2024 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:29
A simple bird or lithospermum is a genus of annual or perennial herbaceous plant that belongs to the Grapavolist family. There are about 60 species of plants in the genus, but only two are used as ornamentals - spreading and olive-leaved bird millet.
The genus has spread around the world, but seems to be most common in North and South America, Mexico, the Mediterranean and China. Some types of bird millet are used in Chinese medicine as a traditional antibacterial and immunostimulant.
Types of birds simply
Field bird millet / Lithospermum arvense / is an annual or biennial herbaceous plant. It has a spindle-shaped, branched root. The stem of field millet reaches 15-40 cm in height. The lower leaves of the plant are elongated - oval with petioles. The upper leaves are lanceolate, pointed, sessile.
The flowers are whitish, rarely bluish, standing on short stalks and gathered in inflorescences with few flowers, which become loose when the seeds ripen. The fruits are gray, matte, wrinkled, very hard nuts. Each nut is ovoid, three-walled, elongated and narrowed at the top, widened at the base, with a large triangular bud, with 2 points in the middle.
The Polish bird millet blooms in spring and summer. In Bulgaria it is found in grassy places and bushes, up to 1300 m above sea level. The plant is also distributed in Central Europe, Siberia, Japan, China and Iran.
Medicinal bird millet / Lithospermum officinale / is a perennial herbaceous plant with a highly developed root. Its stems are erect and strongly branched, reaching 1 m in height. The leaves of the medicinal bird millet are lanceolate, with protruding lateral veins below, sessile, pointed, with close-fitting bristles. The flowers are small.
The calyx is deeply 5-parted. Corolla 4-7 mm long, slightly longer than the calyx, small, whitish or yellowish-white, rarely bluish. The fruits are bluish-white, very smooth, shiny nuts. Medicinal bird millet blooms in April - August.
Medicinal bird millet is found in moist grassy and shady places, rarely in almost the whole country, reaching 1000 m above sea level. It is also distributed in Central Europe, the Mediterranean, the European territory of Russia with the Caucasus, Siberia and Central Asia, the Balkan Peninsula, Asia Minor, Mongolia, Iran.
Lithospermum purpureo - ceoruleum is a perennial herbaceous plant with a branched rhizome. The stems reach 60 cm in height. The leaves are lanceolate, arranged consecutively, pointed, with obscure lateral veins, dark green above, light green below, soft.
The flowers of this species are large, beautiful, at first purple-red, then become blue, gathered in spiral inflorescences. The ripe fruits of the purple-violet bird's millet are oblong, porcelain white, hard, shiny, pearl-like grains.
The plant is found in the European part of Russia, the Caucasus, Central Europe, the Mediterranean, the Balkans, Asia Minor. In Bulgaria it grows in the bushes, forests, stony places and meadows of the whole country, up to 1000 m above sea level.
Spreading bird millet / Lithospermum diffusa / originates from Southern Europe and is an ornamental semi-shrub with strongly branched stems up to 20 cm in height. The leaves are numerous, narrow and short, bright green.
They are quite dense and evergreen. The flowers are very small - up to 1 cm in diameter, with a blue color. They abundantly cover the plants, which turn into fluffy blue clouds. Spreading bird millet blooms from June to October.
Lithospermum oleifolium is an ornamental plant native to the Pyrenees. The plants are smaller - up to 15 cm tall and spread up to 30 cm. This species is distinguished by its silvery-gray leaves. The petals change color, ranging from pink until the buds are slightly open, to sky blue in full bloom. This elegance will delight you from May to August.
Composition of poultry millet
L. arvense seeds contain up to 21% fatty oil, which is used in the paint and varnish industry. The roots contain P-sitosterol, the red dye lithospermine, similar in composition to alkanine.
The leaves and stems contain the alkaloid cynoglosin, myristic and lauric acid, rhamnose and glucose. They also contain up to 100 mg% vitamin C and other unexplored ingredients. Ceryl alcohol, 3-sitosterol, palmitic, oleic, linoleic and linolenic acid, rutin, fumaric and caffeic acid were also isolated from the aboveground parts of the herb.
L. officinale seeds contain up to 20% fatty oil, which is valuable for the paint and varnish industry. Aboveground parts contain up to 0.10% as yet unidentified alkaloids and up to 7% tannins. The herb gives about 30% ash, which contains over 50% calcium oxide and silicon dioxide
The aerial parts of L. purpureo-coeruleum contain rutin, and the content of a red alkane-like pigment has been found in the root bark.
Collection and storage of poultry millet
The above-ground parts and the roots of the field, medicinal and purple-violet are used. bird millet. The aboveground parts are harvested from May to August, and the roots - from September to October. The entire above-ground part of the plant is harvested before and during flowering, after which it is cleaned of yellowed and insect-eaten leaves, as well as impurities.
The individual species should not be mixed during picking. The roots of the plant are dug in the fall, cleared of the aboveground parts, and the longer ones are cut into pieces. From 5 kg of fresh stalks approximately 1 kg of dry is obtained, and 4 kg of fresh roots are needed to obtain 1 kg of dry. Dried herbs are stored in ventilated rooms with well-closing doors and windows.
Benefits of bird millet
Bird millet has a disinfectant and diuretic effect. It is used for involuntary urination in children, against diarrhea, stomach and intestinal pain, gout. The plant has a contraceptive effect, it is also used for bruises.
Bird millet is very nutritious. It contains twice as much ascorbic acid than lemon or rose hips. It is one of the most ancient foods before wheat and rye. Polish millet soothes arthritis pain. Patients with arthritis and rheumatism suffer from tissue acidity. Millet changes the reaction of the tonsils, immediately reduces the pain of arthritis and osteochondrosis. In the recipes of Tibetan healers, millet is a food that is recommended for longevity.
In Bulgarian folk medicine bird millet It is also used to break up stones that turn into sand. And he easily passes urine. Bird millet greatly increases the tone of smooth muscles and is useful for controlling uterine bleeding at birth, when no other means help.
In our folk medicine, the decoction of purple-violet bird millet is used in kidney disease, as a laxative and against constipation (by prescription and under medical supervision). In folk veterinary medicine, the whole herb in the form of a decoction is given to cattle infected with canine tapeworm.
Folk medicine with bird millet
Decoction only of seeds of bird millet is used in Bulgarian folk medicine to clear sand and stones from the kidneys and bladder, involuntary urination in older children and adults, disorder and bloody diarrhea.
For adults, the following recipe applies: 1/2 teaspoon of seeds is crushed or ground and boiled with 400 ml of water for 30 minutes. It is drunk three times a day.
When urinating, drink as many seeds every night as the child is at least 2 months old or until the urination stops. One pack of 10 g (540 seeds) is sufficient for this period, and the seeds can be ground, crushed in advance or chewed as desired.
All medicinal bird millet together with the seeds is used in our folk medicine in the form of a decoction for sand and stones in the kidneys, bladder and against involuntary urination in children: 2-3 stalks are boiled in 1 liter of water until half remains. The mixture is filtered and given as tea 1 cup of wine 3-4 times a day (by prescription and under medical supervision). Acid, spicy and salty foods should not be consumed during use.
Harm from bird millet
Although bird millet has healing properties, it can become an enemy if its contraindications are not studied in advance. In middle-aged and elderly people, those suffering from angina and heart attack, the herb can cause thrombosis, increased angina, heart attack or stroke.
In young women with gallstones, the herb causes a drop in blood pressure, elastic constipation, as well as convulsive contraction of the smooth muscles of the esophagus. That is why the bird should simply be used only under medical supervision.
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