2024 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:29
Elderberry is a perennial tree plant of the honeysuckle family. It is a shrub or small tree, reaching a height of 3 to 10 meters. The stem and branches are gray and the leaves are opposite and toothed. Its flowers are small, fragrant, creamy or yellowish white. It blooms from May to the first half of June. Its fruits are black-violet and ripen in August-September.
Black elderberry is healing unlike red, which is quite poisonous. Medicinal raw materials are inflorescences and fruits, dried in ovens or dryers. The bark, branches and roots of the plant are rarely used.
Collecting the color of elderberry requires special care because it is very sensitive to moisture, quickly changes color and deteriorates quality. The fruit is harvested in late May to early July. Benign dry color is obtained when collected in sunny weather 2-3 hours in the afternoon, but not after rain. The flowers dry quickly in the air, shade or artificially, but the temperature should not exceed 30-35 degrees. In order to obtain dry raw materials without stalks, the dry bunches are rubbed through a sieve and the fruits are dried. The dried elderflower is stored in dry and ventilated rooms, and their shelf life does not exceed 2-3 years. The shelf life of elderberries is 6 months.
Elder inflorescence contains a very complex chemical composition. It contains the glycoside samungigrin, rutin-like glycoside aldrin, organic acids: valeric, caffeic, acetic acid, malic acid and chlorogenic, semi-solid essential oil, choline, ethyl isobutyl, isoamylamines, carotene, tannin, mucous and paraffinic substances, sugar.
Elderberry fruit contains ascorbic acid - vitamin C, a lot of carotene, and dried leaves contain provitamin A1. In the leaves are also found sambunirgin, essential oil, hexene and glycol aldehydes, traces of alkaloids, tannin, resinous substances (which have a laxative effect). The bark contains essential oil, choline and phytosterol.
Photo: Sevda Andreeva
In folk medicine are used not only the fruits but also the leaves, flowers and bark of black elderberry. Black fruits have healing properties both fresh and dried. Fresh fruits are used successfully for the treatment of hepatitis, peptic ulcer and its prevention. Fresh fruits help with neuralgia.
Dried fruits are used to treat the rare disease malaria. Black and brown fruits are believed to have such therapeutic properties that they can be used for stomach and skin cancer. In stomach cancer, the patient should consume jam prepared from the fruits of black elderberry, and in skin cancer drink the juice of squeezed fruit.
No less valuable is the color of black elderberry, which contains choline, rutin, valeric, caffeic, malic acid and others. Elder flowers are used to make broths or extracts that have antibacterial properties. That is why they especially help with colds, sore throats, flu conditions and diseases of the respiratory system.
To prepare the infusion it is necessary to take 1 tbsp. black elderflower, pour in hot water and boil for 15 minutes. Cool and strain, drink warm 0.5 cups 2-3 times a day before meals. This drug also helps with arthritis, gout and rheumatism.
Black elder leaves are also medicinal. Like color, they have antipyretic, diuretic, sedative and diaphoretic effects. The application of scalded leaves is suitable for inflammation and is used for diaper rash, burns, inflamed hemorrhoids, furunculosis. There is a folk remedy for chronic constipation, which is prepared from young leaves of black elderberry. They have a laxative and strengthening effect. To make it you need to take honey and boil in it young leaves of black elderberry, taken orally.
The bark of this plant is no less popular. From it prepare a decoction, which is taken for diseases of the skin and kidneys. It is used to make baths for gout, rheumatism and arthritis, you can use the finished decoction as a lotion.
Folk cosmetology also uses the healing properties of black elderberry. For example, from its colors you can prepare a lotion that is applied to the face every morning and evening. To prepare the lotion, take 10 inflorescences and add them to 0. 5 liters of boiling water, leave for 24 hours, then strain and store the lotion in the refrigerator. This lotion tones the skin and makes it younger.
Decoction of the whole plant (root, flower and leaves) is used as a means of regulating metabolism. Fresh fruit and decoction of the flowers of black elderberry are used in rheumatism. From the black fruits you can cook jam, jelly, jam, but without sugar and with honey and vegetable sweeteners.
Tincture of dried fruits improves bile excretion, increases diuresis. Elderberry tea or infusion is prescribed for laryngitis, bronchitis, influenza, neuralgia, for rinsing the mouth as an anti-inflammatory agent, as well as for diseases of the kidneys and bladder, rheumatism and gout. Elderberries are not recommended for pregnant women and those suffering from Crohn's disease.
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