NIS - libdoc.who.int - World Health Organization

WHO monographs on medicinal plants commonly used in the Newly Independent States (NIS)
sile, lanceolate, narrowing to linear above, sometimes with crisply undulate
margins. The leaves of sterile stems are oblong-spatulate,
oblong-elliptic, restricted to the petiole. Inflorescence: capitula, numerous,
globose, 3–6(9) mm in diameter; 10–30(100) capitula grouped in
false umbels. Phyllaries, about 50, in 4–6(7) rows, membranous, flat or
cucullate, yellow or yellowish-orange; inner ones oblong-spatulate to
linear, outer ones obovate or elliptical, hairy. Flowers: hermaphrodite,
tubular or tubular-infundibulate; corolla orange; pappus of about 30 yellowish-white
hairs, as long as the corolla; pollinated by insects. Fruit:
achene, pentagonal, oblong, brown, 0.7–1.2 mm long, with a pappus (3,
5, 14, 16–18).
Plant material of interest: dried flower heads
General appearance
Flower heads in budding phase or at the beginning of flowering phase,
spherical, about 7–9 mm in diameter, yellow, solitary or in groups, tangled
together into false umbels. The receptacles are glabrous; the peduncles
are woolly-pubescent, up to 1 cm long. The involucral bracts are
somewhat spreading, characteristic, straw-like, shiny, imbricate, lemonyellow
in colour; outer bracts are ovate, middle ones are oblong-spatulate,
inner ones are narrow, linear. The bracts enclose the tubular and
ligulate flowers. The tubular flowers are small, orange-yellow, with a
light yellow pappus. The ligulate florets are usually absent or inconspicuous
(1, 5).
Organoleptic properties
Odour: slightly aromatic; taste: slightly bitter, spicy and aromatic (1, 5).
Microscopic characteristics
The bracts epidermis with oblong spongiose cells. The narrow parts of
the bracts and the peduncle are covered by numerous, long, slender covering
trichomes having few short basal cells and a long terminal cell; glandular
trichomes characteristic of the Asteraceae family, with 8–12 cells,
each pair of cells superposed on two others. Ovary, oval with unicellular
club-shaped glandular trichomes and pappus hairs. Corolla with numerous
glandular trichomes having a 12–14-cellular stalk and unicellular
head (1, 5).
Powdered plant material
No information available.
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