Flat-leaved bluebell
.Bluebell flatleaf from the umbrella family is a perennial plant with a branched, bluish-purple stem, up to 100 cm high. Leaves are leathery, dark green, with prickly teeth along the edges. Inflorescences are glabrous, about 1-2 cm long, with stiff wrapper leaves and blue numerous flowers. The fruit is oval, covered with scales. Bluebells flat-leaved blooms in June-July (Fig. 70).
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Widespread in the southern regions of the European part of the USSR, Western Siberia, Central Asia. The flat-leaved bluebell grows on dry meadows, sandy places, edges of pine forests, between bushes, along roads.
The above-ground part of the plant, harvested during flowering, is used.
Chemical composition
.Bluebell flatleaf contains saponins, essential oil, tannins, flavonoids.
Action and application
.Water decoction of the plant in folk medicine is used for various diseases: cough, whooping cough, fright, insomnia, heart disease, dropsy, toothache and joint pain.
Common Lilac
.Common lilac is a well-known shrub or tree in the oilseed family. The flowers are mauve-purple, various shades, sometimes white, strongly scented. The leaves are dark green, turning green earlier than any other shrub and lasting the longest. In the fall, the leaves do not turn yellow when they fall. The native range is southeastern western Europe. Common lilac blooms in late May - early June. Cultivated as a landscaping and ornamental plant (Fig. 71).
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Common lilac is the most cold tolerant species and is characterized by resistance against gas. There are many different species of lilac, but the common lilac is a very common species and is found in the southern, northern and middle belt of the USSR.
Lilac leaves and flowers collected at the beginning of blossoming are used.
Chemical composition
.Common lilac is little studied. Essential oil, phenoglycoside syringin, syringopycrin, and farnesol were found in the flowers, and bitter glycoside syringin was found in the bark, twigs, and leaves (Norre, 1958).
Action and application
.In scientific medicine, the common lilac of the USSR is not used.
In Russian folk medicine dried flowers are used in the form of infusion from kidney stones, and in a mixture with linden flowers as diaphoretic and antimalarial remedy. Tea from the flowers is used in epilepsy. Lilac leaves in the form of infusion are widely used against malaria.
Blackcurrant
.Blackcurrant is a well-known branching shrub in the gooseberry family. It blooms in May through June. The fruits ripen in July through August. A good nectar bearer (Fig. 72).
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Black currant is distributed almost all over the European part of the USSR, Siberia, and the Caucasus. Grows wild along riverbanks, bogs, in damp shrubs, in damp forests. Widely cultivated.
Currants are used mature currant fruits, collected during their full ripeness, without stalks (July - August); buds, collected in early spring and winter; sometimes leaves with petioles, collected in June - July. Dried fruits have a faint aromatic odor, the taste is sour-sweet, slightly astringent. The leaves and buds have a peculiar, specific odor inherent in black currants.
Chemical composition
.Currant fruits contain ascorbic acid, vitamins P, B1, B2, carotene, sugars, pectin substances, essential oil, organic acids, tannins and nitrogenous substances, pigments, flavonoids, anthocyanins; leaves contain ascorbic acid, carotene, essential oil, phytoncides. Ascorbic acid in mature fruits up to 400 mg%, in leaves (at the beginning of leaf fall) - 316-476 mg%, in buds - 152-174 mg%, in buds - 360-453 mg%, in flowers - 238-274 mg%.
Action and application
.Currant fruit and its leaves have anti-inflammatory, diaphoretic, diuretic, antidiarrheal properties. In medicine are used as a multivitamin (vitamin C and P), as well as to increase the body's resistance, strengthening its compensatory mechanisms, to increase appetite. The fruits are used to prepare vitamin preparations, the leaves are included in vitamin collections.
In France, blackcurrant leaves are used as a good diuretic and antirheumatic. It is used in the form of 5% infusion 500 ml per day and in the form of extract 1 dessert spoon 2 times a day before meals.
Leclerc recommends the following effective mixture for rheumatism: currant leaves-100 g, ash leaves-50 g, inflorescences of spirea-50 g; 6-8 g brew 180-200 ml boiling water. Take before meals. The resulting infusion is flavorful and good for digestion.
Currant leaves infused in white wine and lightly sweetened, taken before meals as a tonic.
From currant berries prepare liqueur: berries and alcohol in equal parts insist, add sugar syrup.
In Tibetan medicine, currant leaves are used instead of tea for skin diseases, scrofula.
In Poland, currant leaves are used for rheumatism, kidney disease, bladder, kidney stone disease, in the form of infusion (3-5 g leaves to 250 ml of boiling water, stew for 10 minutes, take 2-3 times a day). The fruit is used to make medicinal confitur.
In domestic folk medicine, fruits are used as diaphoretic, diuretic, antidiarrheal agent, currant leaves - in the form of decoction for the treatment of rheumatism, gout, as well as diaphoretic and diuretic, with tuberculosis of the lymph glands, fruits, leaves and kidneys - with kidney stone disease and inflammation of the bladder, scrofula. Syrup from fresh fruit - for sore throat, hoarseness, whooping cough. Fresh juice from the fruit - in diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, achilia; buds and fruit, infused with white dry wine - as a mild laxative.
Black currant fruits are used in the food industry, confectionery and distillery. Since ancient times in folk medicine prepared blackcurrant liqueur, which was used for kidney disease, renal colic.
The leaves are consumed as a tea surrogate and find use in pickling and souring.
Currant black currant, fruits and leaves, we use as an anti-inflammatory, diuretic and multivitamin in diseases of the kidneys and bladder..
