Description

Evergreen small shrub with recumbent branched and erect flowering stems. Leaves opposite, with short petioles, elliptical, pointed, shiny above, leathery, wintering. Flowers are single, rather large (1-3 cm), blue-blue, with a funnel-shaped Corolla of five fused petals. Corolla with a long narrow tube. Stamens five, ovary of the pistil to two, with one common column. The fruit is two cylindrical leaflets. Height 10— 20 cm.

Chemical composition

Insufficiently studied. It is known that the plant contains alkaloids (vinin, pubescent, Minorin), which have a hypotensive (lowering blood pressure) effect, ursolic acid, rutin and other active substances. The plant is highly poisonous.

Application

Periwinkle as a remedy was used in ancient times. In the middle ages, he was credited with miraculous power and considered a talisman that protects against the power of the devil and evil spirits. The plant is widely used in folk medicine in many countries as an astringent, hemostatic, wound-healing and "blood-purifying" agent. Recently, it has been established that the plant extract has the ability to significantly reduce blood pressure. Internal use of periwinkle, as a highly poisonous plant, requires great care.

Method of application

1. 1 teaspoon of dry periwinkle herb infused for 15-20 minutes in 1 сup of boiling water, strain. Take 1 tablespoon 2-3 times a day.

2. 1 tablespoon of dry herbs brew in 1 сup of boiling water, insist 1/2 hour on the stove, without bringing to a boil, cool, strain. Use for washing purulent wounds, ulcers and itchy dermatitis.