Bistort

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Bistorta Officinalis, Persicaria Bistorta, Bistort, Common Bistort, European Bistort, Meadow Bistort, Snakeroot, Snakeweed, Easter-Ledges

It is distributed from the Far North to the south of the European part and in Siberia. It grows on moist acidic soils, swampy grassy meadows, along forest edges, and amongst shrubs.

It is a perennial herbaceous plant of the buckwheat family up to 80 cm tall, with a thick serpentine rhizome, from which thin roots extend. The rhizome is dark red with a brown tinge, brown-pink on a fresh fracture, with numerous scars in the upper part, representing the remains of leaves and stems.

The stem is erect, glabrous, knobby, and unbranched. The leaves are alternate, oblong, with a slightly wavy edge, glaucous from below, short-pubescent, and glabrous from above.

The inflorescence is a dense cylindrical spike. The flowers are regular, pale pink, small, and collected in apical brushes. Medicinal raw materials are the rhizomes of older plants.

Together with their roots, they are dug out in autumn, after the death of the aboveground part, or in early spring, cleaned from the ground, washed in cold water, cut into pieces 10-15 cm long, dried in air and dried in a ventilated room, under a canopy, in a dryer or oven at a temperature of 45-50 ° C.

The raw material should be pink at the break, it tastes astringent. Stored in a closed container for 2 years. The rhizome contains tannins, catechins, anthraquinones, gallic acid, starch, vitamin C and carotene. Highlander preparations have astringent, anti-inflammatory, hemostatic and diuretic effects.

The main advantage of the plant is the ability to regulate the function of the gastrointestinal tract in acute and chronic intestinal diseases accompanied by diarrhea of non-dysentery origin. It is used internally for inflammation of the bladder and vagina, copious menstruation, gastrointestinal bleeding, gallstones and urolithiasis, dysentery, diarrhea, and externally for ulcers, purulent wounds, boils, and stomatitis.

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