Study of Morphometric Characteristics of Alder Leaves of Pharmacopoeial Species

Abstract

To expand the raw material base of medicinal plant raw materials, a promising area of research is the study of additional types of raw materials that can be harvested from already used medicinal and food plants. Given the complexity of harvesting alder seeds, researchers are interested in the leaves of this plant, a wide range of biologically active substances that cause anti-inflammatory, astringent and antioxidant effects. The first stage of standardization of raw materials is the definition of morphologically significant features, based on the generalization of which the section "External features" is developed. The analysis of morphological features of freshly harvested, dried and frozen leaves of gray alder (Alnus incana Moench) and black alder (A. glutinosa Gaerth) harvested from wild plants in mixed forests of the Moscow region revealed diagnostically significant features and found that the method of conservation does not affect the occurrence of the identified features. Since it is planned to use both types of alder for the preparation of a new type of raw material "Alder leaves", a generalized formulation is proposed for raw materials that are a mixture of species.