Evergreen monoecious, up to 30 m tall, tree of the cypress family. The crown is thick, pyramidal. The bark of the trunk is dark brown or grayish-brown, longitudinally furrowed, one-year-old shoots are green, and red-brown at the base. The leaves are scaly (in juvenile plants – needle-shaped), placed oppositely. Male cones (microstrobils) are apical, in leaf axils, almost sessile, small (up to 2 mm in diameter), rounded, yellowish. Female cones (megastrobila) are oval-ovoid, light green, located at the ends of shortened branchlets. Ripe cones are bent downwards, light brown or brownish-brown, elongated-oval, their scales are leathery-woody, overlapping one another like tiles. It is pollinated in the first half of April. The seed ripens in the year of pollination.
Spread. The homeland of western thuja is North America. It is cultivated almost throughout Ukraine as an ornamental plant.
Procurement and storage . For the manufacture of medicines, the young shoots of thuja (Turiones Thujae occidentalis) are used. They are harvested in April-May and used fresh or dried.
Chemical composition. Thuja shoots contain essential oil (0.12%), aromadendrin, toxifolin, pinipicrin, pylene, pinene, ink, tannins and resin. The composition of the essential oil includes thujone, pinene, caryophyllene, bittern, cedrol and other substances.
Pharmacological properties and use. Western thuja has not been used in scientific medicine recently. Previously, the tincture of fresh thuja shoots was used to prepare complex products of akofit and merifit. Akofit was used for acute radiculitis, radiculo-ischalgia and funiculo-neuritis arising from acute infections, for lumbago, plexitis and neuromyotosis. Merifit was used in the treatment of chronic tonsillitis and chronic pharyngitis. In homeopathy, products from fresh thuja shoots are used for chronic inflammation of hair follicles (sycosis), for warts, as an antirheumatic agent, and in otorhinolaryngology. In folk medicine, western thuja is used as a diuretic, choleretic, expectorant, diaphoretic, hemostatic, antiseptic, and antihypertensive agent. An infusion of buds is taken inside with hemoptysis, intestinal and uterine bleeding, bronchial asthma, diseases of the bladder, kidneys and liver, kidney and gallstone diseases, gout, rheumatism, dropsy, prostatitis and prostate adenoma, gonorrhea, syphilis and ascariasis. Thuja preparations are contraindicated for pregnant women (they have an abortifacient effect). When applied externally, a positive therapeutic effect is observed in the treatment of inflammation of skin hair follicles (washing with infusion), lupus erythematosus and cold sores (lubrication with tincture), when removing warts (sprinkling with powder, lubrication with fresh juice or tincture). Thuja preparations are contraindicated for pregnant women (they have an abortifacient effect). When applied externally, a positive therapeutic effect is observed in the treatment of inflammation of skin hair follicles (washing with infusion), lupus erythematosus and cold sores (lubrication with tincture), when removing warts (sprinkling with powder, lubrication with fresh juice or tincture). Thuja preparations are contraindicated for pregnant women (they have an abortifacient effect). When applied externally, a positive therapeutic effect is observed in the treatment of inflammation of skin hair follicles (washing with infusion), lupus erythematosus and cold sores (lubrication with tincture), when removing warts (sprinkling with powder, lubrication with fresh juice or tincture).
Medicinal forms and applications .
Internally – infusion of dried shoots (20 g of raw material per 1 liter of boiling water) 1 cup 3 times a day;
20 g of a mixture (in proportion) of shoots of western thuja, leaves of common milkweed, grass of ostudnika holo and buds of warty birch are boiled for 5-7 minutes in 1 liter of water, filtered and the resulting infusion is drunk during the day well warmed for bladder diseases;
45 g of a mixture of western thuja shoots, sand cumin flowers, buckthorn bark, common sedum grass, wild chicory and common St. John’s wort, taken in a ratio of 0.5:1:1:1: 0.5:0.5, boiled for 5 – 7 minutes in 1 liter of water, filter and drink the resulting infusion during the day (1 glass on an empty stomach, the rest – during the day in 4 doses and each time an hour after meals) for liver diseases, gallstone disease.
Externally – 1 time a day sprinkling with powder, washing with infusion of fresh shoots (1 tablespoon of raw material per 300 ml of boiling water), lubrication with tincture of fresh shoots (prepared with strong vodka or alcohol in a ratio of 1:10). Western thuja, which belongs to poisonous plants, should be used carefully, without exceeding the permissible doses.