Description

Saint-Mary-thistle - one or two-year prickly plant with a spindle-shaped stem and a straight, ribbed, with patches of felt pubescence stem height of 1.5 m. the leaves are alternate, somewhat glossy, leathery, with large white spots; the lower elliptical, broad-lobed; the uppermost lanceolate, sessile, stalk-enclosing, pinnately lobed, all along the edge of the toothed with yellow spines. The flowers are tubular, purple-purple, collected in large baskets with a tiled wrapper consisting of prickles, as well as prickly green leaves. The fruit Is a black - yellow, shiny achene with a tuft.

Blooms by July to late autumn, fruits ripen in September-October.

The raw material is seeds and roots. Seeds are collected in late August and early September, when the wrappers on most side baskets dry out. Harvesting is carried out early in the morning, when the baskets have not yet opened. The collected raw materials are dried and cleaned from impurities. Store in bags for 1 year in well-ventilated areas. The roots are dug out in autumn, shaken off by the ground, washed with cold water and dried in the sun or in a dryer at a temperature of 40-50 C. Store in a closed glass container for 1 year.