Cherries useful properties
Cherry is a unpretentious plant. It grows throughout the middle belt, even in our not very sunny edges, the most resistant varieties of it bloom and bear fruit. Who does not know this tree with a smooth dark brown trunk, with a dense crown resembling a ball. Cherry leaves are oval, hard, cool, with a pleasant, slightly bitterish aroma.
Cherry comes from Asia Minor. Even in the IV century BC, cherry served as one of the sources of human nutrition. At the end of the XVI century, the culture of cherries spread in Western Europe. In our country it spread first in Kievan Rus, then in Suzdal principality, and then in Vladimirsky. In the XVII century cherry spread widely and already in the vicinity of Moscow. Currently, it occupies the second place after the apple tree.
A well-known tree, reaching 2-7 m of height. Stems with a gray-brown bark, with outstretched old and hanging young branches.
Leaves are simple, petiolate, elliptical, pointed, edged, edged, glabrous with two linear stipules.
Flowers are regular, bisexual, sitting on long pedicels in umbrellas of 2-5.The calyx drops after flowering. Corolla five-petalled, white sagging;Stamens are many, the ovary is top, one-cavity.
Fruit is a drupe, juicy, dark red. Bone very hard, light yellow, seedless.
Medicinal raw materials are fresh fruits, fully ripe, dark red, collected in the middle of July, and freshly cut young branches, dried up tree juice( glue-gum);in the people, in addition, - stems, leaves and young shoots.
Cherry berries are a wonderful storehouse for all sorts of vitamins, macro and microelements, so necessary for a person.
The cherry fruit contains vitamin A( 0,3-0,55 mg%), vitamin B,( 0,2-0,3 mg%), vitamin C( 15 mg%), vitamin PP( 0,25-0, 4 mg%), as well as nitrogen, tanning, coloring agents and paracyanin.
Vitamin C in cherry - from 5 to 30 mg%, depending on the place of growth and climatic conditions( in areas with a more humid climate it accumulates more).P-active substances - from 300 to 2500 mg%( their highest content in berries with dark color of pulp), carotene - from 0.1 to 0.5 mg%.Cherries are rich in sugars( 15%), organic acids, folic acid. There are many minerals in the cherry: iron from 1 to 3%, copper, 1.17 mg per 100 g, potassium and magnesium, and it exceeds the other berries by the content of pectins( 11%).
Cherry syrup is used in medicine to correct the taste of liquid medicinal forms( tinctures, decoctions, potions), usually amounting to 1 / 5-1 / 10 of their volume.
In folk medicine, the fruits of cherry and cherry juice are widely used. Cherry juice is prescribed as an expectorant for tracheitis, bronchitis and a complex of therapeutic agents for bronchoectatic disease.
For the treatment of arthritis, traditional healers prescribe cherry fruits with milk. Broths of fresh leaves in milk healers are recommended for jaundice, and broth of fruit stalks cherry - with diarrhea and as a strong diuretic, as well as with bronchitis.
From dark, pigmented spots on the face and hands can be got rid by the following recipe: 100 g of nucleoli from the bones of a cherry crush and pour 0.5 l of vegetable oil. Infuse for 2 weeks in a warm dark place. Then strain, pressing through several layers of gauze. The resulting ointment should be rubbed into the skin.
Water infusions from the pulp of cherry fruit are used as a refreshing and antipyretic for colds, and in addition, are recommended to increase appetite, to reduce the processes of fermentation in the intestine and as a gentle loosening agent.
There are indications of the soothing and anticonvulsant effect of water infusions of cherry fruit. Emulsion from cherry seeds and broths from peduncles have a clear diuretic effect and are recommended for the treatment of urine acid diathesis and joint diseases.
Broths from cherry tree branches have a good antiparasitic effect and are prescribed for chronic colitis and a complex of agents for the treatment of intestinal atony. A positive therapeutic effect was obtained by using decoctions of fresh leaves in milk with jaundice of various origin and using fresh cherry leaves and tampons from them with external bleeding( damage to the skin, mucous membranes, nosebleeds).Cherry glue can replace gum arabic.
Cherry has curative effect in diseases of the lungs, kidneys, atherosclerosis, constipation. Cherry juice has a harmful effect on the causative agents of dysentery and pyogenic infections - staphylococci and streptococci.
If we talk about the healing properties of cherries, then we begin by the fact that it improves appetite, cherries in any form and quantity are good for anemia. Cherry infusion or mors well quenches thirst and has the property of lowering body temperature, so that 2-3 liters of such a drink to a patient with fever will come at the right time. Cherry pulp and juice have some antiseptic effect. With chronic constipation, cherry berries act like a tender laxative. In folk medicine, cherry with milk is used for arthritis, and juice is considered a good expectorant for inflammatory diseases of the respiratory tract.
The broth of fresh cherry leaves in milk has a beneficial effect on jaundice, and crushed fresh leaves or decoction of them are used as tampons as a hemostatic for nosebleeds, abrasions, cuts.
Healing properties have even stems: the decoction of them is a strong opposing and diuretic. Sometimes it is used for hypertension.
With gout and urolithiasis, an emulsion is used from cherry seeds, but this is unsafe: the seeds contain a significant amount of the toxic glycoside of amygdaline. Accidental overdose or mistaken application - and possibly very severe poisoning. Therefore, it is better not to prepare the emulsion yourself and use it only for the doctor's prescription.
♦ Cherry fruit: the optimal ratio is 200-250 g of berries per 1 liter of water. Straw berries and let them brew for 30-40 minutes.
♦ Hemostatic agent: 10 g of fresh cherry leaves pour a glass of boiling water, boil for 15-20 minutes. Cool, drain, use for tampons.
♦ Diuretic and antipyretic: 10 g of cherry fruit stalks brewed with a glass of boiling water, boil for 3-5 minutes. Decoction cool, tightly covered with a lid, and drain. The whole dose is drunk at 3-4 times during the day.
♦ For arthritis: a tablespoon of cherries to mash, pour a glass of hot milk, bring to a boil, cool. Take a glass 3 times a day.
♦ When you cough: 0.5 cups of fresh cherry juice take 3-4 times a day.
♦ If jaundice: 10-15 g of fresh cherry leaves, pour a glass of hot milk, boil for 3-5 minutes. Cool it down. Take 0.5 cup 3 times a day.
Teas
Composition of tea and way of its preparation:
Anti-inflammatory tea: 0.5 h. Crushed dry leaves on a teapot of boiling water. Insist 30 minutes, drink like tea.
Healing properties: hemostatic and anti-inflammatory effect.
A decoction of cherry stems is a good diuretic for swelling and dropsy. Peduncles in any form( broth, powder) are used for urolithiasis and cardiovascular insufficiency.
In the cooking of
Cherries are eaten raw, dried, marinated, compotes and juice made. From cherry fruit, jam, syrups are made, make tinctures, liquors, liqueurs, wines, fruit water.
The natural magnificence of cherries is remarkably preserved in jam, in compote, and in dried cherries. And what kind of cherry liquor can be cooked! Thick, sweet, fragrant - no factory liquor with it can not be compared.
Cherry leaves are used for marinating and pickling cucumbers and other vegetables, as well as berries, for medicinal purposes.
Cherry leaf is added not only when pickling or pickling vegetables, but also when cooking jam from gooseberry, and also add to the compote of chokeberry ash.
Pickled cherries are an excellent seasoning for meat and fish dishes. In the prepared banks lay out the washed cherries without pits, a little cinnamon and cloves and pour hot marinade. Marinade is prepared as follows: for 1 liter of water - 3 cups of sugar and 1 cup of vinegar( preferably apple or wine).Vinegar pour in at the last moment, so that it does not boil. Hot marinade is poured into prepared cans and sterilized for 10 minutes( cans of 1 liter capacity).
Our great-grandmothers made delicious berries in a shirt: Ripe, strong cherry berries dipped into beaten egg whites, roll in sugar powder, put on a sieve in one layer and dry in a moderately hot place.
Very tasty and cherry pudding. To prepare, you need 50 g of butter, 4 eggs, 1 cup of ground vanilla biscuits and 1 glass of pitted cherries. Beat butter, sugar and egg yolks, add biscuits and cherries without pits. Carefully mix in the thick foam proteins. Fill the form with grease and bake for 30 minutes. Serve on the table with milk.
You can prepare and cherry pouring: remove cherry from pedicles, rinse in cold water, fill it with a bottle with a wide neck, sprinkling cherry with sugar.
Then close the bottle with a clean cloth and put in the sun.
After a few days, the cherry will empty the juice. To juice the cherry covered, the bottle should be shaken. After the juice appears and sugar is dissolved in it, you can add a little vodka, so that the liquid completely closes the berries. For 1 kg of cherry 400 g of sugar, vodka to taste( you can and without it), a little citric acid.
Caution for
The bones of a cherry can be toxic if consumed in large quantities, since they contain the glycoside amygdalin( 0.85%), which in the intestine decomposes under the influence of putrefactive bacteria with the formation of hydrocyanic acid( 5-6% of the accepted amount of amygdaline).