Cranberry useful properties and contraindications
Family Heathers - Ericaceae
The generic name is formed from two Greek words: oxys - sour and kokkos - a sphere and characterize the taste and shape of cranberries .
Species definition in Latin means "marsh" at the place of growth.
In September-October in the marshy places of the middle belt of Russia and in the tundra you can see scattered ruby-red berries of cranberries. This is one of the most useful medicinal and food plants of our country.
Cranberry is an evergreen creeping half-shrub with thin knobby stems and rising short shoots. Leaves are regular, ovoid, small, leathery. Their edges are slightly wrapped down. On top of the leaves are dark green, from below - bluish-gray. Flowers are red, on long pedicels, collected in umbellate inflorescences. The cranberry fruit is a dark red juicy berry, ripening in September-October. Distributed in the cold and temperate zones of Russia and North America.
An amazing picture is a cranberry marsh, when this king-berry ripens in autumn. Traditional green moss becomes only a background for burning, like glowing ruby berries. Among the large, the size of a dime, the fruit is seen abundant scattering of small items, as if someone had turned the basket of berries, and to collect was too lazy. And it's no wonder. No matter how delicious and healthy the cranberry-berry is, it is difficult to collect it: it is necessary to pick it carefully from the soft mossy thickets in which you can not see its thin stems.
Hard, but worth it. After all, cranberries are good everywhere: in jelly, in jam, and in pies as a filling. She also goes for juice, and for kvass, and for kiseli syrups. But for me it's best to eat it right, rubbing ruby balls in your mouth. Here they are definitely "explode" with a refreshing, slightly bitter acid.
This swamp inhabitant can be collected all autumn, until the snow falls. And it is kept fresh almost all the year round and is inferior to other berries in terms of the content of nutrients. It contains a whole range of organic acids - quinine, citric, malic, glycolic, oxalic, benzoic, chlorogenic, and ursul;it contains vitamins C, B2, P, carotene, essential oil, sugars, pectin substances.
Cranberry fruits have hemostatic, anti-inflammatory and antiseptic effects, they contribute to the rapid healing of wounds. Cranberries - a wonderful tool for strengthening the gums, it helps to quickly remove toxins from the body. Her berries in any quantities are recommended for allergy sufferers.
Cranberry berries have beneficial effects in cardiovascular diseases - atherosclerosis, hypertension, spasm of blood vessels, thrombophlebitis. They are useful for gastritis with a low acidity of gastric juice, diarrhea, heartburn, infectious diseases of the bladder. They also use them in diseases of the kidneys and liver, especially with purulent inflammation of the kidneys, when antibiotics do not help. Cranberries not only soothe the inflammatory process in the bladder, but also promotes the removal of stones from it, prevents the formation of stones in the kidneys.
Cranberry juice perfectly quenches thirst with fever. Use it for angina, colds, dropsy, skin diseases, such as dry eczema, scrofula, exudative processes. They use it to treat and prevent gynecological diseases. He heals wounds, burns. It is believed that the berries of cranberries can serve as a preventive agent for malignant neoplasms.
Cranberry contains a lot of organic acids, as well as sugars, colorants, glycoside vaccine. Cranberry juice refreshes and quenches thirst well. The stimulating effect of cranberries on the function of the pancreas was found.
High content of benzoic acid in cranberry gives it antibacterial properties. Therefore, it can be stored for a long time without preserving.
Botanical Description of .Evergreen shrub with creeping and rooting thin reddish stems, the length of which reaches 100 cm( usually 30-50 cm).The leaves are regular, ovate, leathery, 8-16 mm long, 3-6 mm wide, all-edged with edges folded down. Above they are dark green, glossy, from below - lighter, with a bluish-gray waxy bloom. Petioles short( about 1 mm long).Flowers drooping, solitary or collected 2-6 in umbellate inflorescences, located at the ends of last year's branches, pedicels thin, filiform, 15-45 mm in length, come out of the sinuses of scaly leaves. The flowers are provided with two small linear bracts. Calyx four-parted, sepals rounded, with cilia. Corolla deeply four-distinct, with pinkish-red lobes bent outward. Stamens eight, with filamentous filaments. Anthers without appendages. Column straight, protruding from the coronals several stamens. Fruit is a juicy four-cavity dark red berry, spherical, pear-shaped or oblong-ovoid in shape, sour taste. At the top of the berries remain the remains of a cup.
Blossoms in May - June, the fruits ripen in late August - September and remain on plants under snow until the spring.
Geographic distribution. Cranberries are common in the forest zone of Europe, Asia and North America. In the north, it reaches the Arctic Circle( it grows abundantly in the forest-tundra), the southern boundary of the species spreads in the north of Italy and Spain. A lot of cranberries in Siberia and the Far East. In Belarus, zakazniks are organized, where the rules and time of collection are regulated.
grows on sfagnovyh swamps, extensive mossy marshes, overgrown with pine, on peat bogs.
In the zone of coniferous and coniferous-deciduous forests of Europe and Asia, sphagnum bogs grow in a close view - the small-fruited cranberry - Oxycoccus microcarpus Turcz., Fruits of which find the same application as the four-leaved cranberries.
In North America, large-fruited cranberries grow - Oxycoccus macrocarpus( Ait.) Pers., Characterized by larger fruits( up to 20 mm in diameter).In the USA and Canada, this species is introduced into the culture and grown on large areas.
Collection and drying. Collect mature berries in autumn, before falling out of a stable snow cover, and early spring. Snow-covered cranberries, collected in spring, are practically devoid of vitamin C, although sweeter to taste. It is inadmissible to procure "dosed" cranberries, aged in attics or under sheds, until the berries acquire the coloring typical of mature ones. Such fruits contain less biologically active substances, have bitterness in taste and are characterized by reduced stability during storage.
Ripened berries are well preserved fresh for several months( in a cool, shaded, well-ventilated place).
Medicinal raw materials. Fresh cranberry fruits - Fructus Oxycocci. Numerical indicators( GOST 19215- 73): unripe fruits for autumn harvesting not more than 5%, for spring harvesting - not more than 8%;fruits with insufficient elasticity, damaged and dried, not more than 5%( for autumn harvesting) and not more than 10%( for spring harvesting);edible fruits of other berry plants( cranberries, water moss, cloudberry, etc.) - no more than 1%;admixture of twigs, stems, leaves, moss - 0.5% and 1%, respectively. Inadmissible admixture of inedible and poisonous fruits of other plants( buckthorn fragile, losers, etc.).
Chemical composition of .Berries of cranberries contain sugars( 2.4-4.7%), organic acids( 2.8-3.5%), pectins( 0.20-1.40%), tannins and colorants, vitamins, pentosans, fiber, minerals. Among the sugars the main place is occupied by glucose and fructose, there is little sucrose. The presence of the whole complex of organic acids, and especially benzoic( in free and bound forms in the form of glycoside vaccinein), explains the high freshness of fresh berries during storage. Stability of the fruit is also facilitated by the cuticle wax covering them, which includes benzoic acid, ethyl acetate, hexanal, pentanol, octanol, a-terpineol, benzyl alcohol, benzyl benzoate and a number of other compounds that can play a protective role against fungi, bacteria and insects. Pectin substances of cranberries are distinguished by high gelling ability, easily form insoluble compounds( chelates) with heavy and radioactive metals( lead, strontium, cobalt, etc.), contributing to their detoxification and elimination from the body.
Vitamins cranberries are not rich. In autumn berries contains 8-30 mg / 100 g of vitamin C, traces of carotene and 0.03 mg / 100 g of folic acid.
Berries are a valuable source of flavonoids. In fresh fruits, 180 mg of anthocyanins, 153 mg of leukoanthocyanins and 264 mg of catechins were found( for 100 g of raw material).Quercetin, myricetin, and hyperoside are isolated.
Berries are rich in triterpenoids( 0.32%), represented mainly by ursolic and oleanolic acids.
The mineral composition of fruits is diverse. In the ashes, the leading places are occupied by potassium, phosphorus, sodium. Among the trace elements there is a high content of iron, manganese, aluminum and zinc. Also found are nickel, molybdenum, silver, chromium, titanium, gallium, copper.
The presence of arbutin glycoside as well as ursolic and oleanolic acids has been established in cranberry leaves.
Action and application. Fresh berries and processed cranberries( jam, jam, juice, mors, etc.) improve the work of the stomach and intestines, stimulate the activity of the digestive glands. In folk medicine are used with reduced acidity of gastric juice.
In addition, cranberry and its preparations are soothing, improve sleep, regulate blood pressure, have anti-inflammatory effect. Because of this, the general condition of the patients improves, weakness weakens, health is restored more quickly.
Cranberries are also used in gastritis with low acidity, with peptic ulcer.
In folk medicine, cranberry juice and syrup are used for beriberi and various inflammatory diseases, accompanied by high temperature, contribute to a decrease in temperature. Berries of cranberries with honey are also used for colds, rheumatism, angina;eat berries at elevated blood pressure, the leaves are used instead of tea and make a thick broth for shortness of breath, berries and leaves - with reduced acidity of the stomach, juice from berries is used for fever.
Juice is produced by squeezing berries through gauze or on a juicer.
Cranberry drink with potato juice is prepared from cranberries. To do this, take 200 g of peeled potatoes, rub it on a fine grater( it is better to pass through a meat grinder) or get on a juicer, leave for starch for 1-2 hours, carefully drain the juice and add raw cranberry juice( from 50 g of cranberry), add15 g of sugar.
Drinks from berries are very useful for the treatment of pyelonephritis, which ranks second in the frequency of diseases and often leads to hypertension.
Cranberry honey kvass with raisins
1 kg of cranberries, 300 g of honey, 15 g of yeast, 13-15 raisins, 5 water.
Chopped and washed cold water cranberries kneaded and squeezed through the cheesecloth juice. Squeezes pour water and boil for about 10 minutes. The broth is filtered, cooled, raisins are made in it, yeast and pressed cranberry juice are added, as well as raisins. Within a day kvass is kept in a warm place. Then filter and store in the refrigerator. Kvass can be bottled.
Teas
Composition of tea and way of its preparation:
Cranberry tea: 1st. . leaves per 1 tbsp.boiling water, insist 30 min. Drink with honey in the form of tea without dosage. Healing properties: used for dyspnoea.
General restorative tea: 10 berries of cranberries and 1 st. . cranberry leaves pour in a thermos 200 ml of boiling water, insist 4 hours, strain. Drink in equal amounts 3 times a day.
Healing properties: hypertension, atherosclerosis, gastritis, colitis, metabolic disorders.
Cranberry berry tea: cranberry berries - 2 cups, granulated sugar - 0.5 cups, water - 1 cup. In the crushed berries add sugar and water, boil, strain. Dilute with water to taste. Drink instead of tea. Healing properties: useful in hypertension. The use of cranberries is contraindicated in case of gastric ulcer and acute inflammatory processes of the digestive tract.
Juice
Cranberry berries contain a large amount of organic acids( up to 3-4%), especially lemon, which explains their sour taste. In addition to citric, berries contain also benzoic and ursolic acids, sugars( about 3%), vitamin C, carotene, pectins, flavonoid substances, glycosides, certain color compounds, phytoncides, mineral salts, in particular iodine, tannins, anthocyanins, saltspotassium.
A wide range of biologically active substances makes cranberries a valuable food and medical product. Cranberry juice is prescribed for hypo- and avitaminosis C. Juice has diuretic and antimicrobial properties, enhances the secretion of gastric and pancreatic juice. It is used in the treatment of gastritis with low acidity and inflammation of the pancreas. Juice prevents the formation of kidney stones, has a positive effect in diseases of the urinary tract and liver, rheumatism and malaria, has antipyretic effect in fevers of various origin due to diaphoretic and diuretic action.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that cranberry juice is as rich in flavonoids as grape juice and red wine.
The antioxidants contained in cranberry juice prevent the formation of thrombi and, thus, are a good means of preventing cardiovascular diseases. For preventive purposes it is recommended to drink a half-liter of cranberry or grape juice every day.
Doctors claim that the so-called red products - cherry, blackberries, red grapes, cranberries, beets, red cabbage - effectively purify the blood.
They also recommend once or twice a year to take a three-week reception of cranberry juice with the addition of honey: in the first week three times a day to drink 1/2 cup, the second week - twice a day, the third - once a day.
In cosmetics, fruits can be used as a whitening and nourishing mask, after which you should apply a nourishing cream, sour cream or some other fatty base. The mask is applied for 15 minutes.
It is used 3 -4 times a week. Berries of cranberries are widely used for food in fresh and wet form.
It is used for the preparation of syrups, juice, mors, kvass, jam, pastilles, fillings for sweets, compotes, drinks. A wide application of cranberries is found in the confectionery industry, as well as in fruit and berry wine making.
Colorants of berries are used as food colorings. Very delicious cranberries in a shirt( in sugar), and cook it quite easily.
Cranberry juice is used for gynecological, inflammatory diseases, anemia, pulmonary tuberculosis, atherosclerosis and headache, it quenches thirst, raises appetite.
Our doctors, who develop a therapeutic diet, offer a vitamin drink - a mixture of juices of potato and cranberry. Take the freshly squeezed potato juice, give starch for an hour, the juice is drained from the sludge, mixed with cranberry juice, and drink the drink 3 times a day for I / 4 cups.
Cranberry juice mixed with beet( 1: 1) is used for vascular spasms and hypertension, cranberry juice and mors - as a refreshing, antipyretic, anti-inflammatory and appetizing remedy. Well quench your thirst. Due to the high content of flavonoids, cranberries increase the strength and elasticity of the walls of the blood capillaries, promote the assimilation of vitamin C in the body. Therefore, cranberry berries and products of their processing are recommended for atherosclerosis, hypertension and other diseases characterized by increased permeability and insufficient strength of the walls of blood vessels.
Ursolic and oleanolic acids have anti-inflammatory, wound-healing and, in part, toning effect. It is shown that with pyelonephritis and cystitis, drinks made from cranberry berries intensify the action of antibiotics and sulfanilamide preparations. Natural and blended( mixed with other fruit or berry juices) cranberry juice - an auxiliary tool in the treatment of infectious diseases of the urinary tract, are also used to prevent certain types of kidney stones. There are data on the usefulness of cranberries in glaucoma( LI Vigorov).
It is recommended to appoint cranberry juice together with antibiotics in the treatment of postpartum complications and other inflammatory processes( IM Starovoitova).
Cranberry berries have a strong antimicrobial effect. Russian physician GP Goryansky at the end of the XIX century showed that cranberry juice acts on the causative agent of cholera more than carbolic acid( phenol) and birch tar, which are classical disinfectants. The effectiveness of applying cranberry juice in surgery has been shown, as it accelerates the healing of purulent wounds and surface burns.
Cranberry food products have a radioprotective effect and are recommended for people working in radioactively contaminated areas.
Cranberry ointment has a beneficial effect on the course of some skin diseases: it reduces inflammation, dries wet areas, exerts an anesthetic effect and limits suppuration.
Cranberry action - tonic, refreshing, invigorating, berries improve physical and mental performance, increase the secretion of pancreatic and gastric juice. Fruits also have a vitamin, antipyretic, diuretic effect on the body. Used for the treatment of kidney disease, urinary tract, with hypoacid gastritis, the initial forms of pancreatitis.
Contraindicated the use of cranberries in patients with peptic ulcer disease and acute inflammatory processes of the gastrointestinal tract.
Cranberry juice is useful in anemia, with gynecological inflammatory processes. Drink it for 0.3 glasses 3-4 times a day with honey or sugar( to taste).
With angina, colds of the upper respiratory tract, it is useful to drink juice from cranberry fruits, cranberry tea.
It is believed that the constant consumption of cranberries protects from the formation of stones in the kidneys and bladder.
With alopecia, psoriasis, allergic rashes, vasculitis, juice and cranberry berries are useful.
A wide variety of cranberry berries are found in cosmetics.
Treatment of cranberry juice of radiation sickness
Drink half a cup of juice 3 times a day for 1 week, next week take 1/2 cup of juice 2 times a day, the third week drink 1/2 cup of juice per day.
Blood participates in all important life processes, health and life expectancy depend on it. In order for blood to be good, clean air, sufficient light, good nutrition and physical activity are necessary.
Infusion of beak berries with glomerulonephritis
Required:
1 tbsp.spoon of cranberry, 200 ml of water.
Method of preparation.
Grind the berries, pour boiling water, insist for 2-
for 3 hours, drain.
How to use.
Recipes
♦ For the prevention of colds in children: take a glass of cranberries, raisins, peeled walnuts and honey, a large lemon and 0.5 kg of dried apricots. Nuts scald with boiling water and peel off the film. All components must be passed through a meat grinder( lemon - together with a crust), pour honey, store in a refrigerator. Take a dessert spoon in the morning and evening.
♦ Antiseptic: take a tablespoon of berries cranberry bog, stretch, pour a glass of water, bring to a boil, cool. Use to rinse the mouth and rinse open wounds.
♦ In case of hypertension: take 1 part of the fruit of the cranberry marsh, 2 parts of the cinnamon rose berry fruit and the aroniafruit fruit. A tablespoon of the mixture pour a glass of boiling water, insist 30-40 minutes. Take half a cup 3-4 times a day.
♦ In case of atherosclerosis: take 2 parts of berries of marsh cranberry, leaves of cowberry ordinary, grass of three-separate grass, common motherwort grass, chamomile flowers, corn stalks with stigmas, bark of crumb brittle, 3 parts of hawthorn fruit of blood red and fruitsashberry ashberry. A tablespoon of mixture pour a glass of boiling water, insist 30-40 minutes. Take half a cup 3 times a day after meals.
♦ In case of inflammation of the bladder: take 2 parts of the fruits of the marsh cranberry and leaves and fruits of cowberry ordinary, 3 parts of the herb tea and 5 parts of the bearberry leaves. A tablespoon of the mixture pour a glass of boiling water, boil for 10 minutes, insist 30 minutes. Take equal portions 3-4 times a day.
♦ For gastritis with low acidity: take 2 parts of fruits of cranberry marsh and leaves of plantain large, 1 part of peppermint grass, herb St. John's wort, chamomile flowers, marigold flowers, dandelion root medicinal, sage medicinal herb, root of marsh, leaves of the watch are three-leaved. A tablespoon of mixture pour a glass of boiling water, insist 30 minutes. Take a third cup 3 times a day for 30 minutes before eating.
Cranberries in sugar
Cranberry berries dipped in beaten protein, roll in sugar powder, put on a sieve in 1 layer and dry in a moderately hot place.
Our great-grandmothers cooked a fine cranberry kvass: 1 kg of cranberries washed, rubbed through a colander, add 9 liters of water, 1 kg of granulated sugar, if desired, a little vanilla, boil, cool to slightly warm and drain. Add 25 g of yeast, diluted in a small amount of warm boiled water, stir and leave in a warm place for a day. Then pour into bottles, putting in each 2-3 raisins, cork, put in the cold. After 2-3 days fermented kvass will be ready.
It's very easy to make a cranberry cake. Rinse and wash 200 g of cranberries, boil it in 300 ml of water until soft. Then wipe through a sieve, add to taste honey with a piece of lemon zest, boil, remove the zest. Dry the croutons from white bread( but do not bruise).Pour the toasts of honey cranberry and serve.
Cranberry jam with walnuts
Cranberries - 1 kg;peeled walnuts - 200 g;sugar - 1,5 kg.
Cranberries to sort out, rinse, blanch for 1-2 minutes, fold in a colander to allow water to glass. Kernels of walnuts lower in boiling water, cook for 30 minutes, discarded in a colander. Cook the sugar syrup and dip cranberries and nuts into it. Cook over low heat until cooked.
Cranberries rubbed with sugar
Cranberry - 1 kg, sugar - 1 kg.
Berries pick, rinse and blanch for 8-10 minutes. Fold in a colander and wipe through a sieve. The resulting mashed potatoes can be mixed with sugar, heated to 90-95 ° C and put into clean dry jars. Cover them with lids and sterilize: half-liter cans - 20 minutes, liter - 30. Store in a cool dark place.
Cranberry juice with honey
Cranberries - 200 g;honey - 2 tbsp.spoons;water - 1L.
Cranberries to sort, rinse, blanch. Then knead it with a wooden pestle, pour water and cook for 5-10 minutes. Strain, add honey, cool and serve.
Cranberry softhead with honey
Cranberry syrup - 2 tbsp.spoons;honey natural -4 tbsp.spoons;eggs - 1 piece;milk is cold - 400 g.
Mix all the ingredients in a mixer until a homogeneous mass is formed. Serve on the table in a refrigerated state.
Fish fried with cranberries
Fish, cleaned, gutted, salt, roll in flour, fry in vegetable oil. Cranberries stretch, squeeze the juice, mix this juice with honey and slightly evaporate it. When you feed the fish with this juice.
Contraindications
In a number of diseases, cranberries can not only not have a beneficial effect, but also harm. What are the contraindications for the use of this berry?
First of all - it's an individual intolerance to any components of cranberries. This "intolerance" is manifested, as a rule, by the usual allergic reaction after taking the product - a rash, redness, itching. It is because of the "allergies" that cranberries are not recommended to be consumed during lactation and to small children under 3 years of age.
With special caution should take the fruits of this plant and people who have such diseases as gout and urolithiasis.
Doctors do not recommend eating cranberries to people who have stomach ulcers or duodenal ulcers, and it is contraindicated for people with gastritis of increased acidity. During periods of exacerbation, the use of berries can provoke severe pain. And in general, with regard to the action on the gastrointestinal tract, experts recommend that you plant cranberry juice with water and avoid taking berries on an empty stomach, so as not to provoke excessive secretion of gastric juice and not irritate once again the mucous membrane. Derived cranberries should be consumed in the form of dessert - after taking the main food.
Not very good, by the way, belong to the cranberry dentists. In their opinion, the acids contained in the berry can quickly destroy the tooth enamel. It is for this reason, after taking cranberries( or juice), it is recommended to brush your teeth or at least rinse your mouth with water.
Refuse from cranberries should be taken if a person takes a means to dilute blood.
In hypotension, use cranberries with caution, as it reduces high blood pressure.
If you do not fall under these categories of people, then the berry will benefit you only and you can use it both during illness and just to prevent a whole range of diseases.