The plant grows mainly along roadsides and is native to Europe, Asia and North Africa. There is worldwide cultivation, the drug material comes mainly from cultures in Eastern European countries.
For medicinal purposes, people use the fresh or dried leaves, as well as the flowering shoots of sweet clover.
Sweet clover: special characteristics
Sweet clover is a biennial, erect, butterfly plant up to 80 cm high, bearing three-parted, toothed leaves. The small yellow flowers are arranged in numerous clusters.
In herbal medicine, in addition to Melilotus officinalis, the very similar Melilotus alba, Melilotus altissima and Melilotus indica are also used.
Rock cinquefoil as a medicine
Drug material includes leaf fragments with sharply serrate margins, some leaves are hairy on the underside along the leaf veins. Furthermore, longitudinally furrowed hollow stem fragments, pale yellow butterfly flowers, and occasional mostly closed legumes with only one seed occur.
Rockweed emits a sweetish odor. Taste-wise, the herb is bitter, salty and slightly pungent.
