Useful and medicinal properties of wild strawberry
Perennial herbaceous plant up to 15-20 cm tall. Rhizome oblique, short, with numerous accessory roots, brownish-brown, thin. Stems of two types: one lying, thin, rooting( mustache), other flowering, upright, leafy. Leaves are triple, large, serrate, silky-fibrous. Flowers are white on long pedicels in little-flowered half-zentikas. The calyx with the subment remains with the fetus. The fruit is false, incorrectly called a berry, is formed by a fleshy floret, loose, red, with numerous fruit-seeds. Blooms from May to July. Fruits ripen in June-July.
A widely spread plant of the middle belt of the European part of Russia.
Medicinal raw materials are fruits and leaves in fresh or dried form.
The leaves are harvested during the budding of plants, almost all summer, tearing them with long petioles, suspended in bundles in a darkened place, in attics and another ventilated place. Berries are dried quickly, put in a dryer or oven and kept at a temperature of +60. .. + 65 ° С.Shelf life 2 years.
Fruits of strawberries contain a lot of vitamin C( up to 92 mg%), carotene, vitamin B6, traces of vitamin B1;sugar, citric, malic, salicylic, quinine, tannic acids, pectin substances, anti-cyanic compounds, up to 4% of fiber, a small amount of minerals, phytoncides.
Leaves contain ascorbic acid and traces of alkaloids. In the roots there are many tannins.
Strawberries are used in medicine as a dietary remedy for diseases of the heart, liver and kidneys, as well as a source of vitamin C for gout, cholelithiasis, kidney stones. Effective as a diuretic, promoting the release of salts and nitrogenous slag from the body.
It is often prescribed in large quantities as a fortifying agent for the regulation of intestinal activity, as well as inflammatory diseases of the stomach and bile ducts. It stimulates the appetite, regulates digestion, quenches thirst. In large quantities, strawberry has an antithyroid effect, reducing the absorption of iodine by the thyroid gland.
In folk medicine, strawberries are very popular. Usually make a decoction of the whole plant collected during flowering, but collect all summer. They drink the decoction as tea, hot and cold, when you want to drink, with colds, high temperature, with heart disease, liver, kidney, gallbladder, urinary incontinence, sclerosis, cough, pulmonary tuberculosis, goiter, anemia,kidney and liver, gout and scurvy. If you eat a lot( up to 3 kg) of fresh strawberries, then adding herring and onions, you can drive the tapeworm.
Grass of wild strawberries is used as a decoction for inflammation of small intestines, gastritis, catarrh of large intestines, accompanied by constipation and diarrhea. Strawberries are also taken with jaundice, rickets, hemorrhoids.
Outwardly the fruits of strawberries are used for advanced eczema. In this case, take ripe berries, pour on cheesecloth or clean linen cloth, grind and with
put to the affected area of the skin 3-4 times for a period of 6-8 hours. The root is applied externally from rheumatism. Grass - from freckles, juice of berries rub the hives, so that the bees do not hurt. All preparations of berries and leaves are taken before meals.
Application of
Decoction from leaves: 3-4 grams of leaves are brewed with two glasses of boiling water and take this tea sips during the day with gallstone disease, spleen disease, gastritis, bronchial asthma, nervous seizures and insomnia, cancer of the larynx.
Decoction of the whole plant: 20 g per 200 ml;2-3 tbsp.spoon 3 times a day.
Tea from leaves: 1 tbsp. Spoon the crushed leaves with a glass of boiling water;cook for 5-10 minutes, insist 2 hours, take 1 tbsp.spoon 5-6 times a day. This infusion is used for inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, atherosclerosis, for throat rinses in angina.
Tea( other): 1 tbsp.spoon of crushed leaves and rhizomes with roots poured a glass of water, boil the roots for 15-20 minutes and add crushed leaves, insist until cooled, drink with atherosclerosis in 3 divided doses.
Strawberries are advised to take diabetic patients who are unable to use ordinary sugar. The leaves of strawberries make vitamin tea pleasant.
Note: It should be borne in mind that in some people strawberries cause allergies, manifested in the appearance of urticaria, pruritus, etc. When such symptoms appear, stop using strawberries, take a solution of calcium chloride, ephedrine or rub the body with onion juice.