GROUND-IVY
Glecoma hederacea L.
This article was translated by Angela Iancu!
Fr.: Lierre terrestre; G.: Gundelrebe; M.: Kerek repkeny; R.: Budra pliuşcievidnaia.
Identification elements: The plant: herbaceous, perennial, creeper species, with numerous ascendant stools, a little bit hairy, 10 – 20 cm tall; root: lignified, less developed; also, filamentary roots are formed at the nodes of the stem; stem: procumbent, 50 – 60 cm in length, with rare hairs; from it are developed a lot of ascendant stools; leaves: opposite arrangement, 2 – 5(8) cm in length, with the petiole almost equal to the blade; flowers: grow in opposed clusters, with little flowers (3 – 10), positioned at the leaves axils on the upper part of the stools; the calyx has obvious nervures and 5 triangular teeth 3 – 4 time shorter than its funnel, the corolla is bluish-violet, 1 – 2 cm long, with the two obvious lips; fruits: brownish nucules, grouped in 4, 2 mm long, protected by the persistent calyx.
Florescence: IV – VI.
Raw material: Herba Glecomae or Herba Hederae terestris – is formed out of the aerial parts of the harvested plant during flowering. 50 – 60 cm long stems with numerous flowering stools. The leaves are reniform or ovate chordate with crenate edges, rarely serrated, on the front dark green, shiny, on the back light green, sometimes slightly red-violet. The flowers have the corolla blue-violet, rarely red-purple or white. In a dry state, the plant is without a characteristic smell, with a slightly bitter taste.
Ecology and distribution: Plant in shady places, requires high humidity and soils with a lot of nutrients derived from the litter degradation. It grows in broadleaf forests around the country (Romania), sometimes in large clusters, until now it is being exploited in the forest around Bucharest, Cluj, Bran.
Harvesting: It is done during the flowering season (April – June) by reaping the plants or by mowing (when there are a lot of them).
Preparation of the product for conditioning requires that the product contains max. 3% impurities (yellow, brownish leaves), foreign mineral elements – max. 1% and organic – max. 0,5%, humidity – max. 13%.
Chemical structure: volatile oil (0, 03 – 0, 06%), tanoides, choline, bitter substances, saponozides, fat substances etc.
Pharmaceutical actions – therapeutic uses: little studied, it is used empirically in the popular medicine for different affections: anti diarrheic, in diseases related to the urinary apparatus, in kidney gravel, in diseases connected to the digestive and respiratory apparatuses, in liver affections etc.; externally is used as a cicatrizing in hard to heal injuries, in veterinary use, as a powder with vermifuge effect for horses.
Confusions: It is very wide spread the related species Glecoma hirsuta W. et K., which has very similar morphological and ecological traits that the popular name is the same. G. hirsute is more hairy (this is a relative trait because the medicinal species has also more hairy individuals). The only more obvious element is the calyx, at G. hirsute its teeth are very elongated (almost as long as the tube) and at G. hederacea they are triangular, 3 – 4 times smaller than the calyx (element noticed through the looking glass) (the picture below).
Picture: A. the plant appearance; B. shape of the calyx at G. hederacea (1) and G. hirsute (2), noticing the different length of its teeth.
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