Xanthium

Description

An annual monoecious gray-green plant with a rough-hairy stem. Leaves are round-lobed, with sharp large-toothed blades and a heart-shaped base, green above, light green below. The fruits are oval achenes. Height 30 – 120 cm.

The part used. Leaves, stems, fruits, roots.

Chemical composition

Insufficiently studied. Leaves contain a relatively high amount of iodine, alkaloid and vitamin C (about 31.8 mg). Seeds contain fatty oil, resin, glucoside xanthochromia and iodine. The plant is poisonous.

Application

The plant helps to reduce the enlarged thyroid gland in goiter and has antiseptic, fungicidal, anti-inflammatory, weak analgesic, diaphoretic and antipyretic effects. Decoction of fruits ("seeds") and roots and the entire plant is taken for diarrhea and bloody diarrhea (dysentery). The plant is successfully used for goiter, especially in places where this disease is common (in Transcarpathian Ukraine, Transbaikalia, some parts of the Caucasus).

In Central Asia the juice of the leaves is drunk in case of asthma, spasms in the throat and hemorrhoids. The juice of the herb and its decoction are used as an external remedy for throat edema, children's urticaria, scrofula and various skin diseases: lichen, acne, rashes. In Chinese folk medicine, the plant is used as an antipyretic, diaphoretic, soothing agent for rheumatism and hypothermia. Fruits are used in the form of ointments for eczema, itchy rashes, scabies and insect bites. Decoction of durnishnik causes burning, so you need an individual dosage of it. The internal use of Common clotbur, as a poisonous plant, requires caution.