In recent years, despite the abundance of various industrial preparations introduced, it has become increasingly common to use medicinal plants. The historical practice of using plants gave a lot of observations that strengthened the confidence in the usefulness of certain whole plants or their parts. Long-term observations of the plant world and experiments allowed us to learn a lot of useful things.
As you know, most useful, vital substances enter the body only with food. A lot of both cultivated and wild fruits, vegetables, fruits, as well as ornamental plants have healing properties. Plants that go to food contain a diverse set of vitamins that are easily digestible. , carbohydrates, proteins, enzymes, enzymes, amino acids, fats, mineral, aromatic, and other valuable biologically active substances that will play an important role in metabolism.
It should be noted that the use of synthetic drugs (vitamins) is often accompanied by an undesirable side effect on various human organs. The use of drugs from plant materials either completely eliminates undesirable consequences, or the side effect is insignificant and easily eliminated. And food products that have medicinal properties are almost harmless.
Plants -
an indispensable component of the natural environment, normalizing the body in any of its states, the flora contains all the substances that a person needs. Long before the discovery of vitamins and their role in human life, our ancestors already consumed dozens of wild-growing green herbs, revealing for themselves their important healing properties.
However, it is necessary to warn those who rely only on themselves in the treatment (harmless home remedies). Scientific medicine objectively disagrees with the healing of the healers over their health. Only the attending physician who knows the methods of diagnosis and monitoring the condition of the body can recommend a particular drug, thoroughly familiarizing with the history of the disease.
The pharmacy network has a fairly large assortment of various narrow medicinal plants and approved fees: vitamin, pectoral, gastric, weak, appetizing, choleretic, diaphoretic ... Usually they are sold through the pharmacy network in packaged form indicating the method of application. The main forms of application of medicinal plants are: infusions, decoctions, tinctures, powders, teas, fees, ointments, and less commonly juices. In order to use medicinal plants for therapeutic purposes, usually convenient dosage forms are prepared. Such at home can be infusions and decoctions.
Preparation of infusions and decoctions at home
Collection, drying and storage of herbal medicinal raw materials at home
Active, biologically active substances are localized in different parts of plants unequally: in some they accumulate in large quantities, in others - less. This explains the fact that in most cases only parts of it are used from a medicinal plant. Medicinal raw materials can be: bark, leaves, buds, roots, buds, flowers, fruits, seeds, peel and others .. The content of the active substance in the raw material may not always be in the same amount. It depends on the phase of plant development, on the individual characteristics of the active substances themselves, on the time of year.
In different medicinal plants, the active substances are contained in different parts: in some in the underground organs (roots, rhizomes), in others - in the whole aerial part of the plant, in the third - only in the leaves and buds, and in the fourth - in the flowers. The collection and drying of various parts of medicinal plants have their own particularities.
The aboveground parts of plants (leaves, flowers, fruits) are harvested only in good weather, since plants moistened with dew or rain do not dry well, deteriorate when dried, and the content of active substances decreases in them. The underground parts of plants (roots, rhizomes and tubers) can be harvested in any weather, as they are washed after digging. After harvesting, they should be quickly delivered to the place of drying.
Typically, leaves are collected before or during flowering, when they are fully developed and active substances accumulate in them during this period. Leaves should not be harvested very early, long before flowering, since during this period they are still poor in biological active substances. On the other hand, plants get sick when they lose their leaves and other organs (flowers and fruits) early, and do not develop normally.
Leaves are usually picked by hand without damaging the plant itself. In this case, it is necessary to monitor the purity of the raw materials so as not to collect dried, yellowed, dusty and damaged by insects or fungi leaves. Grass should be collected at the beginning and during the period of full flowering, sometimes until the end of flowering and at the beginning of the fruiting of the plant. Gather grass by poo cutting the harvested part with scissors, a knife, pruning shears or sickle. A plant with a root should not be pulled out, especially a perennial one, since this gives the raw material contaminated (mineral impurities such as earth, sand and others get into the raw material) and, in addition, the natural thickets of medicinal plants are destroyed.
Flowers and inflorescences are harvested in dry, clear weather during the period of their full flowering by hand, cutting off individual flowers or the whole inflorescence using scissors, knives and pruners.
Fruits and seeds are harvested during their full ripening. In some cases, the fruits are harvested in an unripe state, they ripen during drying. Juicy fruits and berries are picked by hand with care, so as not to damage, do not crush them, otherwise they will quickly deteriorate. The kidneys are harvested during such a period of development when they start to grow, swell, but not bloom. At this time, they are most rich in active medicinal substances.
For medicinal purposes, the bark is removed from young trunks and branches in the spring during abundant sap flow, bud swelling and during the first period of leaf blooming. Doing this on the indicated parts of the trees (oak, buckthorn, viburnum) make two annular cuts at a distance of 15 - 20 cm each from a friend, connect them with a longitudinal section and remove the bark, prying it with a knife. So that the crust does not twist into tubes, it is cut lengthwise into strips 1.5 - 2 cm wide and 7.5 - 10 cm long.
Digs up roots and rhizomes either in the fall, when the aerial part of the plants already dies, or in the early spring, before the plant has not yet consumed nutrients for growth. They are cleaned of the earth and damaged parts, washed thoroughly in cold water (active substances dissolve in hot water or their chemical composition changes).
Medicinal raw materials at home can be dried as follows: the grass must be dried quickly to avoid caking and spoilage. For this, the grass is immediately scattered with a thin layer immediately after collection so that no more than 1–2 kg of raw material falls per square meter. So that they are dried faster and not finished, they are often turned over.
Sprinkle the plant on some, on paper, on a clean mat or burlap. It is better to build a simple attic dryer. For this, four-angle frames are knocked down.
Leaves are dried in dryers, in attics and in rooms in a draft. They are stored, as a rule, as a whole (unmilled) in closed cans, cellophane, paper bags placed in cabinets. The flowers are dried in the attics under an iron roof. Kidneys are dried in ovens, ovens, dryers, in attics under an iron roof or in a well-ventilated dry room. They store dried buds in closed glass, porcelain jars or in dense plywood boxes laid out by paper in dry rooms.
Fruits, berries and seeds are dried in the air, in the attic or in the oven. Store in glass, porcelain jars or in packages of thick paper.
Natural drying is the easiest, most convenient and affordable way, which is often used at home. Directly under the influence of sunlight, drying of seeds, fruits, bark and underground organs (roots, rhizomes, tubers, bulbs) of medicinal plants is allowed in the sun. The aboveground parts - grass, leaves and flowers, are not dried in the sun, because under the influence of sunlight they lose their natural color: leaves and grass turn yellow, or turn pale, flowers often lose their appearance. Under the influence of sunlight, the chlorophyll pigment, which gives the green color to plant organs, decomposes. At the same time, other complex chemical compounds, including the main active substances, are destroyed in plant tissues.
Medicinal fees are a mixture of dried and crushed parts of plants. At home, tea is most often prepared from one, To obtain powders, plants can be crushed in a special crush; to obtain juices - presses, juicers. Leaves, grass and bark are cut, coarse leaves are crushed into coarse powder, roots and rhizomes are cut and crushed, seeds and fruits are crushed, or used whole. Flowers, with the exception of chamomile and linden, are not chopped.
At home, the dosage can be carried out using household items, in particular measuring cups, a dining room, a dessert, a teaspoon. The dose of grass is indicated as follows: 20.0 - 200.0, which means: 20 g of medicinal raw materials per 200 g of boiling water; if there are no weights, then you need to know that this is equal to one full tablespoon in one glass of boiling water or cold water.
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