Description
It’s a tree of caducous leaf and an erect trunk that might go up to 20 m. The trunk opens up in thin branches which are almost horizontally displaced at the top. Bark is dark gray and is longitudinally grooved. Leaves are heart-shaped, petiolate with a serrated edge, glabrous, with brownish hair beneath, where the nerve ramifications are found. Flowers are scented, pale greenish-yellow, formed by 5 petals, plenty of stamens and an ovary, grouped in corymbose inflorescences which peduncle is partially connected to a membranous, lanceolate bract of approximately 8 cm long rounded at the apex. The fruit is a hairy capsule, hard and resistant with one or two seeds.
It lives in limy soils, not extremely humid and in shadowy places.
Part used
Inflorescences, including bracts and the middle part of the bark (inner bark) of T. cordata Mill., T. platyphyllos Scop. and T. vulgaris Heyne.
Indications
Bracts and inflorescences
- They are used as sedatives and anxiolytic in cases of insomnia and nervous excitability.
- As a cough suppressant in colds.
- Fever and flu.
- It is normally used along with other sedatives and anti-spasmodic drugs, such as chamomile, valerian or lemon balm.
Middle part of the bark
- Sedative, in baths.
- Anti-spasmodic at the hepatobiliary zone, being very useful to treat Oddi’s sphincter spasms.
- Digestive migraine.
- Liver colic.
- Kidney lithiasis.
- Atherosclerosis.
- Arterial hypertension.
Bibliography
Bachiller, LI. Efectos de las drogas vegetales. En “Actas del III Congreso Internacional de Fitoterapia y Técnicas Afines “Ciudad de Oviedo”. 2002.
Coleta M, Campos MG, Cotrim MD y Proenca da Cunha A. Comparative evaluation of Melissa officinalis L., Tilia europaea L., Passiflora edulis Sims. and Hypericum perforatum L. in the elevated plus maze anxiety test. Pharmacopsychiatry. 2001;34 Suppl 1:S20-1.
Matsuda H, Ninomiya K, Shimoda H y Yoshikawa M. Hepatoprotective principles from the flowers of Tilia argentea (linden): structure requirements of tiliroside and mechanisms of action. Bioorg Med Chem. 2002 Mar;10(3):707-12.
Viola H, Wolfman C, Levi de Stein M, Wasowski C, Pena C, Medina JH, Paladini AC. Isolation of pharmacologically active benzodiazepine receptor ligands from Tilia tomentosa (Tiliaceae). J Ethnopharmacol. 1994;44(1):47-53.
