Deskuraynia Sofia.

Deskuraynia Sofia

An annual plant of the cruciferous family with an unpleasant odor, 1.5-80 cm high. The stem is straight, densely leafy, the leaves are twice and thrice pinnately dissected into longitudinal segments. Blooms in May - August. The flowers are pale yellow, collected in racemes. The fruit is a slightly curved, tuberculate pod with a sharp vein in the middle. The seeds are multiple, small, oval, brown. Ripen in June - September.

Deskurainia Sofia is distributed in the European part of Russia, Western and Eastern Siberia, Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Far East. It grows on saline soils, in waste areas rich in nitrogen, along fences, roads and ravines, and in abandoned places after grazing, it forms thickets.

The seeds are used as a substitute for mustard. In veterinary medicine, the plant is used for helminthiasis and diarrhea in horses and cattle. The plant is good food for camels, but is poisonous to sheep.

Medicinal raw materials are roots, leaves, flowers, seeds and aerial parts. The roots are harvested in August - September, after the fruits ripen, and dried in the usual way. The seeds are collected as the pods ripen, breaking off or cutting them off in whole bunches. The pods are dried in the open air and wiped. The seeds are sifted through a sieve. The leaves are harvested when the plant is in flower. Dry in the shade, laying out in a thin layer and stirring occasionally. Leaves are stored in cardboard containers, seeds in glass containers for 2 years.

The aerial part of the plant contains beta-sitosterol, steroid saponins, alkaloids, coumarins, flavonoids, mustard oil and vitamins C, E and P. Organic acids, beta-sitosterol, fatty oil containing linoleic, arachidic, erucic and others were found in the seeds fatty acid. Mustard oil contains benzyl isothiocyanate, allyl thiocyanate and allyl sulfide.

Preparations of Descurainia Sophia have an astringent, anti-emetic, diuretic, anthelmintic, antiseptic, antipyretic, diaphoretic, hemostatic and wound-healing effect, the seeds have a laxative property.

An infusion of the aerial part of the plant and a decoction of the root are used for bronchitis, kidney and gallstone diseases, edema, erysipelas, madaria, measles, scarlet fever, inflammatory diseases of the mucous membrane of the mouth and pharynx. A decoction of the leaves is indicated for diarrhea, hemoptysis, hysterical fits, for douching for leucorrhoea, washing purulent wounds, ulcers and boils.

The seeds are used as an expectorant, tonic and wound healing agent, as well. for fever, bronchitis, dysentery, nervous excitement and heart rhythm disturbances.

Desurainia Sophia is a valuable medicinal plant with a wide range of pharmacological activities.