ovary , consists of two carpels , in which, as they mature , false partitions form, as a result of which the genethe becomes four-membered. The column ends with a stigma with two equal blades ^[2] . The plant blooms throughout the summer.

The fruit is coenobium : a fractional fruit consisting of four nut-shaped parts (erems). Mature erems are in the form of trihedral truncated pyramids with a height of 2 to 3 mm , olive-green, hairy at the apex ^[5] .

The number of chromosomes : 2n = 18 ^[2] .

The practical use of the plant is primarily associated with its medicinal properties. Harvesting of raw materials is carried out during flowering (usually in July), cutting off the upper leafy parts of plants. Then the grass is quickly dried without access to sunlight under a canopy or in closed, well-ventilated rooms. Traditionally, the plant was used in medicine as a sedative and cardiovascular agent ^{[6] [3]} , with thrombosis ^[3] , menstrual irregularities ^[6] , neurosis , arterial hypertension and other diseases ^[5] . Previously, the plant was recommended to pregnant women to reduce increased excitability; modern medicine does not recommend using motherwort during pregnancy ^[3] . The form of use of the plant is tincture of grass (“motherwort tincture”, Tinctura Leonuri ) and liquid extract (“motherwort liquid extract”, Extractum Leonuri fluidum ) ^[3] .

The so-called “ motherwort grass ” ( Leonuri herba ) is included in the State Pharmacopoeia of the Russian Federation (XIII edition, 2015), the so-called “ motherwort herb ” (“ grass ”) collected at the beginning of flowering (upper parts of stems up to 40 cm long with leaves, flowers, buds and immature fruits) of wild or cultivated motherwort or motherwort five-lobed ( Leonurus quinquelobatus ) ^[7] .

Heartwort is a good honey plant ^[5] . In addition, the seeds contain 20-30% of drying fatty oil , suitable for making varnishes, impregnating paper and fabrics to make them waterproof ^[8] . It is possible to obtain fiber from a plant that is close in quality to ramie fiber ^[8] . It dyes the tissues a dark green color ^[8] ; earlier, the plant was used to produce green dye ^[6] . The plant is also cultivated as an ornamental ^[6] .

As a medicinal plant, motherwort was grown from ancient times, however, it began to be cultivated on an industrial scale only in the middle of the 20th century ^[5] .

In the USSR (according to data from the 1970s), the plant was grown at specialized state farms on the territory of the RSFSR (in Siberia ), in Belarus and Ukraine ; the yield was 5–6 c / ha of dry raw materials in the first year of plantation exploitation, 10–15 c / ha in the second and fourth years (sometimes up to 30 c / ha ); the life of the plantation was 3 or 4 years , after which it was thinned out and smelled ^[5] . In Russia, cardiac motherwort is cultivated in many farms engaged in the cultivation of medicinal plants . Plant breeding was performed by the Middle Volga zonal experimental station of the All-Russian Research Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (VILAR), Samarsky variety was bred and zoned here ^[9] .

Agricultural technology

The plant in the culture is unpretentious, grows well in various climatic conditions and on various soils, including on infertile and poorly provided with moisture. In one place, the plant is recommended to grow no more than 3-4 years. Seeds are sown in autumn or spring. Autumn sowing is carried out a week and a half before the onset of constant frost, the seeds are sealed dry to a depth of 1 to 1.5 cm with a sowing rate of 1 g / m² . Spring sowing is carried out after a month of stratification at a temperature of 0 to 4 ° C , the seeds are planted to a depth of 2 to 3 cm with a sowing rate of 0.8 g / m² ^[9] .

Plants bloom in the first year. In the first year, the collection of raw materials is carried out once, in the following years - twice: at the beginning of flowering and after 1.5-2 months , when the flowering of the overgrown shoots begins. Plants can be mowed either with specialized reapers (adjusted so that the mowed tops of the shoots are no longer than 40 cm ) or manually. Drying of mowed raw materials takes place either under canopies or in special dryers providing temperatures from 50 to 60 ° C ^[5] .

Seeds are harvested manually in the phase of their full ripening , while seed areas are not used to collect raw materials. Freshly harvested seeds have a relatively low germination capacity (about 30%), but after a few months their germination capacity increases to 80–85% ^[9] .

The first valid description of the species was published in the second volume of Species plantarum (1753) by Karl Linnaeus . In 1968, a sample from the name Leonurus cardiaca ( nomenclature type in the absence of an indication of the type in the original publication) was selected from the herbarium of Linnaeus ^[10] .

Cardiac motherwort - one of about 15-20 species of the genus Hermitis ( Leonurus ), which belongs to the tribe Motherwort ( Leonureae ) of the nominative subfamily ( Lamioideae ) of the family Lamiaceae ( Lamiaceae ) ^[11] .

Five-bladed motherwort ( Leonurus quinquelobatus Gilib. ), Widespread in Eastern Europe , including in the European part of Russia , is the closest species to the motherwort. Since the end of the 20th century, both species have been recognized by most authoritative sources according to botanical systematics, but earlier the first of them was often considered as a subspecies of the motherwort and Leonurus cardiaca subsp. villosus ( Desf. ex Spreng. ) Hyl. , the name is Leonurus quinquelobatus Gilib. included in the synonymy of the species Leonurus cardiaca ^[5] . The motherwort from the motherwort five-lobed differs primarily in pubescence of stems and cups: in the first species, the stems outside the inflorescences are bare or pubescent with pressed hairs , the cups are bare, in the second, the stems and cups are covered with long protruding hairs ^[2] .

Synonyms

According to the database of The Plant List (2013), the following names are included in the synonymy of the species ^[12] :

• Vermeilen N. Motherwort ordinary // Useful herbs. Illustrated Encyclopedia / Per. with eng. B. N. Golovkina. - M .: Labyrinth Press, 2002 .-- S. 168. - 320 p. - ISBN 5-9287-0244-2 .
• Gladkova V.N. , Menitsky Yu. L. Motherwort - Leonurus L. // Flora of the European part of the USSR / Otv. ed. An. A. Fedorov . - L .: Science, 1978.- T. III. Volume Editor Yu. L. Menitsky. - S. 124-125, 129, 164-166. - 259 p. - 4350 copies.
• Gubanov I.A. ed. T.A. Rabotnov . - M .: Thought, 1978. - S. 265-266. - 336 p. - (Reference guides to the geographer and traveler). - 100,000 copies.
• Tsvelev N. N. Family Labiaceae (Lamiaceae, or Labiatae) // Plant Life. In 6 t./ed. A. L. Takhtadzhyana . - M .: Education, 1981. - T. 5. Part 2. Flowering plants. - S. 404-412. - 512 s. - 300,000 copies.

• Mścisz A., Gorecki P. Leonurus cardiaca L.: medicinal plant with sedative and cardiac activity: [ eng. ] // Herba Polonica: Journal. - 1997. - Vol. 43, no. 2. - P. 172-178. - ISSN 0018-0599 .

• Motherwort grass: Leonuri herba : [ arch. 10.21.2017 ] // State Pharmacopoeia of the Russian Federation . XIII edition. Volume 3. - Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 2015.
• Hanelt P. Leonurus cardiaca L .: [ arch. 05/10/2018 ]: [ eng. ] // The Mansfeld's World Database of Agriculture and Horticultural Crops. - , 2001. - Date of access: 05/10/2018.