Plant Name
Achillea millefolium
Botanical Info
Perennial, 5 – 120 cm of heigh.
Geography:
Europe, Caucasus, Western and the Eastern Siberia, a mountain part of Central Asia. Grows on dry wood skirts, glades, in bushes, on dry meadows, on fields fringes, on mountain centre girdle.
Chemical Content
Azulene, karyophyllene, eucalyptol, borneol, bornyl acetate, pinenes, limonene, tujons, terpineol, hamazulene, furfurol, flavonoids.
Traditional Use and Activity
Plant is known to possess diaphoretic, antipyretic, hypotensive,
astringent, diuretic and urinary antiseptic properties. Traditionally, it has been used for bruises, swellings, strains, fevers,common cold, essential hypertension, amenorrhoea, dysentery, diarrhoea, and, specifically, for thrombotic conditions with hypertension, including cerebral and coronary thromboses. Moderate antibacterial activity has been documented for an ethanolic extract of the herb against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Escherichia coli, Shigella sonnei and Shigella flexneri. Antimicrobial properties have been documented for the sesquiterpene lactone fraction; Antispasmodic activity tested on the isolated rabbit intestine is attributed to the flavonoid-containing fraction of this plant.
Antispasmodic activity is generally associated with azulene constituents.