Useful and medicinal properties of barberry
Barberry common - shrub up to 2.5 m high, strongly branchy, with three-parted spines on branches;From the sinuses of thorns, shortened branches develop with bundles of leaves. The leaves are oblong, along the margin the ciliate is chaotically small-pointed, short-petioled. Flowers are light yellow, in drooping brushes. Fruits are red, one- and two-seeded berries. Blooms in May-June.
Siberian barberries grow in Siberia. In its appearance differs from ordinary barberry. It is a shorter, up to 1 m tall, highly branched, thorny shrub( thorns in it are three-, five-, seven-parted).Leaves are smaller, up to 2 cm in length, the flowers sit singly on peduncles, which are shorter than the leaves and equal in length to the flower itself. The berry is red, broadly oval, up to 9 mm in length. In terms of medicine barberry siberian is considered more effective than barberry common, which is more common in the European part of Russia, everywhere in Ukraine, the North Caucasus, and also in Central and Southern Europe.
For therapeutic purposes, use bark, fruits and leaves of these plants, collected after flowering.
All parts of the plant contain alkaloids: berberine, co-erbamine, columbamine, leontidine, oxyacanthine, yatrorricin.
Berberina is especially abundant in the leaves of barberry. During the fruiting process, vitamin E and essential oil appear in the leaves.
The healing properties of the plant are determined mainly by berberine, which reduces arterial blood pressure, slows down the contractions of the heart, increases their amplitude, helps to reduce the musculature of the uterus and, by squeezing its blood vessels, has a haemostatic effect in uterine bleeding.
Preparations of barberry ordinary reduce the tone of the musculature of the gallbladder, reduce the amplitude of its contraction, promote bile secretion. In addition, barberry common raises blood coagulability.
The third species of barberry is the Amur. In scientific medicine it is used in the form of tincture from the leaves for the reduction of
and the reverse development of the uterus in the postpartum period( recently the same importance is attached to barberry and common).It is noticed that Barbaris Amur has a cholagogue effect and it can be used for jaundice, rheumatism, pleurisy.
From the leaves of the barberry of the Amur and the ordinary, a tincture is prepared, which is assigned to the inside by drops.
In medical practice, barberry preparations are used for hypotension of the uterus in the postpartum period, in combination with other drugs as an agent for treating inflammation of the uterine mucosa.
Tinctures from the dried bark and roots of barberry are used as haemostatic in folk medicine and in homeopathy.
In homeopathy, barberry is also used in diseases of the kidneys, liver, urinary tract, jaundice.
In the peoples of America, barberry preparations are used in the treatment of diseases of the liver, gall bladder, and also as a means that tones the intestines and stimulates appetite.
As a vitamin remedy they are taken with scurvy, and as a diaphoretic - with malaria. Application of
Decoction of the bark or root: 30 g per 200 ml of water, take inside 1 tbsp.spoon every hour with heavy bleeding.
Tincture of bark or root 20%: take 30 drops 3 times a day.
Tincture of leaves of barberry ordinary and Amur 30- or 50%: take 30 drops 3 times a day.
1 teaspoon of crushed and dried roots of barberry is brewed with two glasses of boiling water, boiled for 5 minutes, after cooling, filter and drink 1/2 cup 3 times a day.