English name: Common Melilot, Yellow sweet clover
Family: Fabaceae
Botanical characteristic: Biennial, 1 m tall herb with a branched stem. The leaves are trifoliate, toothed, with two entire marginal appendages. The flowers are yellow, forming long racemes. The fruit is a pod with a single seed.
Microscopic drawing:
Distribution: It grows on moist grassy areas, roadsides, railway embankments, and vineyards. It is used as fodder.
Drug: Meliloti herba
Harvesting method: Cloves are collected from June to August, at the time of flowering. 20 cm long parts of the stem are cut with gardening shears or bevelled.
Drying: Common Melilot is dried naturally in a thin layer, in the dark and ventilated room, it can be tied in bundles and hung. It is artificially dried in a drying oven, where the temperature must not exceed 35 °C.
Active substances: The drug is rich in coumarin glycosides with a predominance of melilotoside. In the drying process, these substances are enzymatically broken down to form coumarin, which gives the drug its characteristic odour. The contents also include flavonoids, tannins and mucilage.
Uses: Coumarins have an anti-inflammatory effect, reduce the formation of swelling and reduce the fragility of blood capillaries.
Traditional method of use in indications determined solely on the basis of long-term use:
– relief from the symptoms of heavy and swollen legs related to venous insufficiency,
– treatment of minor skin inflammations.
Selected herbal preparations: AGROKARPATY YELLOW SWEET CLOVER herbal tea 1×30 g, AGROKARPATY VARICOSE VEINS herbal tea 20×2 g, HerbaWay ARTEROPROTECT herbal drops 100 ml.