Useful and medicinal properties of the orchard
Perennials with two tubers( young growing and old dying), fingered or round. The stem is one, upright, unbranched. Leaves are regular, entire, linear or lanceolate, with parallel veins. Flowers are irregular, brightly colored( purple, violet-red, etc.), in the apical racemose inflorescences with bracts. Perianth simple, aureole-shaped, of six leaves in two circles. The outer leaves are almost the same, from the inner lower - larger, forms a lip with spurs at the base. Fruits - boxes, opening with six longitudinal slits. The seeds are numerous, very small. Blooms in May-June. Fruits ripen in July-August.
Yartishnik male - with purple flowers in a dense cylindrical inflorescence up to 15 cm long.
Spotted spotter - with pink-violet spotted flowers, with a thick ovoid-cylindrical brush 3-9 cm long.
Orchis broadleaf - with violet-pink flowers indense ovoid-cylindrical inflorescence( growing in swamps and damp places).
Yatryshnik dremlik - with dark purple flowers in a small rarity inflorescence.
Medicinal raw materials are tubers, which in dried form are called a salep.
Collection of tubers is made at the end of flowering or soon after the plant has faded, when the flower arrow has not yet disappeared. According to the form, there are 2 types of the slele: a round one - 1-1.5 cm thick, which is considered to be the best, and fingered, characterized by a smaller thickness( 0.5-1 cm).The dug roots are cleared from the ground, quickly washed in cold water and dropped for 1-2 minutes into boiling water to prevent germination of the tubers during drying and speed it up. Dry the raw material in the shade or in dryers at a temperature of 50 ° C.Ready raw materials - well-dried tubers - are dense,
are heavy, slightly translucent;do not have taste and smell, yellowish white or whitish-gray color.
Tubers contain about 50% mucus, 27% starch, 5% proteinaceous substances, sugars, calcium oxalic acid and mineral salts.
Since ancient times, orrys were used as a general restorative, with paralysis in the recovery period, with long-term healing ulcers and as preventing the spread of herpes - an infectious disease of the lips.
In modern medicine, young tubers are used in diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, acute and chronic diseases of the respiratory tract, chronic and acute bronchitis, gastroenteritis, enteritis, diarrhea, dysentery, especially in children, diarrhea, bladder inflammation, poisoning with certain poisons.
Young tubers are used as a means of restoring strength after serious illnesses, experiences, with senile exhaustion, sick with tuberculosis and those who have suffered severe bleeding.
Salep is very useful, especially for children with intestinal catarrh. Water emilic emulsion is successfully used in enemas with diarrhea, including dysentery. To the emulsion add a decoction of flaxseed( 1 teaspoon of flax seeds, 1 cup boiling water).
In the countries of the East, tubers of the salepa are used with severe weakness, to restore health.
Some believe that the tubers of orchis help with impotence.
In folk medicine, tuber powder is very useful as a stimulant for sexual weakness, with tuberculosis, for maintaining strength in old age and for those who have suffered heavy bleeding, mental trauma;with diseases of the stomach, diarrhea, dysentery, ulcer of the stomach and duodenum, ulcerative colitis, dystrophy, catarrh of the upper respiratory tract, inflammatory diseases of the oral cavity and throat and food
and other poisonings, when the treatment of inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract requires envelopingslime.
When diarrhea for a greater effect, enemas are made from salepa solution with the addition of 1/10 part of flaxseed.
If the salepa is not in the pharmacies, it can be prepared by yourself: the dug out tubers of the orchis are cleaned from the small roots and the upper peel, stringed on a string, immersed for a few minutes( 1-3) into boiling water to destroy unpleasant odor and remove bitterness, and also, so that the tubers can not germinate.
Remove from the boiling water, dry in the fresh air( in the shade) or in a warm room. Dried tubers should have a yellowish color and some vitreous or transparent.
Note. To check the good quality of the powder of the slele, it is necessary to take 1 part for 100 parts of water and boil;should get a thick and almost colorless mucus;if on cooling to this slime add a few drops of iodine to control, the mucus should acquire a blue color. Before consumption, the tubers are ground into powder, diluted first in cold boiled water, in 10 parts, and then 90 parts of boiled water( or hot milk) are added, shaken until liquid is thick like liquid sour cream.
For depleted people, the daily dose is 40 g on
water or milk with honey.
Application of
In folk practice, salep is used in the form of mucus, which is prepared as follows: the tubers are crushed, poured hot water( temperature 50-60 ° C) in a ratio of 2 g of dried roots to a glass of water, then shaken for 10-15 minutes. Slime is stored in a cool place for no more than 2-3 days, but it is better to cook and immediately take 1 tbsp.spoon before eating with diseases of the stomach and intestines 4-5 times a day.
With bronchitis take before and after meals for 1 teaspoon per reception. You can use the obtained gelatinous mass for all diseases together with porridges, broths, milk and other products. The mass has neither taste nor smell. Children dose must be reduced depending on age.
Infusion: 1 teaspoon of chopped tubers pour a glass of boiling water and leave for 15 minutes, periodically shaking, in a warm place;the infusion should be drunk hot. When diarrhea children give infusion in a cold form.
Broth: 3-10 g per 200 ml;for 1-2 tbsp.spoons 3-4 times in the
day.
Enema: 2 teaspoons spoonfuls of 2 tablespoons of boiling water( previously moistened with cold water), add a quarter teaspoon of crushed flaxseed.