Useful and medicinal properties of the common V
Annual herbaceous plant up to 60 cm high and over. The root is white, rod-shaped, thin, long. Stems erect, round, smooth, branched at the top. Leaves are regular, narrow-lanceolate, sessile. Flowers large, blue or blue, in the thyroid brushes on long peduncles. Fruit is a multi-seeded, almost spherical capsule. Seeds oblate, brownish in color, smooth, shining. Blossoms from June to August. Fruiting from the end of July.
Flax is cultivated as a field crop in the areas of the northern and middle lanes of the European part of Russia. In the wild state occasionally occurs in all areas along roads, in crops, to weeds.
Medicinal raw materials are seeds and the oil extracted from them. Seeds are pointed at one end and rounded off from the other, heavier than water, odorless.
Fresh grass is poisonous and is not recommended for internal use.
Flax seeds contain up to 40% fatty oil, 24% proteinaceous substances, 6-8% mucus( in seed shells), glycerides, carbohydrates, organic acids, enzymes, vitamin A.
The seed slime has enveloping and emollient properties,various substances taken orally or applied to the skin. It is used internally to reduce irritation in inflammatory and ulcerative processes on the mucous membranes, especially in the gastrointestinal tract( peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum), with colic in the abdomen. Mucus is also prescribed for poisoning with various cauterizing substances, for catarrh of the respiratory tract, for softening the taste of various acute and acidic substances, for slowing the absorption of readily soluble drugs, and for enhancing their action.
Fresh flax seeds are used internally as a mild laxative. Swelling in the contents of the ventricle
of the intestinal tract, they mechanically irritate the receptors of the intestinal wall and thereby increase peristalsis.
Flax seeds are applied externally with local inflammatory processes in the form of compresses and poultices that slow evaporation, prevent drying of tissues, soften and moderate inflammation.
Flaxseed oil is applied externally in the form of ointments for burns, widely practiced in dietary nutrition of patients with impaired fat metabolism, as well as atherosclerosis. In pharmaceutical practice it is used for the preparation of liquid ointments.
In folk medicine, boil the seed and drink a decoction, eat boiled seeds with gastric ulcer, gastritis, chronic catarrh of the stomach, bronchitis( as an expectorant), from coughing, colic, shortness of breath, with kidney disease;a strained broth is drunk with milk in case of pulmonary tuberculosis, eating the seed with the belokristia;apply for diarrhea;the seed is used for mucous drinking. Outer - seed soar, used for angina, applied to abscesses, on tumors, used for various poultices, oil lubricated frostbitten places. A decoction of seeds is recommended for the treatment of wounds and ulcers in the mouth( rinsing).
Application
Decoction of equal amounts of flaxseed, bean pods( without grains), bilberry leaves and oat straw, chopped into a chopping. To prepare the broth take 3 tbsp.spoon mixture, pour 3 glasses of cold water, cook for 10 minutes, then defend and take filtered through 1/4 cup 3 times a day for sugar sickness, inflammation of the bladder.
Infusion of flax seeds: 1 teaspoon of a seed for 1 cup of boiling water. Infusion recommended to take before going to bed for 1 glass with chronic constipation, without filtering, along with the seeds.
From the filtered decoction of flaxseed( 1 tablespoon seed for 1.5 cups of water, cooked on low heat for 12 minutes) make enemas with diarrhea.
Seed broth: 1 part unsweetened seeds for 30 parts boiling water, or 2 teaspoons for a glass of boiling water, shake for 15 minutes, then strain through dense matter.
To soften the skin and accelerate the maturation of the abscesses, hot compresses are made from a powder of mashed seeds soaked in boiling water.
For the treatment of burns, use a mixture of linseed oil with an equal part of the lime water.