Useful and medicinal properties of pine forest
Family Pine - Pinaceae
The generic name comes from the Celtic word pin-rock, mountain, which is associated with the habitat of the plant. Species definition in Latin means "forest".
Botanical Description. Evergreen coniferous tree, reaching a height of 20-40 m. The bark of the trunks is red-brown, cracked, on the branches yellowish. Branches are whiskered into several tiers, the number of which can be approximately judged on the age of the plant. Leaves needle, called needles,
sit in pairs. The convex side of the needles is dark green, gaunt, with prominent blue-white lines.
Male spikelets are numerous, gray-yellow, collected in groups at the base of young shoots. On the tops of them are reddish, solitary or collected by 2-3 female cones, which consist of cristae arranged seed scales, bearing at the base of two downward facing naked ovules and infertile scales. Pollination is produced by the wind. After fertilization, the seed scales grow, become wooden, forming oval-conical cones, first green, and then yellow-gray. Seed ripening takes place next year. At the same time, the seed scales are opened, and the seeds are poured out by the wind. Each seed is provided with a wing three times its length.
"Blossoms" in June, the seeds ripen for a second, rarely a third year.
Geographic distribution. Pine forms forests, is in our country the main forest species. It grows even on poor soil humus, especially on sandy and sandy loamy soils.
Distributed in coniferous and mixed forests in the European part of the USSR, Siberia and Northern Kazakhstan, in the Caucasus Mountains.
Collection and drying. From the pine, various products with therapeutic value are obtained.
Pharmaceutical raw materials are the kidneys. They are collected in the spring in March-April, when they swelled, but did not move into growth and the scales covering them were still pressed to the kidney and glued together. At too early collection( in February), the kidneys are small in size and have fewer biologically active substances. The harvest is made at spring felling of the forest, sanitary cleaning of pine plantations. If these works are not done in this area, they collect the buds on the tops of the tree branches. Often the kidneys are collected in young plantations of the forest, considering it convenient. In this case, it is strictly forbidden to collect apical buds. At the same time, the growth of the main stalk will stop, the height increase will occur due to lateral shoots, causing the pine to grow with a curve that is unsuitable for the production of commercial wood by the trunk. When collecting kidneys from the lateral branches, all nutrients enter the apical buds, which accelerates the growth of the pine - a straight, high trunk is formed.
Collect kidneys in whole groups in the form of crowns, cutting them with a knife or tearing their hands. In the latter case, hands after picking become sticky from tarry substances, but they are well washed with a few drops of turpentine or gasoline. Single kidneys separated during collection are also used.
The collected raw materials are dried in attics or under canopies, and in good weather in the sun.
To collect medicinal products, pine resin is collected - a liquid resin that flows when the trees are bitten during the growing season. Patching is performed 5-10 years before the felling of the forest. From purified turpentine - turpentine - isolate turpentine and rosin.
The uprooted tarred stumps are subjected to a dry distillation. In this case, turpentine, liquid tar and charcoal are obtained, and by distillation with water vapor branches( paws) of pine - essential oil. The water extract formed in this case is evaporated and used as a pine bath extract.
Medicinal raw materials. Finished raw materials - pine buds( Gemmae Pini) are located on several pieces, of which the average is larger, or single. The surface of the kidneys is covered with dry, tightly pressed fimbriated scales to each other, glued together by a protruding resin. The length of the kidney is from 1 to 4 cm. The outside color is pinkish-brown, in the fracture green or greenish-brown.
Smell fragrant, resinous, slightly bitter taste.
FS 42-1272-79 allows: moisture not more than 13%;other parts of pine not more than 10%, including needles not more than 0.5%;crushed parts passing through a sieve with a hole diameter of 3 mm, not more than 5%;organic and mineral impurities not more than 0.5%.
Various preparations are obtained from pine: turpentine, or turpentine oil, turpentine, rosin, terpinhydrate, tar tar, carboline, ethereal pine oil.
Chemical composition. Pine kidneys contain up to 0.36% of essential oil, tannins, bitter substance pinipicrin, carotene, vitamin C, methyl derivatives of flavonoids. The composition of essential oil includes a- and p-pinene, caren, terpineol, limonene and other terponoids.
Turpentine is present in the predominant amount of a-pinene, which is accompanied by its Karen and silvestren isomers, there is a small amount of cadinene, terpineol, etc.
Rosin contains tar acids, and tar contains various phenols, on which its use is based.
Pine, lemon, borneol, bornilacetate, cadinene and other terpenes are found in essential pine oil.
Action and application. Pine kidneys are used in the form of infusion or broth as an expectorant, disinfecting the upper respiratory and diuretic pathways, as well as in the form of inhalations. Water extracts are prepared at the rate of 20 g. Of raw material per 200 ml of water. To the glass it is useful to add 1-2 teaspoons of bee honey. Unsweetened infusion is used for rheumatism and gout, kidney stone disease.
Pine "honey" is prepared from the kidneys at home. To do this, 1 part of the freshly picked buds is washed in a colander with cold water, poured into 2 parts of cold water and heated on low heat in an enamel saucepan closed with a lid. Boiling is carried out for 15-20 minutes. The broth is brought with boiling water to the original volume and after complete cooling, filter into another pan, add 2 parts of sugar, bring to a boil without frequent stirring. The resulting syrup is stored in a glass jar closed with a lid. When stored, it is candied. A tablespoon of this "honey" with milk or tea is a good cough remedy and at the same time replenishes the body's need for vitamin C, which is especially great in the spring, when there are no other sources of this vitamin, and its reserves are exhausted.