The buckthorn is fragile, or alder - it's a shrub or a small tree. The trunk and branches of this plant are smooth, covered with bark of a grayish hue. On the young branches of the buckthorn the bark is reddish-brown. Kidneys have a brownish color, shiny oval leaves form from them. The buckthorn blooms in May-June, fruits (stems with two bones) are formed in the autumn. There is a healing plant of buckthorn in mixed forests, on glades and fringes, on the outskirts of bogs and reservoirs.
What parts of the plant are considered curative?
For medicinal purposes, bark from young stems of buckthorn is used first of all. The fruits of buckthorn also have some medicinal properties, but are used in medicine much less often.
What kind of chemicals does the buckthorn produce?
The bark of the buckthorn contains oxymethylanthraquinones. When stored in the cortex, glucofragulin is formed, which, by the action of enzymes, is split into a glucose molecule and frangulin, which breaks down into rheoemidine and rhamnose. Emotin, isoemodine, anthranols, and chrysofanol are also found in the crust cortex.
At what diseases are used the medicinal properties of the plant buckthorn?
Medicinal preparations made from bark of buckthorn are used as a liquid extract or water decoction for the treatment of chronic colitis and as a soft laxative for constipation. The cortex is added to the composition of therapeutic antihemorrhoids and laxatives. In folk medicine, the decoction of the crust of buckthorn is used for ulcer of the stomach and duodenum. Ripe fruit buckthorn is used for medicinal purposes in liver diseases and as an anthelmintic agent.
How correctly to prepare bark of buckthorn for the further use in the medical purposes?
As a medicinal raw material, the bark is harvested from young trunks of the buckthorn plant or from its thick branches. Procuring work in the spring or early summer, when the plant begins active sap flow. On cut trunks or branches, buckthorns make incisions with a sharp knife or ax, and then peel the bark toward the top. The cortex collected from the plant is divided into pieces up to a half-meter long, and then dried. Another way of separating the buckthorn bark is to pre-coat the cut branches with transverse incisions at a distance of 30-50 cm and then join them with a longitudinal incision. After this, the bark is removed in the form of tubes. To prevent the development of mold, one should not put the collected tubes into each other.
Drying the bark of buckthorn is carried out under canopies, in attics, in sheds, and in good weather, just in the shade in the wind.
It should be noted that the dried and barked crust plant for medical purposes can be used no earlier than a year later. This is because the fresh bark of the plant contains substances that cause a person to have attacks of nausea and vomiting.
How to properly prepare and apply a medicinal decoction from a buckthorn plant?
To prepare a medicinal broth from the buckthorn bark, you need to take 2 tablespoons of crushed bark, place them in an enamel pot and pour one cup of boiling water. Then the contents of the pan are heated in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes. After cooling, the decoction of the bark of the buckthorn is filtered and brought to boiling water to the volume of a full glass.
Take the prepared medicinal product from the buckthorn plant in half a glass on an empty stomach in the morning or at night. Keep the healing broth should not more than two days. Side effects when taking a decoction from a properly harvested and dried bark of buckthorn is usually not observed.
Dmitry Parshonok , specially for the site