Useful and curative properties of birch lined with warty
Family Birch - Betulaceae
The generic name comes from the Celtic name of the tree, the species definitions correspond to Russian names.
Botanical Description. The tree is 10-20 m high with white smooth bark. Young branches near the birch are red-brown, naked, covered with warts, which are resinous glands, near birch bushy - directed upwards and to the sides and pubescent. Leaves are alternate, ovate-rhombic or triangular-ovate with a double-edged fringe, naked, young - gluey. Flowers are same-sex, collected in drooping earrings. Male flowers in thin and long earrings, female flowers in shorter and thicker inflorescences. The fruit is a nutlet with two membranous wings.
Blossoms in May along with the formation of leaves, fruits ripen in August - September.
Other species of birches of equal importance are also found in the USSR.
Geographic distribution. Both species have a wide range, covering the entire European part of the USSR, except the Far North and the South, the Urals, the Western and partially Central Siberia, northern Kazakhstan.
Collection and drying. Birch produces several types of raw materials. The kidneys are harvested from January to the end of April when the forest is cut, cutting off branches and tying them into bunches( brooms), dried outdoors, in barns, and then threshed or kidneys are pulled back in canvas mittens. Birch buds can be harvested only in forest areas intended for cutting or harvested by leshozes for harvesting brooms.
The leaves are collected during flowering in May, when they are still sticky and fragrant, dried under canopies, in attics, in well-ventilated rooms.
Chaga is a tinder fungus parasite. Unlike other trutovikov, having a hooflike fruit body, in chaga it is formless, from above black with deep cracks. It is a sterile( not yes
spout) form of the tinder of the inonotus of the beveled - Inonotus obliquus( Pers.) Pil. Spores of this fungus, falling into cracks, frosts on the birch tree trunk, sprout there, forming hyphae - thin mushroom threads, which penetrate into the wood, forming a mycelium-mycelium. Then, under the bark, a fruiting body is formed, which, breaking the bark, comes to the surface. Mushroom-causes rot in the wood, causing the birch to die in the end.
Fruit bodies of chaga have the appearance of nodular outgrowth, reaching 40 cm in diameter. They are collected only from live birches at any time of the year, knocking down the growths with an ax. The internal loose part is scraped off, the remains of birch bark are removed, and if there is wood, cut into pieces no more than 10 cm in diameter and dried for a long time in air or indoors.
Medicinal raw materials. Buds of the birch( Gemmae Betu-lae) are elongate-conic, pointed, glabrous, with pseudo-piciformly arranged, closely pressed along the edges of scales. The length of the kidneys is from 3 to 7 mm, in the cross-section from 1.5 to 3 mm. Color - brown, taste astringent, resinous.
VFS 42-753-78 allows loss in the mass after drying no more than 10%;ash not more than 4%;other parts of birch no more than 8%;kidneys, moved to growth and slightly blossoming, not more than 2%;organic impurity( kidneys of other plants, etc.) no more than 1%;mineral impurity not more than 0.5%.
Birch leaf - Folium Betulae shallow, not more than 1.5 cm. Odor weak, fragrant;taste slightly astringent.
Birch fungus chaga - Fungus betulinus - pieces of indeterminate form with a black, highly cracked, outer layer. The fungus tissue is very dense, firm. The color is dark brown with fine yellow veins. The size of the pieces is about 10 cm across. The smell is absent, the taste is bitter.
FS 42-53-72 allows moisture and ash not more than 14%;inner light-brown, loose, easily crumbling part of the chaga no more than 15%;birch bark 1%.The extractive substances recovered by water must be at least 20%;and the chromogenic complex precipitated from the aqueous extract with hydrochloric acid is not less than 50% of the total dry residue of extractive substances.
Chemical composition. In the birch buds, up to 5.3% of essential oil, which includes sesquiterpenes
( betulen, betulol and betulenol), betulenic acid and naphthalene;flavonoids( dimethoxyflavone, betulethol, myricitrin, rutin, myricetin-3-digalactoside, etc.).
In the leaves - butyl ester of betuloretinic acid, up to 2.8% of vitamin C, flavonoids, including hyperoside, tannins, triterpene alcohols, saponins, traces of essential oil.
The chaga contains a water-soluble chromogenic complex formed from phenolic aldehydes, polyphenols, hydroxyphenylcarboxylic acids and their quinones, a significant amount of ash elements( silicon, iron, potassium, magnesium, manganese, zinc, copper, etc.).Manganese is an activator of some enzymes that catalyze the process of protein breakdown. In addition organic acids are found in the chaga: oxalic, formic, acetic, oily, vanillinic, paraoxybenzoic, etc., free phenols, sterols, pterins, etc. Pterins are natural organic pigments whose chemical structure is based on the condensed heterocyclic pyrimido-pyrazine. Perhaps, with the content of these substances, some positive effect of Chaga's preparations is associated with malignant neoplasms.
Action and application. Birch buds are diuretic, choleretic, expectorant and disinfectant. They are used as a diuretic( in the form of infusion from 10 g of raw materials per 200 ml of water for 1 tablespoon 3 times a day) with edema of cardiac origin.
You can not permanently prescribe for acute kidney disease, as well as for pregnant women.
Infusions and decoctions of birch leaves are used as a diuretic and diaphoretic.
Activated charcoal and its dosage form are also obtained from birch. Activated carbon is a universal antidote, since it has a large surface and is capable of adsorbing gases, alkaloids, toxins, salts of heavy metals, etc. It is used for flatulence, hypersecretion, dyspepsia, various intoxications. Usually poisoning with various poisons 2-3 tablespoons of powder stir in a glass of warm water and taken inside after washing the stomach.
From birch bark, tar containing phenol, cresols, guaiacol and other compounds possessing bactericidal properties is obtained. Tar is part of ointments used to treat parasitic and fungal diseases of the skin, eczema, and also balsamic liniment - Vishnevsky ointment.
Semi-mushroom extract of birch mushroom chaga - befungin is used for chronic gastritis, gastric ulcer, for the treatment of cancer patients.
Birch juice is a good diet drink.