Bought Medicinal.

Kupena medicinal

Kupena officinalis is a perennial herbaceous plant of the lily family, 60-70 cm high. The rhizome is creeping, thick, knotty, with swellings. On each swelling of the rhizome there is a depression - a trace of the above-ground stem. From these depressions you can determine the age of the plant. The stem is long, rising with an arched slope. Leaves are alternate, elliptical.

Kupena blooms in May-June. The flowers are greenish-white, elongated, drooping. The fruit is a bluish-black berry. The plant is distributed in the European part of Russia, Western and Eastern Siberia, and the Far East. Grows in coniferous, mixed forests, among bushes, meadows and hillsides.

The medicinal raw materials are rhizomes, grass, leaves and sometimes berries. The grass and leaves are collected during flowering and dried at a temperature of 50-60°C. Rhizomes are dug up in autumn or spring, washed and dried. Store raw materials in closed containers for up to 2 years.

Rhizomes contain mucus, starch, vitamin C, fructose, glucose, and alkaloids. The leaves contain a lot of vitamin C, and the berries contain cardiac glycosides. The drugs have an anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and hemostatic effect. They are used for diseases of the joints, gastrointestinal tract, hemorrhoids, hernias. Externally - in the form of lotions for bruises and wounds. The plant is poisonous and requires caution when used.