Caution! Buttercup is acrid!

Buttercoke is acrid - a herbaceous perennial weed plant of the family of buttercups. Stalk single, straight, branched, leafy, glabrous or slightly pubescent. The height is usually about 50cm. Flowers of a plant in diameter from 1,5 to 2 cm, with five sepals and five petals of golden yellow color. Receptor is hemispherical. Fruits are globular polyhedra. Nuts are oblique-shaped with a curved or straight spout. The leaves of the flower are palmately-divided, the upper ones almost sessile, the lower ones on the long petioles.

Propagates the buttercup with acrid seeds. The root system of the plant is friable, consisting of numerous accessory roots. Flowering begins at the end of spring and ends in June. Flowers of buttercups are common everywhere: in Russia - on the European part (excluding the Far North) and in Western Siberia, as well as in Belarus and Ukraine. Occurs in meadows, meadows, forest fringes, clogs gardens, crops, pastures ...

In scientific medicine, the buttercup is not used in caustic, it is used only in folk medicine. With a therapeutic purpose, stems, leaves, flowers, harvested during flowering are used.

The fresh herb of the plant contains the glucuncide of Ranunculin, which is cleaved by hydrolysis to protoanemonin and glucose. Due to the content of protoanemonin in its composition, buttercup flower refers to extremely poisonous plants. The very name of the plant, derived from the word "fierce", characterizes its properties

In addition, the fresh grass contains tannins, saponins, flavonoids (kaempferol, quercetin and their glycosides), alkaloids, cardiac glycosides, vitamin C, carotene. In fruits, fat is low, in flowers - carotenoids (flavoxanthin, alpha-carotene-epoxide, chrysanthemaxanthin, taraxanthin).

Ingestion of preparations of buttercup is corrosive provoking irritation of the digestive tract (hemorrhagic gastroenteritis). When the heart is exposed to a decrease in the amplitude and frequency of heart contractions. In folk medicine, caustic buttercup is used as a locally irritating and vesicant, as well as for the treatment of wounds, burns, rheumatism, gout, headaches, with furunculosis and as a tonic.

Protoanemonin in topical application can cause severe irritation of the larynx, nose, mucous membranes of the eyes and skin around the eyes. At the same time, there is lacrimation, pain in the eyes, coughing, spasm of the larynx, discharge from the nose. With the introduction of the drug buttercup under the skin at the injection site, necrosis occurs - deep tissue destruction. In this case, there are also phenomena of general poisoning, namely: dizziness, weak and rapid pulse, fainting.

Fresh herb buttercup in homeopathy is used for neuralgia, skin diseases, gout. Ointment from its flowers is used for the speedy healing of suppurating wounds, with some skin diseases and with a cold, they lubricate the neck when the throat is ill. Moistened with the juice of the plant, cotton can be applied to diseased teeth. In small doses, decoction of flowers was used earlier for liver disease. The beneficial effect of plant preparations for skin tuberculosis, explained by the presence in its leaves of a very significant amount of carotene, is established.

It has been experimentally established that in low doses protoanemonin stimulates the central nervous system, increases the amount of hemoglobin and erythrocytes and has fungistatic and antimicrobial (against E. coli and staphylococci) action.

In veterinary medicine, buttercup caustic is used to treat animals running neglected wounds. Decoction is used as an insecticide.

When using medicines and infusions from the buttercup, strict precautions should be followed (especially when used internally). Even external use of ointment or infusion should be carried out under the supervision of a specialist-phytotherapeutist.

Pregnant women, children and lactating mothers are not treated with buttercup preparations.