Elecampane or Inula rakemosa (Latin: Inula racemosa) – a genus of perennial plants of the Asteraceae family, grows in Europe, Asia and Africa.
Elecampane – perennial, rarely annual plants with whole leaves and yellow large inflorescences.
The flowers are yellow or orange, solitary or collected in racemose or corymbose common inflorescences.
Flowering in the summer in the second half.
Spring breeding.
Medicinal raw materials are roots and rhizomes. During harvesting, they are dug up, shaken off the ground, the aerial part and thin roots are cut off, washed in cold water, cut into pieces 10–20 cm long and into several parts along. Blackened, dead and damaged by pests roots are discarded. The raw materials are dried for 2-3 days in the open air and dried in a warm, well-ventilated room or dryer at a temperature not exceeding 40 ° C, unfolding in a layer of no more than 5 cm. Store in bags, wooden or glass containers for 3 years.
Chemical composition
Rhizomes and roots contain inulin (up to 44%), polysaccharides, resins, gum, traces of alkaloids, saponins, essential oil (up to 4.3%), the main component of which are bicyclic sesquiterpenes: alantolactone, isoalantolactone and dihydroalantolactone – derivatives of alpha-celine . A mixture of bicyclic sesquiterpenic lactones, crystallized from elecampane essential oil, is called gelenin. In addition to gelenin, elecampane essential oil contains alanthol, proazulene, tocopherol. Elecampane grass contains essential oil (up to 3%), ascorbic acid, the bitter substance alantopicrin, flavonoids quercitrin and isocvercitrin.
Pills are made from elecampane – “alantolactone” (against roundworms) and “alanton” – it is used for peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum.
Elecampane has anti-inflammatory, choleretic, expectorant and weak diuretic effects, slows intestinal motility and its secretory activity and at the same time increases the excretion of bile into the duodenum, which, combined with an antiseptic effect, has a positive effect on the treatment of digestive organs.
Essential oil is a good antiseptic and can serve to flavor cooking products.
Elecampane is used for respiratory diseases and bronchitis with increased secretion of thick viscous sputum, for coughing, gastritis, liver and gall bladder diseases. It has antimicrobial and anthelmintic properties, especially with ascariasis. It is used for hemorrhoids, irregular menstruation, dysmenorrhea, rheumatism and diabetes. A decoction of the root is drunk for diseases of the kidneys, bladder, urolithiasis, dropsy. It regulates the metabolism in the body. It acts as a painkiller for joint diseases – rheumatism, gout, arthritis, sciatic nerve inflammation, lumbago.
The plant has tonic properties that improve the condition of the body, it is used for headaches, dizziness, pain in the heart, with hypertension, epilepsy, spasms of the vessels of the brain.
In Bulgarian traditional medicine, root tincture is used for palpitations, headaches, epilepsy, whooping cough and as a means of preventing premature birth.
In the treatment of rheumatism, elecampane root is used in a mixture with burdock root.
Included in Thyro Ultra.