Scurfy pea. Drupaceous scurfy pea fruits

Specification & Spread

Drupaceous scurfy pea fruits — fructus psoraleae drupaceae
Drupaceous scurfy pea — psoralea drupacea bunge
Bean family – fabaceae
Other names: breadroot.
It is a perennial herbaceous plant with a vertical, polycephalous rhizome, woody roots, deep, 2-4 m, leaving into the ground.
The stems are numerous, straight, branched at the top, densely pubescent, 70-150 cm tall.
The lower leaves are trifoliate, the upper ones are secondarily simple, petiolate, with stipules. The leaves are rounded 3-4 cm long, 2-3 cm wide, along the edge of a large, notched-toothed, glandular pubescence. The flowers are whitish-purple,gathered in loose axillary racemes; the corolla is moth 4-7 mm long.
The fruit is a single-seeded unopened nutty pubescent bean.
It blooms from May to July, the fruits ripen from June to October.
Spreading. It grows in the republics of Central Asia and South Kazakhstan.
Habitat. It grows in foothills and lowlands. It is often found on deposits and in non-irrigated crops.

Composition

The chemical composition of scurfy pea
In the fruits of drupaceous scurfy pea contain:

• furocoumarins (0.92%) are psoralen and isopsoralen (angelicin) that stimulate the formation of melanin in the skin when exposed to ultraviolet rays.

It is also contains:

• fatty oil,
• phospholipids,
• steroids,
• vitamins
• cyclitol.

Furocoumarins are also found in the roots of the plant.
The stems and leaves (as well as fruits) contain the little studied steroid compounds drupacin and drupanin.

Harvesting and storage of raw materials

Harvesting. In medicine the beans are used, which are harvested in June – August. Harvesters cut the tops of the stems, then separate the beans. It is dried immediately after harvesting in the sun.
With manual assembly, care must be taken to avoid skin burns and use gloves.
Storage. It is stored on racks in a dry and well-ventilated area.

The raw material consists of single-seeded, non-opening obovate or reniform beans 4–9 mm long, 3–6 mm wide, with or without calyx, densely grey-pubescent, when erasing black-brown hairs. The seeds are shiny and reniform. The smell is pleasant and specific.

Properties and application

Pharmacotherapeutic group. Photosensitizing agent.
Pharmacological properties of scurfy pea
Furocoumarins stimulate the formation of melanin in the skin when exposed to ultraviolet rays (photosensitizing effect).
Miscarriage, infertility and obesity, which develop in sheep when eating scurfy pea herb are associated with drupacin.
Psoralen has hypoglycemic properties.
Application of scurfy pea
It is applied with:

• vitiligo, nesting, total alopecia;
• mycosis and psoriasis.

The treatment is carried out by photochemotherapy: orally or externally used psoralen and at the same time prescribed dosed ultraviolet irradiation sessions.

With skin tuberculosis, liver, kidney, blood, cardiovascular and central nervous system diseases. It is undesirable to use scurfy pea for people over 50, pregnant and lactating women.