What is a ram ram plant? A description of this herb, its properties, features and habitat will be discussed below.
general information
Plaun the ram, or, as it is also called, the ram is ordinary, is a herbaceous plant belonging to the genus Baranets and the family Plaunovye.
The generic name of this species sounds like hupertia baranets. It was given to the plant in honor of the famous botanist - the German Johann Hooperz.
Grass description
Baranets is an evergreen creeping grass. This is a spore perennial with an underdeveloped root system, the height of which reaches 7-30 cm.
The stems of the plant in question are erect or ascending, branching dichotomously, as well as rooting in the base and forming loose and round curtains. It is precisely by these external signs that the ram ram differs from other species of rams.
According to experts, the age of curtains can exceed a hundred years, and their annual growth can fluctuate between 1-4 cm.
The ram ram has dark green, linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, leathery, sharp and stiff leaves that are densely arranged in a spiral and well pressed to the axis of the shoot.
In Central Russia, the spores of the plant in question mature only in July-August.
Distribution and habitat
Common ram is especially common in Europe, East Asia, including Japan and North America.
In the Russian Federation, this plant is found in the territory from Novaya Zemlya to the Caucasus. In addition, it grows in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Altai, the south of the Irkutsk Region, Kamchatka, the north of Yakutia, Chukotka, the Kuril Islands and the Amur Region.
The habitat of the grass in question is dark coniferous forests. It grows mainly on podzolized and acidic soils. Also, the mentioned plant can be found in spruce forests, in humid birch-mixed herbs and mixed communities.
Very rarely, common ram grows in alder forests, pine forests, on the outskirts of sphagnum bogs and on the bottoms of forest ravines.
In the mountains, this grass is also found infrequently. It can grow on rocks, alpine meadows and gravelly slopes.
Chemical composition
Ordinary ram is a medicinal raw material that is actively used to create various medicines and other medicinal products. According to studies, such an herb contains 0.13-1.02% alkaloids, including nicotine, lycopodine, clavatin, pseudoselagin, clavatotoxin, selagin, serratidine, selagonin, hoperazin A and others. It should be noted that the presence of several dozens of triterpenoids of the serratan type is characteristic of all the crowns.
It should also be said that the plant in question contains flavonoids and about 25% carotenoids, including β-cryptoxanthin, β-carotene and lutein. The aerial part of this herb contains leukoanthocyanins and phenolcarboxylic acids such as vanillic and ferulic.
Application and economic value
As mentioned above, common ram is actively used in medical practice. It is also sometimes used as an insecticide.
Previously, the grass in question was used to obtain yellow paint that dyed wool.
Long stalks of the crowns are very often used to decorate rooms. Moreover, in some regions of our country, funeral wreaths are made of them. Such use of the plant has led to their rarity in coniferous forests.
Medicinal use of herbs
Does the ram help ram from alcoholism? Reviews of those who have used this plant more than once to treat the aforementioned addiction state that it really helps to cause an aversion to alcohol. What is the reason for this? The effect of the decoction prepared on the basis of this herb is due to the development of a negative conditioned reflex for taking alcoholic beverages in connection with very strong unpleasant sensations.
In medical practice, the common ram grass, which is collected in August-September, is actively used as medicinal raw material. Do this after the end of sporulation.
Having cut off the yellowing or still green parts of the shoots, they are dried in special dryers at a temperature of 50 degrees (you can in a well-ventilated room).
Side effects of the plant
In case of accidental consumption of a large amount of decoction made on the basis of ram ram, patients may experience diarrhea, sweating, speech impairment, cramps and dizziness, which are due to inhibition of (reversible) brain acetylcholinesterase by chumerazine A. Lycopodin, selagin, and clavatin have such toxic properties.
Mode of application
Where to buy ram ram? To find such a plant in ordinary pharmacies is quite difficult. Therefore, many people order it through the World Wide Web.
It should be noted right away that, like all the clowns, common ram is a poisonous grass. Treatment with decoctions made on the basis of this plant is possible only in stationary conditions and under the strict supervision of specialists.
Most often, supporters of traditional medicine use the aerial parts of the mentioned grass. They take them inside with neurosis, pulmonary tuberculosis and glaucoma. Also, this plant is very effective in metabolic disorders, as an anticonvulsant, laxative, anti-inflammatory and diuretic. In addition, it helps with cystitis and is used as an anthelmintic and antitumor drug.
In addition to the internal reception of the decoction, it is also used externally. As a rule, such a remedy is used for conjunctivitis, skin diseases and alopecia. According to experts, this plant is effective even in infertility.
For medicinal purposes, ram ram is used not only in our country, but also in such an Asian state as China. However, for the preparation of medicinal extracts, the inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom use a plant of a similar species, or rather, a ram ram. It contains much more chuperazin A than other crowns. Such a plant is used to treat fever, tumors and blood diseases.
It is impossible not to say that the herb in question is highly effective in senile memory disorders and the treatment of myasthenia gravis. In addition, preparations based on chumerazine A have a pronounced neuroprotective activity. Such agents are very often used to treat Alzheimer's disease.
Features of the reception
It is very important to take decoctions prepared on the basis of common ram. This is due to the fact that the uncontrolled use of such drugs can cause severe intoxication, which manifests itself in the following: severe repeated vomiting, general painful condition, body muscle fibrillation, salivation, lowering blood pressure, sweating, bradypnea and arrhythmia. It should also be noted that all of these symptoms are significantly enhanced while taking alcoholic beverages and smoking tobacco.
Until recently, infusions made on the basis of ram were widely used in drug treatment hospitals for the purpose of conducting conditioned-reflex therapy. Today, many attempts are being made to make this herb a drug for the treatment of alcoholism.