Useful and medicinal properties of Siberian fir

Coniferous tree up to 30 m high with a brown or dark gray smooth bark. Leaves are fragrant, small, flat. Cones dark green, cylindrical.

It is widely distributed in the forests of Western and Eastern Siberia, on moist soils it often forms solid forests.

Medicinal raw materials are needles, kidneys, bark, oleoresin. The plant contains essential oil( 2-3%), part of which is bornilacetate, camphene, boron neol, alpha-quencher, beta-pinene, dipentene and other substances, abietic, non-abistine, ascorbic acid, tocopherol, phytoncides, resins,tannins.

An aqueous infusion of needles and kidneys is used to treat scurvy and is used as a diuretic and anesthetic for colds and rheumatic pains.

A bark containing tannides and resins( balm) is used as external for burns and tumors. From the gum of the fir, contained in the bark nodules, a valuable balsam is obtained, which has a strong antiseptic property. Of the essential oil of pine needles, branches and bark - the so-called fir oil - a synthetic camphor is obtained. Camphor, injected subcutaneously, acts excitantly on the central nervous system and enhances the activity of the heart. Camphor alcohol is used for rubbing with neuritis, myositis and articular rheumatism.

Fossil fir is also used to produce turpentine, which is used for the same purposes as turpentine pine and Siberian larch.

In folk medicine, infusion of pine needles is the most ancient antiscorbutic agent. Gum was used to treat wounds, especially those infected, and ulcers. Fir cones were considered an effective remedy for rheumatism and other colds of leg joints. To this end, poured boiling water cones and warmed up a couple of feet, covering them from above. Decoction of young needles is drunk as a diuretic and disinfectant in diseases of the kidneys and bladder.

The largest yield of oil from fir branches and needles is in late July. The content of ascorbic acid in the needles is highest in winter, and at this time it is best to use it for preparing vitamin infusions and concentrates. Use immediately.