Small-leaved linden (urine, bast) belongs to the family of linden trees. Trees grow up to 30-40 meters, some specimens reach 80 meters. The linden has a hipped crown. The leaves on top of the dark green color have a heart-shaped shape, at the top - sharpening. The flowers of the plant are yellow-white, fragrant, small in size. Fruits of linden (one-, two-seeded nutlet of gray color). The duration of flowering largely depends on weather conditions. So, in dry years, flowering lasts for a week, in forest areas - about three weeks. The linden propagates by seeds or shoots. The average life expectancy is from four hundred years.
Small-leaved linden is often found in the forest-steppe and forest zones of Europe: Crimea, the Caucasus, the Southern Urals, and Western Siberia. Prefers fertile soils of deciduous forests. Often found in roadside landings, parks, forest belts. As a rule, linden is a kind of marker of soil fertility. Small-leaved linden is a very shade-tolerant plant.
The composition of linden flowers includes essential oils, hesperidin, mucus, carotene, farnesol, tannins, volatile, carbohydrates, ascorbic acid, as well as other bio compounds. The fruits of the plant contain up to 60 percent fatty oil; vitamin C in the leaves (130 mg%), tannins are localized in the bark and wood. Linden honey contains about 40% levulose and 36% glucose. Inflorescences are rich in mineral elements (Potassium, Manganese, Magnesium, Calcium, Zinc, Chromium, Iron, Aluminum, Cobalt, Nickel, Molybdenum, Iodine, Selenium, Lead, Strontium). It should be noted that such elements as Barium, Lithium, Bromine, Silver, Vanadium, Gold were not found in linden inflorescences.
Small-leaved linden: pharmacological properties.
Preparations from the inflorescences of the plant activate diuresis, increase the secretion of gastric juice, increase bile formation, facilitate the transport of bile into the duodenum, have a diaphoretic, immunostimulating, expectorant and antipyretic effect. It has a sedative effect on the central nervous system, slightly reduces blood viscosity. Infusions of linden flowers exhibit an anti-inflammatory effect, which is largely due to the presence of bioflavonoids, delaying mainly the development of the exudative phase of the inflammatory process. Such drugs activate regenerative processes, as well as the organization of granulation tissue. In addition to all this, linden-colored infusions exhibit a bactericidal and weak antispasmodic effect. In folk medicine, it is used to treat kidney stone disease. Linden infusions are able to lower blood glucose in patients with diabetes.
Linden wood is used to make charcoal. Coal powder is often prescribed for belching, diarrhea, bloating. A decoction of the bark of a tree is used to treat gout, burns, hemorrhoids. In addition, wood is used in other areas of the national economy. The wood of this plant is used in the manufacturing process of pencils, plywood, furniture, beehives, tubs, etc. after pretreatment, wood waste can be fed to animals (they contain a lot of carbohydrates: starch and cellulose). Tar is an excellent bactericidal agent, which is obtained from the branches and trunks of linden. Tar is used to treat eczema and pyoderma in animals.
Large-leaved linden is a fairly common plant in the western part of Ukraine, in Central and Southern Europe, in the Caucasus. The height of the culture is up to 40 meters, has a thick pyramidal crown with brown, fluffy, less often bare young shoots. The leaves are round-ovate, hairy on top. Yellow-cream flowers bloom two weeks earlier than small-leaved linden. The fruits have a spherical shape, ribbed, a nut with a thick shell. Large-leaved linden is a frost-resistant, drought-tolerant plant.