NIS - libdoc.who.int - World Health Organization

WHO monographs on medicinal plants commonly used in the Newly Independent States (NIS)
Description
An annual plant, 15–75(100) cm high, fibrous root, adventitious roots
when growing in wetlands. Stem erect, heavily branched, wiry, angular,
solid, marked with small brown spots, glabrous or somewhat downy, often
brownish-red. Leaves opposite, simple (but appearing trifoliate), 3- to
5-lobed (usually deeply divided into 3 narrow ovate-rhomboid to lanceolate
lobes, the central one larger and wider), sharply serrate, acuminate,
3–15 cm long, dark green, petiole narrow, short and winged. Uppermost
leaves sometimes undivided. Inflorescence: flower head (50–60 flowers),
generally discoid, erect or inclined, solitary or not, conical, 15–25 mm
long and 15–25 mm wide. Peduncle 1–6 cm long. Involucre 7–20 mm in
diameter, two rows of phyllaries: inner phyllaries ovate, 6–8 mm long,
brown-yellow; outer phyllaries, usually 5–8, lanceolate, leaf shaped with
thorny edges, green. Bracts linear, spreading, ray flowers absent, disc
flowers hermaphrodite, tubular, brownish-yellow. Fruit, glabrous achene,
wedge-shaped, distinctly compressed; inner achenes 5–8 mm long, 4-angled;
outer achenes 3.5–4 mm long, 2–3-angled; thorns of angles ascending
below, reflexed above; pappus awns thorny, generally 2, sometimes
3–4 (2 longer), 1–3.6 mm (4–6, 9, 15, 16, 18–22).
Plant material of interest: dried aerial parts
General appearance
Entire or fragmented leafy stems, leaves and flower heads. Leaves opposite,
short petiolate, 3–5-lobed or undivided, 3–7 cm in length (no longer
than 15 cm), dark green. Leaf fragments crumpled, the serrated edges can
be distinguished. Stems heavily branched, glabrous or somewhat downy,
not more than 0.8 cm in thickness, green or greenish-violet. Stem pieces
hollow or pithy, wrinkled. Flower heads, not more than 0.6–1.5 cm in
diameter, somewhat drooping. Disc flowers tubular, with two awns,
brownish-yellow (1, 5, 6, 16, 23).
Organoleptic properties
Odour: slight; taste: bitter and slightly astringent (1).
Microscopic characteristics
Leaf: upper and lower epidermises with undulating cell walls are distinguishable.
Anomocytic stomata. Simple hairs with thin cell walls on both
epidermises, 9–18 cells, sometimes filled with brown contents; very large
base cell with a longitudinally striated cuticle. Simple hairs with thick cell
walls on the veins and at the edges of the leaf, 2–13 cells; the hair base
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