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Bergenia crassifolia is a perennial, herbaceous, "evergreen" plant that typically grows 10–50 cm tall or more. It features a thick, fleshy, creeping, and highly branched rhizome with numerous fibrous roots. The flowering stem is leafless and smooth. Leaves are large, long-petioled, simple, slightly fleshy, and dark green—turning reddish in autumn. They form a dense basal rosette and usually live for 2–3 years.
The leaf blade (3–35 cm long, 2–30 cm wide) is broadly elliptic or slightly obovate, rounded or heart-shaped at the base, with coarse, blunt teeth along the margins. Although considered evergreen, each leaf lives only one year. Typically, a new leaf appears in spring after flowering, grows during summer, overwinters while staying green, provides nutrients in early spring, then dies off as new leaves emerge. Older leaves gradually turn red, brown, or even black before drying out.
Flowers are small (up to 0.8 cm in diameter), actinomorphic (radially symmetrical), and 5-parted, with a bell-shaped lilac-pink corolla. They are arranged in dense, terminal, paniculate-corymbose inflorescences on leafless scapes. Petals are ovate or broadly ovate at the base with a short, wide claw and are 2–3 times longer than the calyx. The perianth is double. The flower formula is K5C5A10G2. A distinctive feature of Bergenia crassifolia flowers is the presence of a hypanthium fused to the base of the gynoecium.
The fruit is a dry, ellipsoidal capsule with two diverging lobes. The plant blooms in May–June, before new leaves appear. The seeds are numerous, small, and ripen from July to early August.
Harvesting of Raw Materials
Raw materials are collected throughout the summer, until the end of the growing season. Rhizomes are cleaned of soil and fine roots, cut into 10–15 cm pieces, and dried for about three weeks at 45 °C until they reach an air-dry state. Before drying, the rhizomes are slightly wilted. Once dried, they are used as medicinal raw material for producing liquid extracts. In spring, overwintered dry leaves that are at least one year old are also harvested. The shelf life of the raw materials is up to 5 years.
Chemical Composition
The leaves of Bergenia crassifolia contain up to 23% tannins, while the rhizomes contain up to 27%. In addition, the rhizomes are rich in 25–27% tannic substances, phenolic compounds, phenolcarboxylic acids, the coumarin derivative bergenin, as well as isocoumarins, catechins, starch, sugars, and mineral salts. The leaves also contain gallic acid, coumarins, flavonoids, vitamin C, carotene, and arbutin, along with 2–4% free hydroquinone.
Pharmacological Properties
The bactericidal, astringent, hemostatic, and anti-inflammatory effects of Bergenia crassifolia preparations are primarily due to the high tannin content in its rhizomes. Rhizome extract is used to treat colitis, enterocolitis, cervical erosion, and for mouth rinses in cases of stomatitis and gingivitis. The plant’s bactericidal and anti-inflammatory actions are attributed to arbutin, while its astringent effect is due to tannins.
Additionally, Bergenia crassifolia exhibits adaptogenic, anti-stress, antihypoxic, capillary-strengthening, immunomodulatory, antipyretic, and antitumor properties.
Traditional Medicine Uses
The medicinal properties of Bergenia crassifolia have long been utilized in Russian, Tibetan, and Chinese traditional medicine. The leaves are used to treat tuberculosis, pneumonia, rheumatism, gastrointestinal disorders, urinary tract diseases, goiter, and toothache.
Aqueous extracts from the rhizomes and leaves are taken internally for non-infectious colitis and enterocolitis, heavy menstruation caused by inflammation of the appendages, uterine fibroids, postpartum or post-abortion bleeding, and chronic inflammatory conditions in the oral cavity.
Additionally, in folk medicine, Bergenia crassifolia is used to treat respiratory infections, whooping cough, influenza, headaches, hemorrhoids, fever, gastritis, and more. Compresses made from the plant are applied to promote the healing of wounds, ulcers, and bruises. Rhizome powder is also used to treat slow-healing wounds and weeping rashes by dusting it directly onto the affected areas.