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Common juniper blooms in May, fruits ripen in the second year in fall (October - November).
Common juniper is distributed in the European part of the former USSR, in Siberia and in the Caucasus. Grows in undergrowth, deciduous and mixed forests, in bogs, on sandy soils, on dry hills, on mountain slopes, along riverbanks. Common juniper is cultivated as an ornamental and landscaping plant.
The ripe, black fruits (berries) are used. The flavor is sweetly spicy. The smell of juniper common has a peculiar, fragrant.
When picking, be aware that it can be confused with Cossack juniper, which is poisonous. The difference is that the fruit of the common juniper has three seeds, while the Cossack juniper has two; the color of the fruit is black-brown, while that of the Cossack juniper is black-blue with a waxy patina. The leaves of the common juniper are needle-like, while those of the Cossack juniper are flat, appressed.
Chemical composition and properties of juniper
Useful properties of juniper are used to prepare medicinal preparations. The fruits contain essential oil (up to 2%), acetic, malic and formic acids, sugars (up to 40%), mainly glucose, fructose; pectin, bitter, resinous substances; flavone glucoside, wax, alcohol inositol, yellow pigment.
The properties of juniper are widely used to treat ailments by modern phytotherapists.
The effects and uses of juniper
Essential oil, which is part of the properties of juniper, in the digestive tract, irritating the mucous membranes, causing increased peristalsis, while increasing the secretion of bronchial glands; liquefies sputum, which contributes to its better separation. The essential oil is excreted mainly through the kidneys, moderately irritating them, increases diuresis. In large doses, the essential oil causes kidney irritation and decreases bronchial gland secretion. It also acts as an antimicrobial.
The use of juniper is recommended as a diuretic, disinfecting urinary tract (in kidney disease, kidney stones and sand in the kidneys, liver disease), as well as expectorant and improving digestion means. It is necessary to take into account the irritating effect of berries of the kidney parenchyma, so in acute nephritis they are contraindicated. Administered under the supervision of a physician.
Externally, the use of juniper (oil) is recommended for rheumatic pain in the joints and muscles in the form of rubbing.
In Poland and Bulgaria juniper berries are used as a diuretic, for chronic inflammation of the kidneys and bladder, liver diseases, dermatitis, rheumatism.
In the GDR, in addition to the above-mentioned diseases, the fruit was used for stomach diseases, liver diseases, skin diseases (scabies, lichens, skin rashes) and others.
As a tea, the use of juniper is prescribed as a diuretic, with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract: 100 g of dried berries boiled in 400 ml of water until soft, strain and in the form of syrup with sugar to take daily 3 times a day 1 teaspoon before meals.
With gout and rheumatism - in the form of baths (200 g of dried berries boiled in 2 liters of water).
In the spring to improve blood composition is recommended to chew daily on an empty stomach one berry, on another day - two and reach on the 15th day to 15 berries, reducing then to 5.
In France, all parts of the juniper tree are believed to be beneficial to health. They contain the beneficial properties of juniper. It has long been used as a good diuretic. Leclerc has successfully used the berries to treat arthritis patients with impaired kidney function.
The berries are used as a surrogate for coffee, a spice for meat dishes and sauerkraut. Juniper sugar is extracted from the fruit and used for making beer, morsels and flavoring beverages. Juniper berries were included in the State Pharmacopoeia of the USSR in 1968.
Juniper fruit we use in small doses as a disinfectant, diuretic in kidney stone and gallstone disease, as well as anemia..
