Early spring: buds
Birch is a universal healer, and we will begin our acquaintance with its healing properties in early spring, when birch buds are collected.
Birch buds are plucked by hand or branches with buds are cut, which are then tied into small brooms and dried. After drying, birch branches are threshed and the crumbled buds are cleaned from branch debris and other impurities. Collecting buds too early, before they swell, is irrational, as they are low in resinous and aromatic substances at this time. Birch buds are stored in cloth and paper bags or in glass jars for 2 years.
Birch buds contain essential oil (3.5-5%), which is a thick balsamic liquid with a pleasant odor. Birch bud oil has anthelmintic and diuretic properties and is used in folk medicine to treat gonorrhea, worm diseases, diseases of the urinary system, cancer, malignant ulcers. The oil has phenomenal healing powers.
Aqueous infusion and decoction of kidneys, alcohol tincture of kidneys have diuretic, choleretic, diaphoretic, blood purifying, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, disinfectant, wound-healing, anthelmintic action.
Used in edema of cardiac origin, with dropsy and inflammation of the bladder as a diuretic, with a significant increase in diuresis (excretion of urine) and a sharp decrease in edema, even when other diuretics do not help. Given the possibility of irritating effect of kidney preparations containing resinous substances, it is necessary to perform control urine tests when prescribing.
In functional renal insufficiency should refrain from using birch bud preparations, due to possible irritation of renal tissue resinous substances.
Preparations of birch buds in the form of aqueous infusions or decoctions are useful to use as a sedative for overstressed secretory and motor functions of the stomach. These preparations always contain enveloping and mucilaginous substances, which help to reduce irritation and lead to a weakening of gastric motility and secretion. Alcoholic tinctures of birch buds, having in their composition fatty oils, always excite the secretion and motility of the stomach. They may therefore be administered when it is necessary to excite depressed gastric and intestinal function, in achylic condition and hyposecretion.
Preparations of birch buds are useful in functional disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, stomach and intestinal pain, dysentery and dyspepsia in children, stomach ulcers and duodenal ulcers.
Water infusion of kidneys is used in chronic kidney disease, especially in the formation of kidney stones and bladder stones.
To do this, 1 teaspoon of birch buds should be poured 1/2 cup boiling water, insist on a boiling water bath in a tightly closed bowl for 15 minutes, cool at room temperature for 45 minutes, strain. Divide the infusion into 3 parts and drink the entire portion in three parts during the day. The same infusion should be taken for diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
Aqueous infusion of birch buds not only strengthens the body, but is a good anthelmintic drug that expels pinworms and ascarids.
Aqueous infusion of birch buds is successfully used in the treatment of diabetes mellitus. The daily dose is 2-3 tablespoons of buds per 2 cups of boiling water. Infuse in a warm place in a tightly closed dish for 6 hours, then strain.
With urinary retention 1 tablespoon of birch buds pour a glass of steep boiling water and insist for 1 hour in a tightly closed container in a warm place. Drink in one sitting daily for 10-15 days.
With a mild cold buds birch brewed as a tea, 1 teaspoon to 1/2 cup boiling water and drink this tea for the day in 3 receptions in a warm form.
If you have a cold, the body is broken all day, then at night you should rub the body with alcohol tincture of birch buds, which causes profuse sweating and reduces the brokenness, and at the same time drink tea from birch buds. After rubbing with the tincture, the patient should lie under a warm blanket quietly, without talking, to sweat well. Rest for good sweating means a lot. If the patient gets a good sweat, it practically means recovery.
20-percent. infusion of birch buds used in the form of daily spritzing with cervical erosion.
The choleretic effect of birch bud decoction is used in diseases of the liver, biliary tract, cholecystitis, biliary dyskinesia, biliary stone disease. In addition, decoction and infusion of kidneys increase the secretory activity of various glands, facilitate the flow of menstruation and accelerate its onset.
Decoction of birch buds is useful for inhalations for inflammatory processes of the upper respiratory tract, externally - as a wound-healing agent, as a stimulant of regeneration, in the treatment of arthritis.
To prepare a decoction take 2 teaspoons of birch buds to 1 cup of boiling water, insist on a boiling water bath in a tightly closed bowl for 30 minutes, cooled at room temperature for 10 minutes, strain. Take in 3 doses 20-30 minutes before meals.
Decoction of birch buds successfully used externally for vulgar acne, and in cosmetics to remove age spots. Dry skin is cleansed with decoction of birch buds instead of toilet water.
Infusion and decoction of buds used externally for baths, compresses and bouts of rheumatism, gout, skin rashes, eczema, psoriasis, sores and burns.
Diuretic effect of infusion and decoction of birch buds can be strengthened, if they add baking soda on the tip of a knife.
Facilitates the withdrawal of urine from the body collection of birch buds and dill seeds taken in equal amounts pesu. 1/2 teaspoon of crushed collection pour 1 cup boiling water, steamed in a tightly closed bowl in a warm place for 1.5 hours, strain. Drink 1 cup of the infusion throughout the day in small sips every 30 minutes.
In dysentery and dyspepsia in children decoction of birch buds should be taken 1 tablespoon 4 times a day for 30 minutes before meals.
Alcoholic tincture of kidneys is taken for colds, bronchitis, tracheitis, pulmonary tuberculosis, gastrointestinal diseases, gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer (in these cases, the tincture is especially effective), in dysentery and dyspepsia in children, with pinworms and ascarids, with kidney stone disease and bladder disease, with headaches and migraines, atherosclerosis, in the treatment of paresis and paralysis, with various lesions of the joints, with severe, incessant hiccups.
As an external anesthetic, anti-inflammatory agent alcohol tincture of birch buds used for rubbing and compresses for rheumatism, gout, joint pain, lumbago and bedsores, in the treatment of minor wounds, skin erosions, skin irritation with purulent discharge, in the treatment of acute and chronic forms of eczema, poorly healing ulcers, myositis and arthritis, toothache in the form of mouthwash.
Here is a method of treatment of eczema with alcohol tincture of birch buds.
Birch buds rub in a mortar and pour alcohol at the rate of 1 part by weight of buds - 5 parts of alcohol. If alcohol is not available, vodka can be used. After a week, the tincture is ready for use.
Treatment Methodology. Painful foci (hand, foot) are immersed in a hot bath once a day. The temperature of the bath is as high as the patient can tolerate. In the bath add alcohol tincture at the rate of 10 ml per 1 liter of water. The duration of the procedure should be no more than 30 minutes. At the end of the bath, the affected skin areas should not be wiped off, but allowed to dry. If the process is localized in such places where local baths are impossible, hot lotions should be applied for an hour at the same rate of tincture. In the process of treatment of dryness and a feeling of tightness of the skin in the lesions an hour after the bath on them applied ointment of lanolin and tincture of birch buds.
Preparation of ointment: in heated to the melting point of lanolin heated to an excess of alcoholic tincture of buds. Once the lanolin has solidified, the excess unabsorbed tincture is poured off. The ointment prepared in this way has a pleasant balsamic odor.
The duration of treatment is on average 15-20 days. Almost all patients, with few exceptions, after the first baths disappear one of the most persistent and distressing symptoms of eczema - itching. Quick cessation of itching is extremely beneficial effect on the general condition of patients with eczema, there is confidence in the possibility of curing the disease, raises the mood of the patient, which is extremely important in the treatment of such a capricious and difficult to treat the disease as eczema. With the disappearance of pruritus markedly come phenomena of the reverse development of the inflammatory process - stops wetting, passes edema, hyperemia in acute eczema, resolves the infiltrate, epithelialized cracks, the skin begins to take a normal appearance.
In both acute and chronic eczema, after six or more baths there is a drying of the skin, which is easily relieved by the use of the ointment described above.
As a result of treatment, most patients experience either clinical cure or significant improvement in a relatively short period of time. Only a small number of patients have a subsequent relapse of the disease, which is eliminated by repeated treatment according to the above methodology.
Chronic eczema of the scrotum, perineum, itching of the anus are perfectly cured with this technique.
To treat pharyngitis, it is useful to use an infusion of St. John's wort herb with tincture of birch buds. 1 tablespoon of crushed herb St. John's wort pour 1 cup of steep boiling water, insist on a boiling water bath in a tightly closed bowl for 15 minutes, cool at room temperature for 45 minutes, strain. For one gargle is enough 1/2 cup of infusion. To this amount of infusion should be added 30 drops of tincture (1:10) of birch buds. It is recommended to gargle the throat 2-3 times a day. The rinse is flavorful and very pleasant. It has a strong anti-inflammatory effect.
To increase diuresis, you can consume honey with an infusion of birch buds or leaves. To 1/2 cup of infusion should be added 2 teaspoons of bee honey. Cooled infusion is taken 2-3 tablespoons every 2-3 hours for one week. The increase in the amount of urine excreted per day can be as high as 60%.
As a local anti-inflammatory agent can be prepared birch cakes: for 1 part of honey take 2 parts of birch bud powder and kneaded to form a thick homogeneous mass. If the honey is very liquid, the amount of powder can be increased.
In furunculosis and the formation of carbuncles is quite effective along with antibacterial therapy or sulfonamides local application of birch cakes. They can be applied under a bandage for 3-4 hours and then replaced again. Sometimes such a bandage can be left on overnight.
Birch buds are used in the treatment of chronic ulcers of the lower leg. To obtain the medicinal form, birch buds are extracted with unrefined sunflower oil. In a certain portion of oil add 20 or 30% of crushed birch buds, insist in a dark warm place in a tightly closed container for 2 weeks. Then this mixture is kept for 4-b hours in a boiling water bath at a temperature of 60-70°C, and then filtered, but already at a higher temperature. Once cooled, a homogeneous mixture is obtained that rinses off well. Extract from birch buds is used to prepare gauze bandages.
Along with this method of treatment, 30 percent is also used. alcohol tincture of birch buds, which is impregnated with gauze napkins and then made dressing. Ointment and tincture of birch buds have a good anti-inflammatory effect, analgesic and promote healing of ulcers.
In order to prevent and treat chronic bronchitis, chronic nonspecific pneumonia, bronchial asthma is useful aerosol treatment with birch buds. For inhalation use 10 percent. alcoholic solution of birch buds in apricot, peach or rosehip oil. An emulsion is obtained with dilution on oil in the ratio: 1:3, 1:2, 1:1. The duration of procedures - 5-10 minutes, and the number - depending on the therapeutic effect - from 5 to 20 inhalations.
Candidiasis - a localized lesion of mucous membranes and skin by yeast-like fungi of the Candida type - most often affects children and women. Lesions are located in the interfinger folds of the hands and feet, more often between the III and IV fingers, in the inguinal and axillary fossae, under the mammary glands, in obese women and in the interjugular area. The mucous membranes of the oral cavity, vagina and external genitalia are also affected. In addition to skin and mucous membranes, fungi can cause severe damage to internal organs.
Affected areas of the skin and mucous membranes lubricated with tincture of birch buds and black poplar buds, taken in equal parts by weight, prepared in the ratio of raw materials to extractor 1 : 10. Infuse, periodically shaking, in a dark, warm place for two weeks.
Alcoholic tincture of birch buds successfully cured chronic purulent mesotympanitis, acute inflammation of the middle ear without perforation of the eardrum. Birch buds insist on 70-proc. alcohol in the ratio of 1 : 10 for 2 months, periodically shaking the contents. Alcohol drops are applied in the usual way. After a thorough toilet of the ears tincture in warm form (37 ° C) injected 3 times a day. Once a day this tincture in patients with chronic otitis media should be washed the tympanic cavity. Treatment is carried out for 10 to 15 days.
As a result, purulent mesotympanitis patients stop purulent discharge and their hearing improves. In patients with acute middle ear inflammation, the inflammatory processes disappear, the tympanic membrane takes its shape. Excess granulation in patients is easily removed with an auricular conchotome, and pitting granulations gradually shrink and disappear.
10-percent. alcohol tincture of birch buds has a disinfectant and anti-inflammatory effect and can be successfully used to treat otitis media. Tincture has no toxic, allergic effect and at the same time has a pronounced anesthetic effect.
Sometimes pregnant women are bothered by itching, mainly in the back area. It especially increases in the second half of pregnancy. This is due to the fetus pressing on particularly sensitive nerves. Completely eliminate itching is impossible, but rubbing with vodka tincture of birch buds or birch lye helps a lot.
Alcohol tincture of birch buds (1 tablespoon of tincture for 1 cup of cool boiled water) is used for spritzing for bleeding in women.
In Russia, tincture of birch buds (half a bottle of buds pour vodka, insist, periodically shaking, one month) was used to treat cholera. During the period when vomiting began, took 40-50 drops of tincture 3-4 times a day, and with very strong vomiting - a shot every hour, with liver pain - 1 teaspoon with water 3 times a day for 15-20 minutes before meals. Tincture was taken internally for acute rheumatism, as well as a diuretic and choleretic agent 1 tablespoon 3 times a day before meals. This tincture is smeared on sore spots with bedsores.
If you have bloated veins, you suffer from varicose veins and thrombophlebitis, on the body is brewing boils and you tortured long-standing wounds that do not heal - lubricate sore places alcoholic tincture of birch buds. If you come home, your feet are tired and your feet are itchy skin, also lubricate your feet with alcohol tincture - the itching will be eliminated. Any wound on the body can be treated with this tincture - the wound will never fester. Wounds heal well, pain disappears.
By extraction with vodka or 96-proc. alcohol from a mixture of equal parts by weight of birch buds and buds of black poplar (sedge) obtained a preparation with excellent antimicrobial action against staphylococci. At dilution of the extract in the ratio of 1 : 5 the death of staphylococci occurs instantly, at dilution of 1:10 - in 30 minutes, at dilution of 1 :50 - in an hour.
Tincture (1 :10) birch buds on wine (insist in a warm, dark place, periodically shaking) rubbed for joint pain, as well as taken internally to normalize the gastrointestinal tract at 50 ml 3 times a day for 30 minutes before meals.
If you want to help a patient suffering from alcoholism and they realize their tragedy, you can ease their plight in the following ways.
On a dry, sunny morning, go to a deep forest and carefully collect the forest cobwebs there. Give the patient with alcoholism in the morning on an empty stomach a glass of water with dissolved in it forest cobwebs (1/4 circle of cobwebs for 0.5 liters of cold boiled well or spring water). In the afternoon before dinner give 30 grams of tincture of birch buds and roots of Rhodiola rosea (golden root). To prepare the tincture, 25 g of birch buds and 50 g of golden root pour 1 liter of brandy, insist, occasionally shaking, 3 weeks, in a dark, warm place. Or 50 g of birch buds and 100 g roots of Rhodiola rosea poured 1 liter of vodka, insist, occasionally shaking, two weeks in a dark, warm place. The tincture is taken 30 g once a day before lunch. The course of treatment is one month. This simple recipe for treating alcoholism will help a person in trouble, without lectures, reproaches and humiliation to interrupt the craving for alcohol, strengthen the body, eliminate weakness, apathy, insecurity. And to avoid alcohol poisoning and sobering up quickly, you need to press on the liver with your index finger 50 times. By the way, it is also a prevention of liver cirrhosis, which, as a rule, "crowns" alcoholism.
To enhance the healing properties of tinctures is useful to add 5.0 g powder of licorice root and 5.0 g flowers of St. John's wort.
Birch buds are one of the main sources used by bees to produce propolis. Tincture of birch nights, containing essentially the same biologically active substances, is a cheaper and affordable drug, so it is appropriate to use it much more widely in the treatment and prevention of various diseases, up to serious oncological diseases.
From various coughs helps a mixture prepared as follows. Mix 2 tablespoons of birch buds with 50 g of unsalted butter. Place on the heat, bring to a boil, but do not boil. Simmer over low heat or in the oven for 1 hour. Remove from heat, when cool but still warm, strain, squeeze, discard the buds. Add 200 g of honey and stir well. This mixture should be taken for coughing 1 tablespoon 4 times a day.
Birch buds are one of the most effective remedies in the treatment of joint rheumatism. The most effective and powerful remedy, in addition to tincture of birch buds, is ointment from birch buds. For its preparation you need to take 800 g of fresh unsalted butter and birch buds. In glass, earthenware or enameled dishes put in layers: butter 1-2 cm thick, on top of a layer of birch buds of the same thickness and so on until the butter and buds are used up. Cover the pan tightly with a lid and cover with dough, then put it in a warm place, preferably in an unheated oven or stove, for twenty-four hours. After 24 hours, slightly cooled, strain and squeeze through gauze. Add 5-10 g of camphor to the resulting oil and mix thoroughly. Apply in acute joint rheumatism, rubbing the ointment into the joints in the evening, before going to bed, once a day.
In tuberculosis, prolonged cough, pneumonia, bronchitis and other inflammatory diseases of the upper respiratory tract, the following remedy is useful. It consists of honey (preferably linden) - 1.5 kg, finely chopped aloe leaves - one cup, vegetable oil - 200 g, birch buds - 150 g, linden flower - 50 g.
Before preparation, plucked and washed aloe leaves put for 10 days in a cold and dark place, with a week before plucking the leaves, aloe do not water. Birch buds and linden flower pour two cups of boiling water, boil over low heat in a tightly closed bowl for 2-3 minutes, cool at room temperature, strain. Mix aloe leaves with honey and steam this mixture well on a boiling water bath. Decoction of birch buds and linden flowers pour into the cooled honey, stir and pour into bottles, adding vegetable oil. Store in a dark, cool place.
Take one tablespoon 3 times a day 30 minutes before meals. Shake the mixture before use.
Preparations from birch buds have a strong antibacterial effect on intestinal typhoid microbes.
Birch buds, crushed and scalded with boiling water, add a small amount to broths or meat dishes. They give them a nice bitterness..
