Gentiana macrophylla seeds, large leave gentian, rare!

Gentiana Macrophylla seeds

Gentiana Macrophylla belongs to the family of the Gentianaceae. It is also known as large leave gentian. In China it is called Qin Jiao. G. macrophylla is a perennial plant a can reach a height of 30 to 60 cm. The leaves are dark green and are directly at the shoot. They are elliptic- lanceolate and can get 28 cm long and 6 cm wide. At each leave 5 to 7 parallel nerves are clearly visible. The leaves that are on the shoot that bears the flowers are a bit smaller. They get only 10 to 20 cm long. Between each pair of leaves there’s some open space at the shoot without any leaves.
The flowers are placed in the axillaries of the leaves without a peduncle. They stand in whorls of many flowers. Each plant has only 3 to 5 inflorescences. The single flowers are blue to violet and yellow at the base. G. macrophylla grows very slow; it can need 5 to 7 years until the first flower arises. The round capsule includes various, long, yellow seeds.
The root is an oblong rhizome, it is yellowish brown. The root is dried and used in medicine. An extract made out of the root was already used 2000 years ago in China. The extract includes secoridoid glycoside; especially gentipicroside and swertiamarin are biological active substances. They have mainly an anti inflammatory, antipyretic and antirheumatic effect. The substances are specially an effect on stomach, liver and gall bladder.