MEDICAL BOTANY - A.G. Serbin - 2003

SECTION 3. SYSTEMATICS

SUPERKINGDOM EUCARYOTA — EUCARYOTA. KINGDOM PLANTAE

CLASS DICOTYLEDONES — Dicotyledones

Subclass Dilleniidae — Dilleniidae

Family Clusiaceae — Clusiaceae

St. John's wort — Hypericum perforatum (Fig. 3.23). It grows on open dry slopes and in light forests. The rhizome is branched and woody. Stems are erect, branched in the upper part, and brownish-red; two longitudinal lines stand out on the smooth surface. Secretory receptacles with dark contents are characteristic. Leaves are opposite, sessile, oblong-ovate or elliptic, entire-margined, with numerous light and dark glands (hence the specific epithet *perforatum*). The inflorescence is a terminal racemose-corymbiform thyrse. The calyx is deeply parted, persistent in fruit, with lanceolate free parts bearing rare black glands. Petals are golden-yellow, oblong-elliptic, obliquely truncated at the apex, bearing glands that are dark along the leaf margin and light on the rest of the surface. The androecium is triadelphous. The gynoecium is coenocarpous, with recurved styles and stigmas bearing red papillae; the Ovary is trilocular, with glandular staminodes at its base.

Class="center">Fig. 3.23. Hypericum perforatum

Floral formula:

The capsule is three-angled, with a reticulate surface, opening by Valves.

Herbal preparations are used for Disorders of the oropharynx, gastrointestinal tract, Liver, and Kidneys, acting as antispasmodic, capillary-strengthening, anti-inflammatory, wound-healing, astringent, antiseptic, photosensitizing, and bactericidal agents. They reduce potency.

Family Brassicaceae (Cruciferae) — Brassicaceae (Cruciferae)

About 3,200 species of annual, biennial, and perennial herbs distributed worldwide. Many are cultivated as oilseeds (rapeseed, mustard, camelina, sea kale), fodder crops (rapeseed, turnip, cabbage), vegetables (radish, rapeseed, turnip, horseradish, black radish, various cabbage cultivars), and medicinal plants (wallflower, mustard). Diagnostic Features of the family are shown in Figure 3.24 (References to labels are given in the text). The ROOT System is taproot-based; biennials usually form root crops (1). Leaves are simple, without stipules. Heterophily is characteristic: basal rosette leaves (2) are pinnately divided or dissected, stem leaves are alternate, lobed or entire, mostly clasping the stem, while upper leaves are sessile and entire. Inflorescences (3) are usually leafless, terminal, racemose, less commonly corymbose, paniculate, capitate, or spiciform. Flowers are small, white, or yellow. The calyx (4) consists of four free sepals arranged in 2 whorls. The corolla (5) is cruciform. The tetradynamous androecium (6) consists of 6 stamens, of which the 2 in the outer whorl are shorter than the remaining 4. Nectaries (7) are located at the Base of the stamen filaments. The gynoecium (8) is coenocarpous, composed of 2 carpels, with or without a style; the stigma is capitate or bilobed, and the superior ovary is divided into 2 locules by a false longitudinal partition, or replum (9), developing from the edges of the fused carpels.

Fig. 3.24. Diagnostic features of Brassicaceae

Floral formula:

The fruits are siliques and silicles (10) opening by two valves from bottom to top, loment-like siliques (11) breaking transversely into segments, or rarely one-seeded nutlets. Seeds are arranged in one or two rows on the septum. They are small, lacking endosperm and perisperm, with a large curved embryo containing fatty and Essential Oils, Glycosides, and other substances.

Genus Brassica — Brassica. Cultivated as vegetable, fodder, and oilseed crops include: wild cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, Savoy cabbage, kohlrabi, mustard, turnip, rapeseed, rutabaga, etc.

HEAD cabbage — Brassica oleracea var. capitata (Fig. 3.25). This is a biennial plant that forms a basal leaf rosette and a head—a shortened fleshy stem densely covered with large, juicy leaves—in the first year of life. In the second year, an erect, glabrous stem 50–100 cm long develops, bearing terminal racemes of pale yellow flowers. Stem leaves are semi-amplexicaul and glaucous-green. Siliques are up to 10 cm long, spreading, with a swollen, obtuse, short beak.

Fig. 3.25. Brassica sativus var. radicula

It is used as a vegetable and vitamin source, for cardiovascular and gastrointestinal disorders, and to improve Skin and Hair condition.

Radish — Raphanus sativus var. radicula (Fig. 3.26). One of the earliest annual vegetable plants. Varieties differ in root crop size (from 3 to 15 cm), shape, and coloration. Leaf-like cotyledons and true leaves are distinct in the basal rosette—petiolate, oblong-elliptic, entire, pubescent, with coarsely serrate margins. When the reproductive SHOOT forms, the rosette leaves wither. Lower stem leaves are petiolate, lyrate with 2–6 pairs of nearly entire, unequally toothed lateral segments. Middle leaves are nearly sessile, elongated-oval, unequally toothed along the margins or with 1–2 pairs of lateral segments. The raceme is loose. Sepals are oblong and obtuse. Petals are 1.5–1.7 cm long, white, pink, or purple, with an obovate limb. Stamens of the inner whorl are paired. Large nectaries are present at the base of the short stamens. The style bears a short stigma. Siliques are indehiscent, swollen, broad, usually hairy, with an awl-shaped conical beak.

Fig. 3.26. Raphanus sativus var. radicula

Indian mustard — Brassica juncea (Sinapis juncea) (Fig. 3.27, A). An annual plant 20 – 60 cm in height with glabrous stems. Basal leaves are petiolate, lyrate, and sparsely rough-hairy along the Veins. Mid-stem leaves are short-petiolate, lanceolate, and sinuate. Upper leaves are sessile, sagittate, and entire. Flowers are yellow, arranged in racemose inflorescences. Siliques are directed obliquely upward (at a 45° angle), cylindrical, 3 – 5 cm long (twice the length of the pedicel), tuberculate, with an awl-shaped beak. The valves feature a central vein and two slender, tortuous lateral veins. Seeds are globose, smooth, and dark brown.

Fig. 3.27: A — Brassica juncea, B — Brassica nigra, C — Sinapis alba

Fatty oil is extracted from the seeds. The oilcake is used to manufacture dry mustard and mustard plasters, which exert local irritant and counter-irritant effects.

Black mustard — Brassica nigra (Sinapis nigra) (Fig. 3.27, B). An annual plant, 50 – 150 cm tall. The stem is sparsely hairy in the lower part. Basal leaves are lyrate, with a large sinuate-toothed upper lobe, and sparsely pubescent; mid-stem leaves are short-petiolate and lyrate; upper leaves are lanceolate. Yellow flowers grow in racemose inflorescences. Siliques are pressed against the stem, four-angled, 1 – 2 cm long, with a very short, slender beak. Valves have three veins, of which only the central one is prominent. Seeds are dark brown or black.

Used similarly to Indian mustard.

White mustard — Sinapis alba (Fig. 3.27, C). Found as a weed in crops and waste areas. An annual plant 30 – 60 cm tall with rigid pubescence. Basal leaves are petiolate, broadly rhombic in outline, and deeply pinnately divided into unevenly toothed lobes. Stem leaves are short-petiolate, broadly lanceolate, and dissected. Flowers are yellow, in racemose inflorescences. Siliques are terete, 2 – 4 cm long, on long, slender pedicels deflected at a 90° angle from the stem. The beak is long and flattened-ensiform; valves are rough-hairy, tuberculate, with three to five prominent veins. Seeds are nearly globose, yellowish, containing essential mustard oil and fatty oil.

Diffuse wallflower (grey wallflower) — Erysimum diffusum (E. canescens) (Fig. 3.28, A). Grows on steppe and dry slopes, meadows, roadsides, and stony outcrops. Introduced into cultivation as a medicinal plant. An annual or biennial plant 30 – 90 cm tall, greyish from appressed, 2 – 3-partite hairs. Stem is branched. Leaves of first-year vegetative shoots are oblong-lanceolate, sinuate-toothed, with bases gradually tapering into a petiole. Leaves of floral shoots are short-petiolate, linear-lanceolate, and nearly entire; upper leaves are sessile. Racemes are terminal, initially nearly capitate, then elongated. Petals are twice as long as the sepals, lemon-yellow, with a rounded-elliptic limb and a long, narrow claw. Style is short; stigma is capitate and two-lobed. Siliques are 45 – 70 mm long, four-angled, flattened, standing obliquely upward, grey, with greenish Ribs. Contain cardiac glycosides.

Fig. 3.28: A — Erysimum diffusum, B — Capsella bursa-pastoris

Shepherd's purse — Capsella bursa-pastoris (Fig. 3.28, B). Grows in fields, along roadsides, and near human habitation. A weed, food, vitamin, medicinal, and oil-yielding plant. A polymorphic annual or biennial plant 20 – 30 cm tall. Root is slender and fusiform. Stem is solitary, erect, sparingly branched, and pubescent in the lower part with simple or branched hairs. Basal rosette leaves are overwintering, 5 – 10 (15) cm long, petiolate, pinnately divided, with acute, triangular, entire or toothed-sinuate lobes. Stem leaves are alternate, sessile, oblong-lanceolate, entire or sinuate-toothed, with a sagittate and stem-clasping base. Flowers are small, white, in racemes. Sepals are oblong-ovate, 1 – 2.5 mm long, alternating with longer obovate petals. Silicle is obversely triangular-cordate, laterally compressed perpendicular to the septum, slightly notched at the apex, with a persistent style remnant. Silicle valves are triangular-navicular, thin-walled, and keeled.

The herb exhibits a hemostatic effect.

Theaceae — Tea family

Tea plant (Chinese camellia) — Thea sinensis (Camellina sinensis) (Fig. 3.29). Native to Southeast Asia; cultivated in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, Africa, etc. An evergreen shrub or tree up to 10 m tall. Leaves are simple, alternate, coriaceous, oblong-oval, with a cuneate base and reticulate-pinnate venation. Margins are unevenly sharp-serrate, with blackening glands on the Teeth. Stipules are deciduous. Young leaves are covered with silvery pubescence ("pekoe"); mature leaves are dark green above, light green below, and slightly pubescent. The leaf mesophyll contains branched supporting sclereids. Flowers are white, pinkish, or yellow, fragrant, occurring 1 – 4 in the leaf axils. Bracts and tepals are arranged in a spiral. Calyx consists of 5 – 7 connate sepals, persistent in fruit. Petals are connate at the base with each other and the calyx. Stamens are in two whorls: outer ones have fused filaments adnate to the petals, inner ones are free. Gynoecium is coenocarpous, with styles fused to the middle.

Fig. 3.29. Thea sinensis

Floral formula:

Capsule is three-locular, coriaceous-woody, flattened, and dehiscing by valves.

Leaves and young shoots (flushes) are used as a tonic and Central Nervous system stimulant. They contain the alkaloid caffeine, Vitamins C, B₁, B₂, organic acids, Tannins, and other BIOLOGICALLY ACTIVE SUBSTANCES.

Ericaceae — Heath family

Encompasses over 3,500 species inhabiting well-moistened, mineral-poor soils, sphagnum bogs, mountains, pine forests, and heaths. Their habit is distinctive, known as ericoid: woody forms are low-growing, prostrate, evergreen, or deciduous; leaves are adapted to conserve moisture: coriaceous, needle-like, scale-like, or if the leaf blade is flat, then either with downward-rolled margins or longitudinally rolled and pubescent. Roots possess mycorrhiza. Leaves are exstipulate, mostly entire and alternate. Flowers are solitary, terminal and axillary, or arranged in umbellate, racemose, or paniculate inflorescences. The calyx is usually persistent in fruit; the corolla is persistent or deciduous. Anthers bear horn-like or awl-shaped appendages and dehisce by pores. A nectary disc is located beneath the pistil, to which the stamens and corolla are attached.

Floral formula:

The fruit is a capsule, drupe, or berry.

Marsh Labrador tea — Ledum palustre (Fig. 3.30, A). An evergreen subshrub 20 – 125 cm tall, with a strong, specific odor; poisonous! Grows in wet habitats, pine and mixed forests. Young shoots and pedicels are densely covered with essential-oil glands and reddish hairs. Leaves are alternate, short-petiolate, linear-oblong, with downward-rolled margins, coriaceous, shiny and brownish-dark green above, and reddish-tomentose below. Inflorescences are terminal corymbs with reddish-brown bracts persistent in fruit. Sepals are brownish-pubescent, sticky, and Ciliate along the margin. Stamens lack outgrowths; filament bases are broadened and pubescent; anthers dehisce by pores. A nectar disc surrounds the ovary.

Floral formula:

Fig. 3.30: A — Ledum palustre; B — Arctostaphylos uva-ursi; C — Vaccinium vitis-idaea; D — Oxycoccus palustris; E — Vaccinium myrtillus

Capsules oblong-ovate, drooping, dark, glandular-pubescent, opening with valves.

Insecticide, expectorant, and hypotensive agent.

Common bearberry (kinnikinnick) — Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (Fig. 3.30, B). Grows in pine forests and on dry sandy soils. An evergreen creeping subshrub 0.3 — 1.5 m in height. Stems prostrate, branching, rooting, and ascending. Leaves oblong-obovate, narrowed at the base into a short petiole, obtuse at the apex, pale green below, dark green and glossy above, with a clearly visible network of impressed veins. Leaf margin entire, slightly pubescent. Flowers in drooping terminal racemes on short pedicels. Corolla pink, urn-shaped with a five-toothed limb, inside with stiff hairs. Anthers dark red, appendaged, opening by pores at the top. Style slightly shorter than the corolla.

Floral formula:

Fruit — a coenocarpic berry-like drupe 6 — 8 mm in diameter, depressed-globose, bright red. Characteristically, beneath the thin exocarp lies a mealy pulp with five stone pits. The fruits are poisonous!

The plant is used as a tanning, dyeing, and medicinal agent. The leaves are used as an anti-inflammatory and diuretic remedy.

Lingonberry (cowberry) — Vaccinium vitis-idaea (Fig. 3.30, C). Grows in forests, mountains, and on sandy ridges. An evergreen subshrub 5 — 25 cm tall, with a thin creeping rhizome and an erect stem. Leaves coriaceous, short-petiolate, with downward-rolled margins, elliptic to obovate with an obtuse or emarginate apex; dark above, pale green below, with dark punctate glands. Flowers gathered at the ends of the previous year's shoots in 2 — 8-flowered drooping racemes. Bracts small, lanceolate, reddish. Calyx with four short-triangular teeth, persistent in fruit. Corolla pinkish, campanulate, four-toothed. Staminal filaments short, thick, hairy, anthers unappendaged. Style longer than the corolla, ovary inferior.

Floral formula:

Berries red, globose, glossy, up to 0.8 cm in diameter, with dry sepals at the apex. Pedicels reddish, seeds small, numerous.

The plant is used for food, medicinal, tanning, and honey-producing purposes. Leaves are used as an anti-inflammatory, diuretic agent, and for Kidney stones. Berries are used for avitaminosis.

Common cranberry (marsh cranberry) — Vaccinium oxycoccos (Oxycoccus palustris, O. quadripetalus) (Fig. 3.30, D). Grows in the northern taiga zone, on sphagnum bogs, in waterlogged forests, and in the mountains. An evergreen shrub with prostrate stems up to 75 cm long and ascending filiform lateral shoots. Leaves rigid, coriaceous, short-petiolate, 8 — 12 mm long, oblong-ovate, acute, with downward-rolled margins, dark green and glossy above, whitish beneath due to a waxy bloom. Flowers 1 — 4, on long pubescent pedicels with 2 bracts in the middle. Calyx toothed, ciliate at the margins, fused with the ovary. Petals fused at the base, pale purple or pink, reflexed downward. Staminal filaments purple, yellow anthers converging around the long style. Horns equal in length to the anthers.

Floral formula:

Berry globose, flattened or pear-shaped, 8 — 17 mm in diameter, dark red, acidic.

Berries are used in food, confectionery, and liqueur production, as a vitamin and antipyretic source.

Bilberry (European blueberry) — Vaccinium myrtillus (Fig. 3.30, E). Grows in coniferous-deciduous forests. A deciduous subshrub 15 — 40 cm tall. Stems branching, erect, cylindrical, ribbed, grey at the base, green in the upper part. Leaves short-petiolate, alternate, ovate or elliptic, slightly acute, 1 — 3 cm long, with a finely serrulate margin, light green, thin, smooth. Flowers solitary, drooping, at the base of young branchlets. Calyx with an almost entire-margined limb, persistent in fruit; corolla urceolate-globose with a 4 — 5-toothed limb. Anthers with a pair of long appendages.

Floral formula:

Berry black with a bluish bloom, globose, 5 — 8 mm in diameter, flattened at the apex, with a weakly toothed ring of sepals and a style or a small pit in the center. Seeds numerous, light brown, ovate, about 1 mm long.

Berries are used in food as a vitamin, antiseptic, astringent, and Vision-improving agent; leaves are used as an anti-inflammatory, hemostatic, astringent, diuretic, and antidiabetic remedy. A honey-producing plant.

Linden family — Tiliaceae

Littleleaf linden (small-leaved lime) — Tilia cordata (Tilia parvifolia) (Fig. 3.31). A deciduous tree up to 28 m tall, living up to 150 years or more. Grows monopodially, crown globose, bark dark, longitudinally fissured. Young shoots reddish-brown with small lenticels. Leaves alternate, simple, petiolate, stipules early deciduous. Leaf blades cordate, cuspidate, sometimes asymmetric at the base, bluish-green below, with a tuft of reddish hairs in the axils of the veins. Inflorescences 3 — 15-flowered, cymose-corymbose, with a light yellow, oblong bract fused halfway to the inflorescence axis. Flowers fragrant, yellowish, up to 2 cm in diameter.

Fig. 3.31. Tilia cordata

Flowers:

Nut globular, thin-walled, felt-pubescent, two- or one-seeded.

The flowers act as a diaphoretic. The wood is used for crafts, utensils, furniture, musical instruments, and toys. Mats, bast mats, and bath whisks are made from the bast, among other things. Linden is an excellent honey plant and highly ornamental.

Family Malvaceae — Malvaceae

Marsh mallow — Althaea officinalis (Fig. 3.32). Grows in moist meadows and along riverbanks. A perennial plant, grayish-silvery due to pubescence. Rhizome short, thick, with large, branched roots. Stems erect, 60 — 150 cm high, velvety-pubescent.

Fig. 3.32. Althaea officinalis

Leaves alternate, petiolate; upper leaves entire, oblong-ovate; middle and lower leaves three- to five-lobed, with unevenly crenate-dentate margins, grayish-green due to dense pubescence of stellate and branched hairs. Stipules narrowly lanceolate, early deciduous. Flowers clustered in small groups in the axils of the upper and middle stem leaves, forming interrupted racemose inflorescences. Epicalyx of 8 — 12 linear segments fused at the base. Sepals five, 6 — 12 mm long, fused for 1/3 of their length. Petals pale pink, broadly obovate, notched at the apex, narrowed at the base into a short ciliate-hairy claw. Stamens fused to the middle into a staminal Column through which the pistil styles pass. Anthers purple. Gynoecium with a disc-shaped ovary and free styles.

Flower formula:

Fruit — a flattened-globular schizocarp (mallow fruit) 8 — 10 mm in diameter, short-pubescent, resting within the calyx and epicalyx. It breaks down into crescent-shaped mericarps that are open on the ventral side.

Roots, leaves, and flowers are used as an expectorant, demulcent, and anti-inflammatory agent.

Family Sterculiaceae — Sterculiaceae

Cocoa, or chocolate tree — Theobroma cacao (Fig. 3.33). Grows as undergrowth in humid tropical forests; widely cultivated in tropical West Africa, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. An evergreen tree, 10 — 15 m tall. Leaves alternate, exstipulate, rounded, broadly lanceolate, entire-margined. Flowers small, pink, borne singly or in clusters on the trunk (cauliflory). Petals expanded and inflated helmet-shaped at the base, sharply constricted and geniculately bent in the middle part, with a flat limb. Fruits berry-like, 15 — 25 cm long, with pink, sweet-sour pulp and numerous seeds (50 — 60 pcs.).

Fig. 3.33. Theobroma cacao

Flower formula:

The hard fatty seed oil — cocoa butter — is used as an ointment and suppository base. The press cake remaining after oil extraction is used as a tonic for physical and mental fatigue.

Family Moraceae — Moraceae

Common fig (fig tree, edible fig) — Ficus carica (Fig. 3.34). Grows wild and semi-wild in Central and Asia Minor, the Mediterranean region, and further from Iran to Northwestern India. Cultivated in all subtropical and tropical countries, in Transcaucasia and the Crimea. A tree with smooth, light gray bark. Leaves large, alternate, 3 — 5 — 7-palmate-lobed or divided, rigid, with deciduous stipules. Shortened generative shoots develop in the leaf axils, bearing Two Types of inflorescences — caprifigs and figs. They develop on different trees, characterized by the receptacle axis growing into a spherical-oval Structure with an opening at the apex and an internal cavity housing small, inconspicuous, unisexual flowers.

Fig. 3.34. Ficus carica

Caprifigs are smaller inflorescences containing male flowers: and female gall flowers with short styles: . Figs are larger inflorescences in which male flowers are reduced, while female flowers have long styles and, after Fertilization, form one-seeded nutlets.

Figs develop into juicy, sweet, pear-shaped multiple fruits (syconia) containing nutlets inside. They are covered with a thin skin bearing fine hairs. At the apex, there is an opening — the ostiole (eye) — covered with scales. The color of the syconia varies considerably: greenish- or brownish-purple, reddish, cream, yellow, or variegated. The pulp contains sugars, vitamins A, B₁, B₂, C, Pectins, iron, and calcium.

Ripe syconia are a valuable food product; the syrup has a mild laxative effect, and the infusion is recommended for gargling. Unripe syconia are not recommended for consumption.