2024 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:29
Water morac / Oenanthe / is a genus of perennial or biennial herbaceous plants of the family Apiaceae. The leaves of the representatives of this genus are pinnate. The main rays of the complex canopy at the base are with or without a leaf sheath. The flower stalks are always covered with stipules. The colors are white or pink. The calyx is developed, consisting of teeth.
Ten species are naturally distributed in Bulgaria. The most famous of these is the true water moron / Oenanthe aquatic /. It has small, filamentous roots. Its stem is up to 1 m high, hollow, branched, with longitudinal ribs. Its lower part is usually under water and has shortened internodes. The superficial leaves are two to many times pinnately dissected, with spreading, often curled back oval-lanceolate end sections. The underwater leaves have filamentous end sections. The flowers are arranged in complex, multi-rayed awnings.
The colored handles have a shell. The calyx has 5 rather long pointed teeth. Corolla white, 5-leafed, not fused. The stamens are 5. The pistil is composed of 2 carpels. The fruit is 4-5 mm long, oblong-elliptical dicotyledonous, with blunt longitudinal ribs, with a thin stalk, disintegrating after ripening 2 single-seeded halves, floating on the water surface, spicy in taste. The true sea urchin blooms in the summer until September. This species is distributed throughout Europe, Western Asia, Russia (Siberia, Caucasus). In Bulgaria it grows in the deeper swamps and marshes with running water almost all over the country.
History of the water swamp
The name of the genus Water morac comes from the Greek words ainos - wine and anthos - color, due to the smell of wine emitted by the flowers of the herb.
The Greek poet Homer writes of the sardonic smile - a grimace that appeared on the faces of the victims of ritual killings committed by Phoenician colonists in Sardinia. They killed old people who were unable to take care of themselves, as well as criminals, by giving them poison that caused a smile on their faces after their death. After the poisoning, the victims were thrown from rocks or beaten to death. After conducting research, Italian scientists from the University of East Piedmont came to the conclusion that in these cruel rituals, the victims were poisoned with a type of water urchin - Oenanthe. This species is not common in Bulgaria, but the native species are also poisonous.
Types of water urchins
Banatski water morac / Oenanthe banatica / is a perennial herbaceous plant. Its stem is 25-110 cm high, ribbed and grooved. The cover of the complex canopy has one grassy leaf or is missing. The awnings are 25-35 colors. The flowers are white or pink, 2.5-4.5 mm in diameter, asymmetrical. The lower leaves are obovate or oblong, obtuse. The fruits are 3.5-4.5 mm long, with 3 ribs and grooves on the outer and 1 rib on the lateral surface. The species is distributed throughout the country from sea level to 1600 meters above sea level. Apart from Bulgaria, it is found in Central and Southeastern Europe.
Strandzhanski water morac / Oenanthe tenuifolia / is a perennial herbaceous plant. Its roots are filamentous, not thickened. The stem of the plant is 30-60 cm high, unbranched, almost leafless. The leaves are 4–15 cm long, 2.0–3.5 cm wide, generally elliptical, pinnately to double-pinnately divided, the lobes are three-parted, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate. The vaginas are wedge-shaped, herbaceous, gradually shortening at the upper leaves. The shell of the complex canopy is composed of 7-8 linear-lanceolate herbaceous leaves or missing. The awnings are 10-25 colors. The flowers are 3-5 mm in diameter, slightly asymmetrical. Petals broadly ovate to rounded, white with a brownish keel.
The fruits are cylindrical to slightly conical, with preserved calyx teeth and long columns. This species blooms from June to July. It is pollinated by insects. Propagated by seeds. It is found in moist grassy places and shrubs on cinnamon-podzolic soils, as the populations are small and with a limited area. In Bulgaria, the Strandzha water marsh can be seen in the Tundzha hilly plain (Sakar Square - local Visegrad, Topolovgrad region), Strandzha (the villages of Zvezdets, Krushevets and Gramatikovo), from 100 to 850 m above sea level. Apart from Bulgaria, the plant is distributed in Central Greece and Southern Albania.
Composition of water moracha
The water morac contains up to 2.5% essential oil, which contains up to 8% poisonous terpene p-phellandrene, an alcohol (androl), which gives the smell of the drug, the aldehyde felandral, as well as an alcohol resembling the smell of a rose. It does not contain alkaloids. It also contains up to 20% fatty oil, up to 4% the resin-like substance enanthotoxin (enanthine), up to 3% waxes, rubber-like substances, etc.
Collection and storage of water marsh
The stems of water morac. The tops of the herb are harvested at the waxy maturity of the fruit, tied into small bunches or bundles and left to ripen. Then they are pounded or threshed, and the fallen fruits are cleaned by sifting and sifting. The harvest should not be postponed until the full maturity of the fruits, because they crumble very easily.
After sowing and sifting, the fruits are dried on mats in ventilated rooms in the shade. When picking, different species of the same genus should not be mixed. From 1.1 kg of cleaned and dried fruits 1 kg of dry fruits is obtained. The processed herb is stored in a dry and ventilated place, away from non-toxic drugs.
Benefits of watercress
Watercress has been used as a medicine since the 18th century. Watercress fruits are prescribed for diseases of the respiratory tract with abundant secretions (bronchitis, bronchial asthma, etc.). They are also used successfully as a diuretic for inflammation of the bladder, as a sedative for pain and gas in the stomach and intestines in the form of a cold extract. In case of breast inflammation in breastfeeding mothers, compresses with water infusion of crushed fruits are recommended.
Folk medicine with water moracha
Bulgarian folk medicine prescribes the infusion of the fruits of water morac as a diuretic, in inflammation of the bladder, as a sedative for pain and gas in the stomach and intestines, in chronic bronchitis and asthma. For this purpose, two teaspoons of crushed fruit are poured with two glasses of cold water. The infusion is left to stand for 8 hours. the strained infusion is drunk in one day in sips. Crushed fruits are also used - 0.5-1.0 g three times a day.
Harm from water thrush
You should not use water morac without medical supervision, as the herb is poisonous. Poisoning with the plant is characterized by profuse salivation, vomiting, abdominal pain, watery - mucous diarrhea, dizziness, polyuria.
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