Small Centaury

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Small centaury is one of the plants of the gentian family, in Latin the name of this plant will sound like this: Centaurium erythraea Rofn. As for the Latin name of the small centaury family, in Latin it will be as follows: Gentianaceae Juss.

Description of the centaury small

Small centaury is a biennial or annual herb, the height of which will fluctuate between fifteen and forty centimeters. The stems are tetrahedral and solitary; they are endowed with a thin root and a rosette of obovate basal leaves.

Stem leaves of centaury small can be both elongated-ovate and ovate and even linear-lanceolate. Such leaves are semi-stemming with three to five main parallel veins, and all leaves will also be whole-edged. The flowers of centaury small are small and five-membered, they gather in a corymbose panicle at the very top of the stem, and are painted in bright pink-red tones. The fruit of this plant is a cylindrical and almost two-celled capsule, the length of which will be about ten millimeters. The seeds are very small and irregularly rounded in shape, such seeds are colored in brown tones.

The flowering of centaury small falls on the period from June to autumn. Seed ripening occurs in the month of August. Under natural conditions, the plant is found in the Ukraine and the Caucasus, in Central Asia, Altai and in the middle and southern regions of Russia.

Description of the medicinal properties of centaury small

Small centaury is endowed with very valuable healing properties, while it is recommended to harvest raw materials during the flowering of this plant until the yellowing of the basal leaves occurs. The entire plant should be cut, leaving several plants on about two square meters for further seed reproduction. Such raw materials should be dried without direct exposure to direct sunlight. For drying, it is important to lay out the grass in rows, while the inflorescences are turned to one side. You can store such raw materials for two years.

The herb of this plant contains alkaloids, including gentianine, as well as resins, essential oil, ascorbic and oleic acid, the flavone glycoside centaurin, and in addition the following bitter glycosides: gentiopicrin, erythrotaurin and erythrocentaurin. Studies have shown that the plant is endowed with a pronounced antihelminthic effect, which is associated with the content of the small alkaloid gentianine in the centaury.

Such a plant can be used in the form of a tincture and a decoction, as well as also as bitterness to increase appetite and improve digestion processes, as well as in case of insufficient secretory and motor function of the digestive tract. Such remedies are effective for a variety of dyspeptic disorders, including nausea. Vomiting, flatulence and belching. Also, the healing properties of this plant are also used as a mild laxative. As part of the collection of herbs such as wormwood, horsetail and thyme, this plant is used to treat alcoholism.

As for traditional medicine, here the herb of this plant is recommended to be used for diseases of the gallbladder and liver, as well as for constipation, heartburn, malaria and diabetes mellitus. Such a remedy is capable of restoring strength after illnesses, which were supplemented by long and rather severe febrile conditions. Also, the healing properties of the plant are also used for heart disease and female bleeding.