What you need to know about medicinal plants
Communication with nature and the experience of random observations have taught a person to recognize medicinal plants. In Russia, information about them was transmitted orally from generation to generation, and with the development of writing were recorded in manuscripts. Everyday medicines in the ancient Russian state were known for their medicinal properties wormwood, nettle, horseradish, ash bark, juniper berries. In the treatment, some food products were used: honey with flour, baked onions, leaven for dough. In addition to local plants, some foreign ones, imported from India, Greece and other countries, were also used.
With the adoption of Christianity in Kievan Rus, along with Byzantine culture, the first rudiments of medical knowledge penetrated, the main distributors of which were monks. In many ancient chronicles, there are references to the activities of monastery doctors. The medicine thus developed in its practice widely used the experience of folk healing - treatment with herbs, ointments, plasters. In the ancient monuments of writing in the 11th-13th centuries.along with brief descriptions of the symptoms of various diseases, Russian names of plants and minerals used for their treatment have always been indicated.
Plants included in the State Pharmacopoeia( special edition, which is an obligatory guide for pharmacies), called official, that is, pharmacy. With the discovery of more effective means, a part of the earlier applied by the doctors of plants of a similar action loses its significance in scientific medicine. Along with this, there is a process of replenishing the arsenal of scientific medicine with new species, whose medical application was not previously known. Before introducing any plant into medical practice, carry out a number of special studies: study its chemical composition, investigate the pharmacological properties in experiments on animals. When the medicinal properties are revealed, the drugs obtained by chemists and pharmacologists according to the nature of their physiological action are tested in healthy and sick people in safe therapeutic doses. Only after serious clinical trials the Pharmacological Committee of the Ministry of Health can allow the use of a new drug in medical practice. Thus, the path of a new medicinal plant or preparations from it from the experimenter's table to a wide application makes it possible to comprehensively evaluate its medicinal qualities. This protects scientific medicine from inadequate or harmful drugs.
But the popularity of medicinal plants is so great that their use is not limited to official species. Among the "unofficial" plants there are many such, the medicinal properties of which are scientifically confirmed and their use for treatment is safe and possible at home, provided that they are accurately identified by botanical signs and collected in a timely manner. In each doubtful case it is necessary to consult with professional botanists and pharmacists.
Do not consume medicinal plants, as well as other products, on the advice of ignorant healers, who can not correctly determine the cause of the disease, determine the individual characteristics of the patient's body - this can lead to a significant deterioration in health. As a rule, such "healers" do not have special training, little familiarity with the chemical composition of medicinal plants and the mechanisms of their action on the human body. Unfortunately, they can not assess the possible harmful effects of the recommended treatment, sometimes assigning plants that are not only useful, but also so poisonous that, at the slightest overdose, the tagnars or tinctures prepared from them lead to poisoning and cause the exacerbation of the disease. The danger is hidden in some recommendations of traditional medicine, if you use them without medical supervision. Only a doctor can accurately diagnose the disease, evaluate its development and current, prescribe the necessary medications.
So, we call medicinal plants those that contain biologically active substances that have a curative effect. They are diverse in their chemical composition and physical properties, which depend on the time of the year, the day, the stages of development, soil and weather conditions, the place of growth. Treatment of medicinal plants is trusted by millions of people, because herbal preparations act, as a rule, softer than synthetic ones, have fewer negative side effects, rarely cause allergic reactions and do not accumulate in the body. In addition, plants contain a whole complex of natural vitamins in beneficial combinations for the organism, help restore normal intestinal microflora, remove toxic products of the body's vital activity from the body, and normalize metabolism. That is why almost a third of the medicines used by official medicine are derived from plants.
The healing power of folk medicine is beyond doubt. Nature gives us everything that corresponds to the needs of man, it is also rich in various plants, the healing properties of which are often called magical. And nowadays phytotherapy is considered to be one of the most developed directions of folk medicine all over the world.
Infusions and decoctions of medicinal herbs and medicinal fees are used to prevent and treat common diseases as well as rare ones. But we must bear in mind that their application should be long, within 1.5-2 months. If you need more than
for prolonged treatment, every 1.5-2 months you need to take a break for 1-2 weeks.
Herbal treatment allows the human body to use its internal reserves and can sometimes serve as an alternative to conservative, traditional medicamental treatment. Although a number of valuable medicinal preparations are obtained only from plants, but such important for medicine groups of biologically active compounds as alkaloids and cardiac glycosides, have such a complex structure of the molecule that it is unlikely that they will be obtained synthetically in the coming years.
What is the advantage of herbal medicines? Biologically active substances of plants are fundamentally more similar to the human body in nature than synthetic preparations. In the course of a long evolution, a person has adapted to their assimilation, they are more easily involved in the process of life activity and comparatively rare is their intolerance. Chemotherapeutic preparations from plants have, as a rule, a wider spectrum of action, and most importantly are active against strains of microorganisms and viruses already resistant to antibiotics and synthetic drugs. The second feature of herbal medicines lies in the fact that the complex nature of the action of natural compounds is manifested in them.
With rational combination of herbs, therapeutic options are expanding. There is no doubt about the advisability of using medicinal plants in the primary prevention of a number of diseases, as well as supporting, permanent or course therapy with their secondary prevention. The variety of substances entering into plants, and the complex system of connections between them, determine another important feature of phytotherapy - its wide spectrum of action. Thus, phytotherapy, on the one hand, is more capacious, on the other - more sparing than purely medical treatment.
The use of medicinal plants can in many cases contribute to the removal of the now common immunodeficiency syndrome caused by adverse effects on the human body of various environmental factors.
RULES FOR PLANTING
PLANTS When using plants, it is necessary to follow certain rules, which help to get the maximum benefit from them. Collection should be done at a certain stage of plant development. This is important, because too early harvest harvests insufficiently active substances, and too late collected leads to the loss of active ingredients and the mass of raw materials due to the dying out of its older parts and shedding during drying.
For medical purposes, the grass is mainly harvested at the very beginning of flowering( the notion of "grass" includes the aboveground part of the plant).The low ones are collected entirely, the large ones take only the upper part, usually not more than 25 cm. If the plant is a perennial plant, it is necessary to leave at least one pair of leaves on each stalk, this will allow the plant to prepare for winter and safely winter. Part of the plants should be left on the seeds, so that in the future not to remain without raw materials. If the harvest is carried out in autumn and the plants already have mature seeds, they must be sown directly at the harvesting site.
Roots and other underground parts of plants are excavated either in autumn after leaves die, or early in the spring, before they blossom, if the plant hibernates in the ground - at this time they contain the maximum amount of active substances( in autumn, however, there are more of them than in spring).
The flowers are harvested immediately after blooming, and if the inflorescence is large - after half the flowers are blooming. Fruits and seeds are harvested either fully ripe, or slightly not reached the full ripeness - in this case they need to be kept for a while in a dry warm place.
Proper drying is important in harvesting and storing grass. All without exception, the raw materials are dried in the shade in a well-ventilated place( often attics and awnings are used for this).In wet weather or when there is not enough time, you can use artificial drying. For plants with a strong odor whose active substances evaporate easily when heated, the drying temperature should not exceed 45 ° C.In industrial conditions, special dryers are used for these purposes. House plants can be dried in an open oven with very low heat, the temperature should be such that the sheet can be taken by hand. You can dry small bunches of grasses( not thicker than 6 cm in diameter) suspended, but in no case directly on the battery( its temperature can reach 80-90 ° C, which negatively affects the quality of raw materials).Raw materials are dried with loose layers or bundles, always on paper or paper, especially if it lies on a surface that does not allow moisture to pass through. In this case, you need not only to regularly mix the grass, but also to change the damp paper. The readiness of dry raw materials is defined as follows: when bending, the thickest part of the plant should break with a crunch. Flowers, if properly dried, should not stick together when squeezed into a handful.
The finished raw materials are stored in a dry, dark place, better if placed in cans with lids or moisture-proof boxes - this will keep it from dampness and barn pests that easily gnaw through polyethylene and paper bags. Many types of medicinal raw materials for them are more attractive than croup and pasta. You do not need to hang up bundles of dried medicinal herbs in the kitchen. First, with such storage, it is inconvenient to dose them - thin, most valuable twigs and leaves will crumble if you try to break off part of the beam. Secondly, hanging grasses can damp from steaming food, and essential oils are useless to evaporate. And thirdly, the dust settles at the hanging grass at best, if you have an electric stove, or gas soot. The most convenient utensils are small special jars( better than dark glass), which contain as much raw material as necessary for current needs. The bulk of raw materials can be stored unmilled in large jars.
It is necessary to add a few words about the protection of resources of wild medicinal plants. Their reserves in nature are drastically reduced due to illiterate use and pollution of the environment: due to soil and air pollution by heavy metals, not only plants growing near highways, but also all located near large cities, are completely unsuitable for collection. Many species disappear without a trace( for example, the St. John's wort, which is widespread in the central part of Russia, almost does not occur, and it had to be replaced by a close species, the plants of the orchid family are almost completely destroyed).
Therefore, please readers of this book: promote the idea of preserving natural resources! The process of healing is mutual, one can not hope for the miracle of healing, not relating to nature with gratitude and love.
HOW TO MAKE DRUGS
The use of medicines is more effective, because when composing them, the individual characteristics of the patient and the presence of concomitant diseases are taken into account more. When compiling the collection, first, you need to know the indicators of blood pressure and take into account the main trends of its change( increase or decrease).Secondly, it is necessary to take into account the state of the intestine, the propensity to diarrhea or to constipation and include in the collection of raw laxative or astringent action. Third, some plants are active on the muscles of the uterus and can be dangerous for pregnant women.
Part of the plant blanks in the collection may cause an allergic reaction of the body. In these cases, starting from the collection, which includes 2-3 components,
and after 5-7 days add one plant to exclude allergies.
Herbal preparations have a multifaceted effect on the human body, which justifies the use of the same herbs for the treatment of various diseases.
For information: 1 teaspoon( tsp) contains about 5 g of raw material, dessert( dessert) - 10 grams, a dining room( bb) - 15 grams, a dining room with a top - 20 grams, a thin glass- 200 g of water.
All components for medicinal collections are prepared from fresh or dried shredded raw materials.