Useful and medicinal properties of nettle stinging
Urtica urens ( nettle stinging) is a small, one-year-old variety of nettle. In folk medicine, decoction from its leaves and roots is taken internally with prolonged and profuse menstruation, hemorrhoids, with diabetes and nervous attacks( epilepsy, hysteria), is externally used for baths with swelling, wounds, diaper rash, bruises.
Single-year annual plant with erect stubble stalk. The leaves are ovate-elliptical, nadresannopilchatye, covered with burning hairs. Flowers are small green, collected in spicate( not drooping) inflorescence. Externally similar to nettle dioecious, but differs by smaller leaves and smaller growth( up to 60 cm).
Distribution is similar to nettle dioecious. More common in the forest-steppe zone, near housing.
Medicinal raw material is the whole plant( separately grass and roots, sometimes in a mixture).
Like dioecious, it contains a lot of chlorophyll and phytoncids. The effect of the preparations of nettle burning is similar to the action of nettle dioecious. In folk medicine, they are used for the same diseases: with pertussis, as a hemostatic and diuretic, with urticaria and nervous disorder, as an effective expectorant and antispastic, with shortness of breath, gastric diseases, with furunculosis, acne, rash, as a blood cleanser.
Decoction of herbs in milk is drunk when vomiting and stomach pain. Infusion of roots is drunk in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis, jaundice and kidney stone disease.
Decoction of roots and leaves is drunk for digestion and diarrhea, constipation.
Roots infused with vodka are used for toothache and as rubbing for rheumatism;In addition, fresh grass( sometimes the whole plant) is used as an irritant and distracting agent in radiculitis and diseases of the joints - for this purpose, plant juice is usually used.
Effective expectorant and antispastic action of water infusion of burning nettle in a mixture with a rosemary in bronchial asthma without pronounced emphysema of the lungs.
In Tibetan medicine, nettle is considered a treatment for chronic gastroenteritis.
For medicinal purposes, leaves of nettle are harvested during flowering - in June-July. Billet grass and leaves are produced neatly, better in gloves, and dried outdoors in the shade( in attics or under canopies).It should be remembered that dried nettle loses some useful substances.
Assembled parts of the plant can also be frozen or canned. To do this, the newly collected leaves are washed, finely chopped, piled in a prepared container and placed in a freezer.
For conservation, the collected parts of the plant are washed, finely chopped and densely laid in pre-sterilized jars. During the laying, the nettle is pressed to make it juice. When the bank is full, it is clogged and stored for storage in a dark and cool place.
Nettle roots are excavated in the spring, before the flowering period begins, or in the fall, after its end, is cleared from the ground and dried outdoors or in the oven at temperatures up to 40 ° C.
Most often, all the first associations with the word "nettles" are connectedwith pain and are not bright and positive. And the scientific name "urtika" came from the Latin "Unsere", which means "burn", speaks about the main feature of this plant.
Let's still look carefully at this weed. Take in one hand a strong magnifying glass, and in the other, carefully, a sheet of nettle. We assure you - you will see a lot of interesting things. The entire leaf is covered with transparent bottle hairs, each of which is filled with transparent contents, which contains formic acid. And at the very end of this repository is a small round head. She is very fragile. At the slightest contact with something, the head breaks off and the edge of the bottle edge pierces the skin, and its contents enter the wound. Burning, pain, redness and itching appear on the site of such a "bite", then rashes appear, which in medicine is called "urticaria".And if you bite a dozen or a few dozen! The state is not pleasant. That's why, probably, each of us for a long time remembers the first meeting in childhood with such a beauty and tries in the future to avoid, whenever possible, new appointments.
In nature, there are many varieties of this burning grass. And the bites of some species can be deadly to humans, fortunately, this species does not grow on the territory of Russia. The most common species of this family in our country are nettle and nettle stinging, and only the first is recognized as medicinal in official medicine. But in the folk medicine of a special difference is not recognized. Ogorodniki consider nettles a malignant weed and try to get rid of it in their dacha and household plots in any way.
Nettle is a weed, but grows on fertile, rather loose soils, preferring some shading and a sufficient amount of moisture. Stinging nettle can produce more than 10,000 seeds per season, which do not lose germination within two years, but its burning relative proved to be more prolific: 22,000 seeds in one summer is the average result of nettle nettle .
Outwardly, these plants are very similar to each other. But this, no doubt, is two different kinds. Nettle is a perennial plant, and a stinging one is a one-year plant. Secondly, the dioecious nettle is a dioecious plant and forms thickets of either male or only female individuals. During flowering - and it happens most often during the whole summer - with male, small, only about 2 mm, ordinary-looking flowers the wind carries pollen to neighboring thickets of female plants. In nature, this process usually occurs early in the morning, with the first rays of the sun. Flowers of female plants are as small and unattractive, but on their tops a fluffy, tender stigma rises, on which the pollen brought by the wind from neighboring thickets. Fruits this species from July until late autumn. But the nettle is burning - a monoecious plant, that is, male and female flowers are on the same plant. Blossoms this kind of nettle in June-August and fructifies from July to September.
No one disputes with truck farmers, nettle is a weed.
Medicinal raw materials are leaves, rhizomes and seeds of nettle.
Leaves harvested in early summer - June, when the plant begins to bloom. Dry them in the shade, under a canopy, in attics with good ventilation, spreading on paper or cloth a layer no thicker than 3 cm. Drying in the sun is forbidden, as it leads to discoloration of raw materials and loss of quality. Allowed for artificial drying at a temperature of 40-50 ° C.
The yield of dry raw materials is about 20% of freshly collected. After drying, all raw materials are sorted out, removing yellowed, browned and blackened leaves, as well as foreign impurities. Shelf life of raw materials is two years, but it is better to prepare the medicine annually. It is recommended to store in glass or tin cans.
Rhizomes are harvested in autumn, when they are excavated and washed in running water and dried. Seeds are harvested as they mature - dry the tops of plants, and then thresh. You can also prepare stems of nettle, for further use in the preparation of bathtubs. Used in folk medicine and fresh juice of nettle.
Nettle is rich in chlorophyll( about 5%), powerful phytoncides( natural antibiotics), steroids, histamine, organic acids, including formic are also found. In the nettle, especially spring, a lot of vitamin C( up to 200 mg%), carotene( up to 50%), as well as vitamins B and K. In the seeds of nettle to 32% fatty oil. In this weed discovered a lot of vitally important for human microelements - iron, copper, manganese, boron, nickel.