Useful information

Goat's rue medicinal: properties and application

Goat's rue medicinal (Galega officinalis) - a perennial herb with a height of 50-80 cm (rarely up to 1.5 m) with a taproot and weakly branched root. Stems are erect, numerous from the second year of life, leaves typical for legumes are pinnate. The flowers are numerous, light blue or pale purple, collected in one-sided racemes. The fruits are numerous beans 2-4 cm long.

Goat's rue medicinalGoat's rue medicinal

The plant blooms from July to August, the seeds ripen in August-September. Galega has a long flowering period and is quite decorative. When sowing on a plot, it can be placed in a mixborder on a sunny plot among ornamental plants.

It is found in the wild in southern, central and eastern Europe, in the west and south of Italy it is cultivated as a fodder plant.

Name Galega comes from two Greek words gala - "milk" and agein - "promotes excretion", and it appeared due to the fact that, as has long been noted, a decoction of this plant or the use of a small amount of leaves in a salad enhances lactation in lactating women.

Growing

Growing a goat's rue on the site is not difficult at all. The seeds germinate well, but many of them have a hard seed coat and in order for water to get to them, this very shell must be broken with the help of scarification. At home, this is easiest to do with two pieces of sandpaper, between which the seeds need to be rubbed, pressing lightly.

Scarified seeds are sown in early spring. The plant does not require any special care, but still prefers fertile, loose and non-acidic soil in which nitrogen-fixing bacteria living on the roots of this legume plant feel comfortable. In one place in the Non-Chernozem Zone, galega usually lives for about 2 years, and then falls out.

Goat's rue medicinal

 

Chemical composition, medicinal properties and recipes for use

There is no information about its use in antiquity, but in the Middle Ages it was first mentioned in the 1300s by the Italian Petrus Crescentiis. And in the 1600s, it was actively cultivated in Central Europe as a medicinal and ornamental plant. It was used, among other things, from the plague (although it was not used only from it at that time), typhus and smallpox.

The raw material is the tops of shoots 20 cm long. They are cut off at the beginning of mass flowering and dried in the shade. The shelf life of raw materials is 1 year, so its stocks need to be renewed annually.

Galegi herb contains alkaloids (up to 0.2%, including d-1-peganin, 2,3- (α-hydroxytrimethylene) -quinazolone-4), guanidine derivatives, including galegin, phytosterols, flavonoids ( luteolin, galuteolin), a little allantoin. The seeds contain the alkaloid galegin (up to 0.6%) and fatty oil (4-5%). Guanidine derivatives have the ability to lower blood sugar.

In traditional medicine, the goat's rue is used as a diuretic, diaphoretic, and lactic urea. It is still used in modern herbal medicine to increase lactation. In studies on farm animals, it was found that milk yield in goats and cows increased by 35-50%. In addition, traditional medicine values ​​this plant for its positive effects on the digestive system. It is taken for age-related diabetes, pancreatitis and digestive problems, especially for chronic constipation caused by a lack of digestive enzymes.

But in scientific medicine, the use of medicinal galega is much narrower. Basically, a decoction of the herb is used in diabetes mellitus as a hypoglycemic agent, that is, to lower blood sugar. In this case, it is used in the form of an alcoholic tincture, which is prepared by infusing 10 g of raw materials per 100 ml of 70% alcohol. Take 20-30 drops 3 times a day after meals.The main active ingredient in this case is galegin.

For diabetes, galega is used in preparations with other hypoglycemic plants. You can prepare the following mixture: galega herb - 100 g, blueberry leaf - 100 g, black elderberry flowers - 50 g. 1 tablespoon of the mixture, pour 200 ml of boiling water, leave to cool, strain and take 50-100 ml 2-3 times day.

In homeopathy, herb is used as a milk-producing agent, as well as dried seeds (rarely).

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