Articles

Trockene Wärmeprozesse und Pflanzensubstanz

Eine Fallstudie an Brennessel (Urtica dioica), Löwenzahn (Taraxacum officinale) und Ackerschachtelhalm (Equisetum arvense)
Danica Jančáryová
Elemente der Naturwissenschaft 71, 1999, P. 46-60 | DOI: 10.18756/edn.71.46
Article | Language: German | €6.00
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Abstract:

Pharmaceutical processes are for transforming plant substances into pharmaceuticals. The heating effects in pharmaceutical processes should change the substances in such a way that their healing properties for particular human illnesses are enhanced. The variety of plant types manifests through different formative processes. Accordingly, the characteristics perceptible to the senses vary in the developmental process. Similar differences are revealed when observing the properties of dried substances when heated.

Using the examples of stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) and horsetail (Equisetum arvense) it is shown how with dry heat processes (roasting, carbonising, ashing) the properties of the plant substances change as the temperature is increased in stages. A relationship is demonstrated between the heating process, decomposition of substance and the life process of the plant with a view to the question as to what similarities and differences are shown. A further step involves comparing the three example healing plants as regards their corresponding changes during stepwise heating of the plant substance in order to distinguish the species-specific differences in relation to the process-specific differences of dry heating.

This investigation can be regarded as a contribution to questions as to the essence of substances and processes and the boundary between the living and the non-living. It can contribute to a more precise choice of temperature ranges in pharmaceutical processes - something which is too little considered in modern pharmaceutical practice.

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