Cornflower Blue.

Cornflower Blue

An annual, sometimes biennial plant of the Asteraceae family, 30–70 cm high. The stem is erect, branched in the upper part. The root is taproot, well developed.

The leaves are alternate, cobwebby-woolly, gray-green; the lower ones are pinnately lobed, dying off by the time of flowering, the middle and upper ones are sessile, linear. Blooms from June to late autumn. The flowers are blue, blue, less often azure or white.

Inflorescences are single baskets located on leafless parts of the stems. The fruits ripen in August.

Blue cornflower is distributed mainly in the middle and northern parts of the European part of Russia and Western Siberia.

It is found in weedy places, along roads, along the edges of fields, and near forest belts. It grows as a weed in winter crops, most often in rye and wheat. Propagated by seeds.

Used in the alcoholic beverage industry. Blue dye for dyeing wool is obtained from the flowers.

Fully blossomed blue marginal flowers serve as medicinal raw materials. Blue petals are plucked from cut flower baskets so that as few inner tubular flowers remain as possible. The collected raw materials are sorted, the impurities are removed and dried in a darkened room or under a canopy, laid out in a thin layer on clean paper, since in the sun it loses its valuable qualities, or in a dryer at a temperature of 40-50 ° C. Store in closed boxes or glass jars for 2 years. The marginal flowers contain anthocyanins and coumarins.

Of the anthocyanins, cornflower is characterized by cyanine, and of coumarins, chicory is typical.

In practical medicine, blue cornflower is sometimes prescribed as a diuretic for edema of renal and cardiac origin in the form of an aqueous infusion in a ratio of 1:10. Take 1/4 cup 3 times a day 20-30 minutes before meals.

In folk medicine, an infusion of flowers is used as a diuretic, diaphoretic and choleretic agent for inflammation of the bladder and kidneys, as well as to improve digestion. It has an anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effect, relieves spasm of the smooth muscles of internal organs, and is useful in the treatment of night blindness, a disease associated with impaired twilight vision. The infusion is also used as an antipyretic for fevers, acute respiratory diseases and headaches.

To prepare the infusion, pour 1 teaspoon of raw material into 1 cup of boiling water, leave for 30 minutes and take 1/3-1/2 cup 3 times a day before meals.

Cornflower flowers serve as the basis for the treatment of furunculosis with mixtures of herbs. To prepare the infusion, 2 tablespoons of a mixture consisting of burdock flowers and roots (15 g each), stinging nettle herb, string, horsetail and speedwell (10 g each), pour 1 liter of hot water in the evening and infuse, and in the morning boil on low heat for 5 minutes, cool for 30 minutes and filter.

Take 1 glass 5 times a day before meals. The course of treatment is 1.5-2 months.