Useful and medicinal properties of oak
Beech family - Fagaceae
The generic name is found in many ancient authors and appears to derive from Celtic words meaning a beautiful tree, a species definition - the Latin name of an oak tree.
Botanical Description. Long-living deciduous tree with a spherical spreading crown, reaches a height of 40 m. The bark of the trunk and old shoots with deep cracks, brown-gray. The leaves are regular, at the ends of the shoots they are approximated in pairs, on short petioles, in an outline obovate and pinnate in shape. Blades rounded, blunt. Leaves glabrous, from above - green, shining, from below - lighter. Flowers are dioecious: staminate in drooping thin earrings, pistillate to 1-3, sessile on an elongated peduncle. Fruit - ovoid acorn, sitting on the bottom of calyx-shaped wooden pluss, which is formed from an overgrown perianth.
The oak blossoms simultaneously with the opening of the leaves in late April - early May;fruits ripen in September - early October.
Geographical spread. It is widely distributed in the broad-leaved and coniferous-broad-leaved forests, where it forms forests with an admixture of other broad-leaved or coniferous trees. In the floodplain oak forests, pure oak thickets are formed. Distributed in the European part of the USSR.The northern boundary of the range is located at the level of the cities of Leningrad, Vologda, Kirov and Perm, the eastern boundary along the Urals, the southern one along the steppe belt, and the isolated area in the Caucasus. There is no oak in Siberia.
The main areas of procurement are in Belarus, Ukraine, Bashkiria and the Krasnodar Territory.
In some regions of Ukraine, in the North Caucasus and Crimea there is a rocky oak - Quercus petraea Liebl., Used on an equal footing with an oak tree.
Collection and drying. Only the smooth bark of young branches is pruned, first olive-brown, and later silvery-gray, shiny, so-called mirror. The bark, which has cracks, contains a lot of cork, but few active ingredients and is not suitable for use.
Bark preparation should be coordinated with the leshoz, where it will be indicated to the places of spring felling or sanitary cleaning. The time of collection should coincide with the period of sap flow - from April to June. At this time, the bark contains many active substances and is easily separated from the wood, as the cambium cells swell. On young branches, ring incisions are made at a distance of at least 3 cm from each other, then they are joined by one or two longitudinal ones, and the bark is removed in the form of grooves. If it is not possible to peel it off immediately, then with a notch it is struck with a wooden beater - a stick. The collected bark is folded into bags, baskets and sent to dry.
Dry bark in attics with good ventilation, under awnings, laying it in a thin layer on the litter or on gauze hammocks. In the first case, the bark is periodically mixed. In the absence of rain, the bark can be dried in the sun, but at night it is brought under the roof. Drying is finished when the bark becomes brittle. With fast and proper drying, the inner side of the bark acquires a yellowish-brown or, even better, light-brown color. Takai bark contains more active substances.
Medicinal raw materials. Finished raw materials - bark of an oak( Cortex Quercus) consists of tubular or gutted pieces, less often in the form of narrow strips of different length, 2-3 mm thick. The outer surface is light brown or light gray, silvery, shiny, less often matte with often noticeable transversely elongated lenticels. The inner surface is yellowish-brown with numerous longitudinal prominent ribs. The outcrop is outwardly granular, inside fibrous, knobby. The odor of dry bark is absent, but when soaking in water, and especially when pouring hot water, a characteristic smell peculiar to fresh bark appears. The taste is very astringent.
Broth of bark 1: 100 with a solution of iron ammonium alum gives a black-blue staining.
Art.184 GF X allows a moisture content of not more than 15%;ash not more than 8%;pieces of bark, darkened from the inner surface, no more than 5%;pieces of crust thicker than 4 mm, but not thicker than 6 mm - not more than 5%;organic, mineral impurities not more than 1% and pieces of bark shorter than 3 cm not more than 3%.
Chemical composition. The bark of oak contains 10-20% of the predominantly hydrolyzed tannins, 1.6% of gallic and ellagic acids, flobafen, which determines the color of the broths, there are flavonols, catechins, pectin substances, pentosans, etc.
Action and application. Oak tannins have the same mechanism of action as the snake mountaineer. The bark is used as an astringent and anti-inflammatory agent in diseases of the oral cavity: gingivitis, stomatitis, ulcers, amphodentosis, etc. When burns make lotions. In this case, a film of insoluble albumins is formed on the burnt surface, which prevents penetration of microbes, which protects from chemical irritants, which contributes to the regeneration of tissues. It is also recommended for rinsing with glossitis and pharyngitis.
Assigned as a decoction from 20 g. Of raw material to 200 ml of rinse water and lotions. Good action with diseases of the oral cavity saline broth of the oak cortex: from 15 g. Raw materials for 150 ml of water with 2 g. Of alum-alkali alum and 15 g of glycerol.
In the treatment of burns, bedsores, a more concentrated decoction is sometimes used( in the form of lotions), which is prepared from 30-35 grams of bark for 1 glass of water.
Wiping the decoction of the bark gives a good effect on sweating of the feet.