Полин тризубчастий

Big sagebrush and other Artemisia shrubs are the dominant plant species across large portions of the Great Basin. Big sagebrush is a coarse, many-branched, pale-grey shrub with yellow flowers and silvery-grey foliage, which is generally 0.5-3 metres tall. Sagebrush is not a desert plant, but rather a resident of the steppe. The range extends northward through British Columbia's southern interior and south into Baja California. Big sagebrush has the widest distribution of any North American shrub, growing from Nebraska to California and from New Mexico to Montana.

Artemisia tridentata is not culinary sage (Salvia officinalis), which is a member of the mint family (Lamiaceae), whereas sagebrush belongs to the family Asteraceae. The species name, tridentata, comes from the leaf's toothed end, which usually has 3 lobes. Artemisia tridentata is the state flower of Nevada.

Chemistry

Sagebrush essential oil contains approximately 40% l-camphor, 20% pinene, 7% cineole and 5% methacrolein. The strong pungent fragrance of the plant comes from camphor, terpenoids and other volatile oils. An oil obtained by steam distillation from leaves and branches of A. tridentata contained 42 constituents, with camphor, camphene and 1,8-cineole accounting for 28.6, 16.9 and 13.2% of the total oil. The essential oil profile varies significantly between species and subspecies. Cis-thujone at 71% was the major constituent in the oil from the leaves of one accession of A. tridentata var. wyomingensis. Camphor is classified as a terpenoid and a cyclic ketone. Eucalyptol, also called cineole, is a monoterpenoid and a bicyclic ether.

Ecology

Sagebrush provides food and habitat for a variety of animal species, such as sage grouse, pronghorn, gray vireo, pygmy rabbit, and mule deer. The taste is bitter and, together with the odor, serves to discourage browsing by many herbivores. Damage to sagebrush plants caused by grazing herbivores results in the release of volatile chemicals, which are used to signal a warning to nearby plants.

Uses

It is used as a herbal medicine by Native Americans throughout the Intermountain West of North America, most notably as a smudging herb. The Navajo use the vapors of sagebrush as a treatment for headache. Some accessions yielded oil with significant concentrations of compounds including camphor and eucalyptol, so chemotypes can be selected and possibly grown for commercial production of these compounds.

Explore all seven extraits in the Discovery Set.

—

Related: Eucalyptus · Tea Tree Oil