Description.
Yarrow is a perennial herbaceous plant of the Compositae family. Has a creeping rhizome and escaping from it underground shoots. Stems fluffy, straight, with a height of 20 - 80 cm. Leaves are regular, lanceolate. The flowers are pink, red, white, yellow, collected in baskets and form complex shields, 5-15 cm in diameter. The plant blossoms from June to the end of summer. Fruit - brown achenes. It grows along the steppe slopes, forest edges, dry meadows, the edges of roads, fields, borders.
Yarrow grass is harvested during flowering, cutting off the leafy tips of shoots up to 15 cm long. Collect the raw materials in dry weather, waiting for the dew to come off. Dry the plant in a ventilated room or outdoors under the canopies, stirring occasionally.
Sometimes for the winter, a powder is prepared from a mixture of dried leaves of the nettle and yarrow (1: 1). Powder can be stored in the form of boiled water boiled or in a dry form. Such a powder is used as an external agent.
Composition and useful properties.
In the yarrow seeds there is a lot of fatty oil. The leaves contain copper, tannins, phytoncides, vitamins C and K, carotene, organic acids, resins, alkaloids, essential oil.
On the human body yarrow has a soothing, restorative, antibacterial, hemostatic, analgesic (including by relieving muscle spasm), choleretic, reducing blood pressure, astringent, anti-inflammatory effect, reduces allergic reactions and flatulence.
And the most famous property of the yarrow is the ability to stop bleeding. Apply it for any bleeding: various internal bleeding (pulmonary, uterine, gastrointestinal and other) that have arisen because of injuries. Stop bleeding occurs in connection with the strengthening of the walls of blood vessels (the effect of vitamin C) and increased blood clotting (the effect of vitamin K).
Application in medicine.
The application of yarrow is prescribed for:
- bleeding of various kinds - gastrointestinal, uterine, pulmonary, external, arising, for example, due to trauma, or other;
- diseases of the biliary tract, gallbladder - improves the secretion of bile, inflammations, spasms decrease;
- diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, which are accompanied by pain and spasms of smooth muscles - pains are reduced and spasms are removed;
- atherosclerosis and obesity - metabolic processes are improving;
- treatment of wounds, burns and cuts - the healing process is activated, inflammation is removed;
- hemorrhoids - reduces pain, inflammation and hemorrhagic hemorrhage;
- decrease in immunity, also with various purulent diseases - as a restorative means;
- the initial stages of hypertension - lowers blood pressure (it should not be taken at a later stage due to increased blood coagulability and a tendency to thrombosis);
- allergic diseases;
- bronchopulmonary diseases, as an expectorant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial agent;
- diarrhea - as an astringent;
- after severe, including, infectious diseases, as a restorative means.
Properties yarrow are harmful to pregnant women, so drugs based on it are contraindicated in pregnancy.
Useful recipes.
- Infusion for internal use:
cook in enameled dishes, a tablespoon of dry shredded raw material pour 1 cup of boiling water, cover with a lid, place in a water bath and heat for 15 minutes. Then, for 45 minutes, cool, strain, squeeze, bring the volume of infusion obtained to the original level, take half an hour before meals, three times a day for a third of the glass;
- Infusion for external use:
3 tablespoons of dry shredded raw material pour a glass of boiling water, the rest is made, as in the preparation of infusion for internal use. The received infusion is moistened with napkins and applied to ulcers, they wash their wounds.
Yarrow is a plant that served as faith and truth to our distant ancestors, grandmothers and grandfathers, and will serve our children and grandchildren.