NIS - libdoc.who.int - World Health Organization

WHO monographs on medicinal plants commonly used in the Newly Independent States (NIS)
to lanceolate (sometimes with two small lobes at the base), round or
wedge-shaped base, round or subacute apex, crenulate margins, finely
wrinkled by a strongly-marked network of veins on both sides, upper
and lower surfaces greyish-green, softly hairy and glandular, 2–10 cm
long, 0.8–1.5(–4)cm wide. Inflorescences, loose spikes of flower whorls.
Flowers, bisexual, zygomorphic, 2 cm long, bluish-violet or purplish,
sometimes white. Bracts, sessile, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, membranous,
and striated at the base. Peduncles, curly-pubescent, 3–6 mm long.
Calyx, campanulate, membranous, striated, downy (especially outside
on the veins and the margins of the sepals), bilabiate; the upper lip
3-toothed; the lower bifid; all the teeth subulate and acuminate, 9–10 mm
long. Corolla, 2 or 3 times as long as the calyx, with a large projecting
tube, ringed on the inside, and bilabiate; upper lip arched, lower lip trilobed,
the lateral lobes being reflexed. Pistil, single, superior 4-lobed
ovary. The two usually absent upper stamens are sometimes present in
very small-sterile hooks. Fruit, 4 nutlets, nearly round, brown, 2.5 mm in
diameter (5, 8, 17, 18, 21–26).
Plant material of interest: dried leaves
Fresh material may also be used, provided that when dried it complies
with the monograph in the European Pharmacopoeia (27).
General appearance
The lamina of whole leaf is about 2–10 cm long and up to 3 cm wide,
oval, oblong-ovate, elliptical to lanceolate; upper surface pubescent,
lower surface tomentose, texture soft and velvety. The margin is finely
crenulate to smooth. The apex is rounded or subacute and the base is
shrunken at the petiole and rounded or cordate. Both surfaces with conspicuous,
reticulate venation. The deeply depressed venation on the upper
surface is very prominent on the lower surface and shows a dense
network of raised veinlets. The upper surface is pale green and finely
granular; the lower surface is greyish-green to white and pubescent. Petiole
up to about 4 cm. The cut drug consists of small leaf fragments,
which, because of the dense tomentum, cling together; the fine pubescence
on both surfaces and the reticulate venation on the lower surface
are easily recognized (1, 5, 28, 29).
Organoleptic properties
Odour: intensely spicy and aromatic; taste: spicy, aromatic, bitter and
slightly astringent (2, 5).
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