Hellebore

Hellebore Lobel

Hellebore Lobel. Veratrum lobelianum Bernh. Lily family.

perennial poisonous plant, up to 1 m high. The rhizome is cylindrical, obliquely ascending, black-brown outside, with remnants of sheaths of dead leaves and numerous white adventitious roots. Stems are straight, rounded, pubescent at the top. The leaves are alternate, amplexicaul, broadly elliptical, pointed. The flowers are greenish, small, in paniculate inflorescence. Blooms in July-August. The fruit is an ovoid triangular capsule.

Distributed in the forest and forest-steppe zones, mountain forest and subalpine belts throughout the region. Grows in wet meadows, sparse forests, subalpine meadows.

The plant contains resinous, sugary, mucous, tannins, dyes, organic acids, a large number of alkaloids, among which the most poisonous protoveratrin. The roots are richest in alkaloids.

Recently, the hypotensive effect of protoveratrin, which is used to treat hypertension, epidermophytosis and inflammatory processes, has been discovered. New medications Loverat A, Loverat 2 and 3.

IN folk medicine used externally against neuralgia, gout; rheumatism, scabies and lice.

Hellebore preparations are widely used in veterinary medicine and agriculture as an insecticide. It is necessary to use the drug very carefully: when more than 1 g of hellebore is ingested, strong arousal, salivation, sweating, vomiting, diarrhea and sometimes death occur.

Medicinal raw materials - rhizomes and roots - are harvested in autumn, dried in a ventilated room. When drying, you should wear a bandage of four rows of gauze moistened with water, since hellebore (especially dry) can cause severe irritation of the mucous membranes.

Hellebore black

Hellebore black. Veratrum nigrum L. Lily family.

perennial herbaceous plant with a thick vertical rhizome and cord-like roots. The stem is straight, 70-130 cm high. The lower leaves are broadly elliptical, narrowed towards the base, glabrous, the upper ones are linear-lanceolate.

The flowers are black-purple, located in a branched paniculate inflorescence. Blooms from late June to July. The fruit is an ovoid capsule.

Distributed in areas of forest, forest-steppe zones and mountain forest belt. Grows in pine, birch and fir forests, floodplain meadows, meadow, rarely stony slopes, forest clearings, among shrubs.

The plant contains steroid-type alkaloids, amino acids, vertramarin glycoside, sugars, fat, starch, triterpenes, resins, gum, dyes and tannins, mineral salts. Of the alkaloids, pervin, rubinervin, verazin were found in the roots, and iervin in the leaves (Antsupova, 1967).

The use in folk medicine is similar to hellebore Lobel. In Siberian folk medicine (Utkin, 1931) it was used for headaches, root tincture was drunk for pain after childbirth, or dried root was eaten for the same purpose. The plant is used as an insecticide.

It is necessary to use the plant and preparations from it very carefully, as they contain poisonous alkaloids.

Krylov G. N., Stepanov Z. V. Green Pharmacy of Kuzbass. Kemerovo. 1979

Photo: . Zdoroviegizn.ru, Beauty-things.com

Hellebore belongs to the perennial plants of the Melaniev family. There are up to 40 varieties in the genus, some varieties are successfully cultivated in floriculture.

It reaches a height of 50-170 cm, leaves up to 20-50 cm long, pubescent from below. Flowering begins in July. The flowers are collected in spike-shaped or paniculate inflorescences, they are green-white, brown, purple in color. The flowers are small, up to 1.5 cm in diameter, but look impressive in the inflorescence.

Common types

Lobel- up to 170 cm high, white-green or yellow-green flowers, up to 1 cm in diameter. It spreads quickly, turns into a weed without spread control.

Black- up to 130 cm high, leaves up to 40 cm long. Flowers are dark red, almost black, up to 1.5 cm in diameter.

Maaka- reaches a height of up to 120 cm, flowers with a diameter of 1.5 cm, dark purple color.

Care and cultivation of hellebore

A place for landing is chosen shaded or sunny. When grown in full sun, more frequent watering is required. Grows best in well-drained, fertile, loamy soils. The main thing is that the soils are non-acidic.

Hellebore loves moisture, so the plant is watered regularly, but moderately. The soil should always remain moist, but moisture should not be allowed to stagnate. To retain moisture, the soil around the plants is mulched.

It is resistant to cold, so it hibernates without shelter.

In one place hellebore can grow for about 10 years, without losing its decorative effect. Transplantation is carried out as needed. After transplantation, the plant develops slowly.

Reproduction of hellebore

The plant is propagated by dividing the rhizome and seeds. The seed method is less effective, because seeds germinate slowly, and seedlings are difficult to grow. Seeds are sown in autumn, immediately in open ground, on the ridges. In the spring, grown shoots dive, planting at a distance of about 25 cm from each other. Young plants are shaded and watered regularly. With seed propagation, flowering begins at 4-5 years of age.

For seedlings, seeds are sown in spring, to a depth of about 5 mm in a container filled with a loose substrate. The containers are covered with foil and put in the refrigerator. After 1-2 months, the crops are moved to a shaded place and the seeds are germinated at room temperature, under the film. Crops are moistened as the soil dries. Seedlings appear unevenly, after 3 or more (up to a year) months after sowing.

The division of the rhizome is carried out in the spring, when the soil warms up and the threat of return frosts disappears, usually in May. You can also propagate by division in September. The delenki are planted at a distance of 50 cm from each other, watered, shaded for the first time.

On a note

All parts of hellebore, especially the roots, contain toxic substances. Intensive production of toxic substances is observed during the period of active growth. The poison can be fatal if it enters the human body. Contact with small particles of the rhizome on the mucous membrane of the eyes and nose causes irritation. The poison is able to penetrate into the blood through the skin, causing the skin area to lose sensitivity.

All work with the plant should be carried out with gloves, after contact, thoroughly wash hands and equipment with soap and water.
Usage

Hellebore is planted near water bodies, used to create shady flower beds, as well as mixborders. It looks good among eremurus, phlox, acanthus, primrose (candelabra), as well as in group plantings.

Sin .: hellebore root, chemera, chemerka, chemerika, cheremiga, chemeris, zhimeritsa, sneeze, puppeteer, spinning top, death-eater, lousy grass.

Hellebore is a perennial herbaceous plant that has an undeserved reputation as an effective cure for alcoholism. In fact, hellebore is extremely dangerous when taken orally, but it is able to cope with head lice and scabies.

The plant is poisonous!

Ask the experts

flower formula

Hellebore flower formula: * O3 + 3T3 + 3P (3).

In medicine

Contraindications and side effects

Hellebore extremely dangerous plant. It is cardio- and neurotoxic. Signs of hellebore poisoning are repeated vomiting, nausea, sweating, severe weakness, low blood pressure, convulsions, a rare pulse and acute heart failure. The patient requires urgent hospitalization. Hellebore poisoning can be done not only orally. When applying drugs to the skin, you should carefully avoid getting them into the eyes, mucous membranes, open wounds, damaged skin. Hellebore preparations are contraindicated for children under three years of age, pregnant and lactating women, as well as people with infectious skin lesions. For those who have liver damage and patients with cardiovascular diseases, hellebore can only be used externally.

In veterinary medicine

In horticulture

known beneficial features hellebore and gardeners, they are happy to fight pests using hellebore tincture. This natural insecticide is equally effective in destroying both fruit and vegetable enemies. berry crops, while fighting not only with adult insects, but also with their larvae. But beekeepers do not favor the plant, since bees can also be poisoned by hellebore, and even if they survive, the resulting honey will be poisonous.

In cosmetology

In cosmetology, hellebore infusion is used to treat seborrhea, both oily and dry and mixed. It will help to cope with such a common problem as dandruff. Hellebore water, if rubbed into the scalp, stimulates hair growth, fights alopecia.

Classification

The perennial herbaceous plant hellebore (Veratrum), according to the latest classification, belongs to the Liliales order, the Melanthiacea family. Previously, scientists attributed hellebore to the lily family (Liliacene). More than 25 plant species are known in the world, 7 of them are found in Russia.

medical significance have the following types:

Hellebore Lobel - Veratrum lobellianum Bernh.

hellebore white - Veratrum album L.

hellebore black - Veratrum nigrum L.

hellebore chalice - Veratrum calcyciflorum Kom.

hellebore ostolodolnaya - Veratrum oxysepalum Turcz.

arctic hellebore - Veratrum misae Loes

hellebore green - Veratrum viride Ait.

Botanical description

All hellebores are rhizomatous perennials with leafy stems, tall and straight, sometimes with a bulbous thickening at the base. The upper part of the stem - peduncles and pedicels are shortly pubescent. Perianth is six-parted, with six short stamens. The pistil consists of three fused carpels, the ovary is three-celled. The hellebore rhizome is oblique or vertical, 5 to 8 centimeters long. The roots of the plant are cord-like, light, up to 4 mm thick. The leaves of the plant are entire, longitudinally folded, with sheaths overlapping each other, long and tubular, covering a significant part of the stem. Hellebore flower formula - *P3+3A3+3G(3). The fruit is a multi-seeded, dry capsule. The first flowering in hellebore comes late, at 16 - 30 years of plant life.

Hellebore Lobel or common hellebore (Veratrum lobellianum Bernh.) named after the Flemish botanist Matthias de Lobel (his name was given by Charles Plumier and the genus annual plants Lobelia). This plant reaches 170 cm in height, its lower leaves are broadly elliptical, the middle ones are ovate-lanceolate, while the upper ones turn from lanceolate to linear. Flowers with rounded-ovate bracts, yellowish-green, collected in paniculate inflorescence, reaching 60 cm in length.

Hellebore white (Veratrum album L.) is distinguished by white flowers with shades of yellow or green. The black hellebore (Veratrum nigrum L.) has red-brown or red-black flowers, sometimes collected in a racemose inflorescence.

Spreading

Hellebore Lobel grows in Central and Eastern Europe, Asia Minor and Central Asia, in the Mediterranean. In Russia, the species is found up to Western and Eastern Siberia, grows in the Far East. Hellebore Lobel is frost-resistant. The plant prefers upland and floodplain meadows, glades, loves places with a close occurrence of groundwater. Hellebore especially loves the Alpine belt of mountains in Western and Central Europe. Hellebore black can be found not only in Russia and Central Europe, but even in China and Japan.

Distribution regions on the map of Russia.

Procurement of raw materials

As a medicinal raw material, only the rhizome with hellebore roots is used. They are dug up in early spring or late autumn, before or after flowering, thoroughly cleaned from the ground and washed in cold water. The aerial part is cut off from the rhizome, and then dried in a well-ventilated area. To make drying faster, the rhizomes are cut both lengthwise and across. The finished raw material has no smell, the taste is burning, bitter (try with caution). When harvesting hellebore, special safety measures should be observed, especially when grinding, since hellebore dust causes irritation of the mucous membranes, burning and sneezing, as well as nosebleeds, so the mask will not be an extra precaution at all. After working with both freshly dug and dried hellebore roots, wash your hands thoroughly. Hellebore is stored away from other drugs, the shelf life of raw materials is up to 3 years .

Chemical composition

All parts of the plant contain alkaloids: hellebore roots up to 2.5%, rhizomes up to 1.3%, hellebore grass - up to 0.55%. The established alkaloids contained in hellebore are veratramine, protoveratrin, veratralbin, yervin and pseudo-yervin, hermetrin. Hellebore also contains tannins, dyes, starch, sugar and resins.

Pharmacological properties

Application in traditional medicine

In alternative medicine, there is an opinion that hellebore helps with alcoholism. It is based on the toxic effect of the root. If you mix hellebore, which has practically no smell and taste in drinking, then after some time the drunkard will feel bad, he will begin to feel sick and weak, his pulse will slow down, and his pressure will drop. Traditional healers suggest that, having been frightened once or twice, the drunkard will no longer touch alcohol, writing off the poisoning to its effect. Doctors have been struggling with this dangerous delusion for years, pointing out that hundreds of “poisoned in the name of salvation” are admitted to hospitals every year and not all of them can be saved. Some die of heart failure.

Rest folk ways hellebore treatment is much safer. Most of them are outside. Hellebore water treats pediculosis, stimulates hair growth. Infused with cream, hellebore root is considered a cure for eczema and lichen. Preparations with hellebore are used as an anesthetic and irritant for inflammation of the sciatic nerve, neuralgia, myositis, radiculitis, arthritis, muscle pain of unknown etiology, and some age-related diseases of the musculoskeletal system.

Hellebore has found wide application in homeopathy. Hellebore water diluted hundreds, and sometimes thousands of times, treats neuralgia, migraines, bronchitis, asthma, general weakness, fatigue, flatulence, belching, and even some heart disease.

Historical reference

In ancient times, hellebore was credited with an amazing property - the plant allegedly drove out madness. According to ancient mythology, the great soothsayer and healer Melamp cured insanity by giving the sick a decoction of hellebore, which caused vomiting and “purified” the sufferers from the disease. The healers followed the example of Melamp until the end of the 19th century. This is not surprising, because for many centuries the accumulation of "viscous mucus", monthly blood, "abdominal obstructions" was considered a significant cause of certain types of insanity. The vomiting effect of the hellebore decoction was supposed to rid the body of all the “dirt”, restoring mental health. They could give hellebore to a sick person from melancholy and from epilepsy, from fever and paralysis of the lower extremities. The pill with it was supposed to relieve constipation, induce menstruation, act as an anthelmintic.

At the same time, it cannot be said that healers did not know about toxic properties plants. They became famous at the same time as his healing properties. Some scholars, for example, believe that the great Alexander the Great was poisoned by white hellebore mixed with wine. However, due to the scarcity medicines doctors were forced to take risks using the power of hellebore alkaloids for the benefit of the sick. However, by the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, hellebore was replaced by safer and more effective means.

Literature

1. Mishenin I.D. "Medicinal plants and their use", sixth edition, Minsk, Science and technology, 1975, pp. 93-94.

2. "Atlas" medicinal plants USSR, edited by Tsitsin N.V., Moscow, State Publishing House of Medical Literature, 1962-618-620 p.

4. "Botanical-pharmacognostic dictionary", edited by Blinova K.F. and Yakovleva G.P., Moscow, Higher School, 1990 - 256 p.

5. Zemlinsky S.E. "Medicinal Plants of the USSR", Moscow, Moscow Society of Naturalists, 1951 - 294-295 p.

6. "Wild, medicinal, cereals, garden plants and their application ", edited by Kharchenko N.S., Saratov, Privolzhsky book publishing house, 1988 - 146-147s.

7. "Complete Healing Herbalist or detailed description domestic medicinal plants", St. Petersburg, Skaryatin printing house, 1871 - p. 121.

Veratrum nigrum L.
Melantiaceae family- Melanthiaceae

Status in adjacent regions. Included in the Red Books of the Tambov (category 3), Belgorod (5), Saratov (1) regions.

Spreading.

Eastern European-Siberian-Central Asian species, whose range covers Central Europe, the Balkan Peninsula, Zap. and Vost. Siberia, Far East, the north-eastern part of Central Asia, Japan and China. IN middle lane European Russia is known from all regions of the Central Black Earth Region, as well as Kaluga, Moscow,

Penza, Ryazan, Saratov, Tula regions. In the Voronezh region: Repyevsky (near the village of Novosoldatka, ravine forest - VU: 1), Khokholsky (near Gremyachye - VOR: 1), Semiluksky (near the village of Russko-Gvoz-devskie Vyselki, Tochilsky ravine; n. s. Semidubravnoe - VOR: 2; 3), Olkhovatsky (ur. Kobizi western - VOR: 4), Gribanovsky (surrounding the village of Upper Karachan) districts.

Description.

Perennial short-rhizome herbaceous plant 75 to 100 cm high. Stem straight, juicy, thick. The leaves are large, broadly elliptical, entire, with arcuate venation, longitudinally folded; glabrous below, located mainly in the lower half of the stem. The edge of the leaf sheaths of the lower leaves is wedge-shaped, which distinguishes the species in the vegetative state from Lobel's hellebore (V. lobelianum Bernh.), in which it is slightly curved. The flowers are dark red to black-purple (in Veratrum lobelianum Bernh. - yellow-green), on pedicels, almost equal in length to them. Perianth simple, six-parted. The inflorescence is a long dense apical panicle. The fruit is a box.

Features of biology and ecology.

Blooms in the 4-5th year of life. Blooms in July-August. Nectar and a strong (but unpleasant for humans) smell attract various representatives of the Diptera order, mainly carrion and black blowflies, as well as beetles. The fruits ripen in September. Propagated by seeds and, to a lesser extent, vegetatively as a result of the isolation of shoots during the decay of old generative individuals. Grows in deciduous forests, along forest edges, clearings, meadow-steppe and steppe slopes, among shrubs.

Number and tendencies of its change.

Information is not enough. It is necessary to carry out special studies to confirm the growth of the species in known localities and to identify new ones.

limiting factors.

Haymaking, overgrazing, uprooting of thickets of steppe shrubs.

Security measures taken.

It is protected on the territory of the Khopersky complex natural reserve.

Control over the state of known populations of the species, organization of protection of habitats of the species in Repevsky, Khokholsky, Semiluksky, Olkhovatsky districts in the status of protected areas.

Information about the preservation of the species in culture. It is cultivated in the botanical gardens of Moscow (Moscow State University, VILAR, GBS RAS), St. Petersburg (VIN RAS), Omsk State University, Chita (Transbaikal Branch of the Central Siberian Botanical Garden of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences), Kirovsk (Polar Alpine Botanical Garden-Institute), Tomsk State University, Barnaul ( South Siberian Botanical Garden of Altai State University).

Information sources: 1. Protoklitova, 1961; 2. Kamyshev, 1976; 3. Kamyshev, 1978; 4. Grigorievskaya, 2006; 5. Cadastre... 2001. Herbarium data - VU: 1. A. Krylova (1958); VOR: 1. Without manifold (1952); 2. S. V. Golitsyn (1934); 3. A. Fedoseeva (1933); 4. Kozyrkova, Bezmogarychnaya (1959). Compiled by: O. V. Prokhorova; photo: M. L. Zaitsev.