Aspen (Populus tremula L.)
Aspen is a tall tree with smooth gray bark from the willow family. Young leaves are silvery in May, older leaves are dark green above and bluish below. Aspen is found everywhere in the Donbass in forests and is bred for ornamental purposes.
Aspen buds, bark of young branches and young leaves are used. Aspen buds contain flavone derivatives, essential oil, aspen leaves - glycosides salicin and others and vitamin C, bark - phenolic glycosides populin and salicin, essential oil, bitters, pectin, enzyme salicylase, tannins and other substances.
It is used in folk medicine for fever, malaria, stale colds, chronic bronchitis, pneumonia, pulmonary tuberculosis, cough, gastritis, poor digestion, dyspepsia, decreased appetite, diarrhea, diseases of the liver and biliary tract, spleen.
Decoctions and infusions of raw materials for compresses and baths, as well as ointment is used for lichens, wounds, trophic ulcers, burns, furunculosis. The decoction of the bark is rinsed in the mouth for toothache. Juice from the tree is used to smear lichens and warts. Steamed crushed young raw leaves in the form of cauterizations, as well as ointment and alcohol tincture used in diseases of the joints, muscles and sciatica. Rasped buds and young crushed leaves in a gauze bag dipped in boiling water, squeezed and applied hot to the joints, and warm - in hemorrhoids. Wood ash ointment, as well as resinous liquid from wood obtained by dry distillation, is used externally for eczema. However, this liquid causes a strong burning sensation and therefore should not be applied to large areas of skin.
М. А. Tkachenko (d. Berdyansk) reported on the treatment of hemorrhoids with aspen leaves, which are applied to hemorrhoidal nodes for 2 hours, followed by washing them with water, the procedure is repeated after 1-2 days for several days. If burning occurs, the patient removes aspen leaves and washes with water or a solution of potassium permanganate.
Methods of application:
1.1ч. spoonful of aspen buds insist 45-60 minutes in 250 ml of boiling water - 15-30 ml 5-6 times a day for bronchitis, gastritis, cystitis.
2. 10-20% tincture of aspen buds in 40% alcohol - 20-40 drops 3 times a day, as well as for external use in sciatica.
3. 90 g of aspen buds or aspen bark boiled in 7 cups of water until there are 600 g - 200 g 3 times a day with honey or sugar for diarrhea, heavy and painful menstruation.
4. Ointment of dried and rubbed aspen buds on butter or vegetable oil in a ratio of 1 : 1 or 20% tincture of raw buds on vegetable oil (externally - analgesic and wound healing).
Colchid sedge (Carex colchica J. Gay.)
Ukr.: kohlrabi sedge.
Colchicum sedge is a perennial herbaceous rigid gray-green herbaceous plant of the sedge family, with a long creeping nodular rhizome clothed in brown sheaths up to 2-3 mm thick. Leaves are stiff, narrow linear, smooth on the outside, rough on the margin stiff, cutting. It blooms in April through May. The fruit of the sedge is nuts. The rhizomes have a pleasant, turpentine-like odor.
Kolkhid sedge grows on loose sands, slopes, in sandy steppe, on undrained sands, especially in the Azov region. More than 40 species of sedges are found in the Donbas, including the mossy sedge (C. hirta L.); (folk name - dikokht black), rarely found on wet sandy places in the valley of the Seversky Donets and its tributaries (E. Н. Kondratyuk et al.).
In the northwestern regions of the European part of Russia and mainly in the Baltics, sand sedge grows (S. sessica). arenaria L.), which are pointed out by S. А. Tomilin, N. Г. Kovaleva, F. И. Mom, dibs.
The rhizomes of sedge are used, which contain saponin similar to saponin of the American plant sarsaparilla, asparagine, silicic acid, resins, mucilage, bitters, traces of essential oil, tannins and other substances. Preparations of sedge have expectorant, loosening, antiseptic, blood purifying, analgesic effect.
С. А. Tomilin also categorizes sedge as an irritant.
In folk medicine, sand sedge and other species are used for colds, runny nose, bronchitis, rheumatism, arthritis and arthrosis, pulmonary tuberculosis, choking, diseases of the stomach, intestines, liver, kidneys and bladder, flatulence, constipation, chronic skin diseases (eczema, furunculosis), menstrual disorders and other gynecological and nervous diseases.
Prof. S. А. Tomilin and N. Г. Kovaleva used decoction of rhizome separately or in mixture with other plants for joint diseases.
H. И. Solomchenko for several years applies in metabolic diseases of the joints rhizome of sedge Kolkhidskaya. Its efficacy in joint diseases and sciatica is reported by M. А. Tkachenko (d. Berdyansk), which recommends tincture of 30 g of sedge rhizome in 0.5 liters of 40-56% alcohol - 15 ml 3 times a day before meals for 1 month or more, as well as externally for rubbing.
No data on the chemical composition and properties of Colchis sedge have been found in the literature.
Methods of application:
I. 10% decoction of sedge rhizome - 1/3 cup 3 times a day before meals for gout, eczema, bronchitis (S. А. Tomilin).
2. 10-20% tincture of rhizome in 40% alcohol - 2-3 hours. spoonfuls 3 times a day, in arthrosis, rheumatism, is used externally (N. И. Solomchenko).
3. Rhizome sedge mossy or other, the roots of burdock, barberry, elecampane and comfrey 15 g each insist 12 days in 1 liter of 40% alcohol - 15 ml 3 times a day before meals 1 month and more with rheumatism and other diseases of the joints (G. Н. Kadeev).
Е. Н. Zalesova and O. В. Petrovskaya pointed out that all sedge species act similarly to sand sedge..
