Bright yellow terry dandelion flowers are familiar to each of us. Mother nature laid powerful healing qualities in a dandelion, the healing properties and contraindications of which are known throughout the world. With the onset of spring, abundantly blooming carpets of this perennial plant cover lawns, squares, places near roads, and fringes. About 200 different species of this small flower on a fragile stalk grow on our open spaces, you will not surprise anyone, moreover, it is considered a weed.
Of the above number of species, approximately 100 varieties are medicinal, and in some places this plant is cultivated, whole plantations are sown. Fields of dandelions can be observed in Germany, France, Holland, where they are grown for various useful, medicinal purposes.
The benefits and healing properties of dandelion
If we consider the medicinal qualities of dandelion, then we can see that all its parts have useful properties: root, leaves, flowers. Numerous recipes for potions from this plant are known to folk medicine; cooking uses it no less widely. Salads are made from dandelions (especially from young leaves), boiled jam, put in soups, cooked decoctions, even used as a substitute for coffee. In addition to medicinal decoctions, dandelion tinctures make wine, which we will talk about later.
This plant improves the digestive tract, has choleretic, blood-purifying (promotes the formation of white blood cells), diuretic properties. A decoction of inflorescences lowers fever, has a diaphoretic, bactericidal effect, helps with inflammation of the lymph nodes.
The presence of potassium salts, vitamins, phosphorus in the composition of dandelion contributes to the overall strengthening of the body, restores strength, optimizes metabolism. The use of medicinal decoctions, tinctures helps to remove toxins, toxins, favorably affects the function of the pancreas, has a calming effect in sleep disorders, nervous disorders. It has long been used to treat warts, corns, milky juice, reduce freckles, and spots on the skin.
Medicinal dandelion - a powerful tool for the treatment of cancer, it is especially good for preventive purposes. An effective hematopoietic effect is observed when drinking the juice of fresh leaves of a plant or a decoction of the roots. Juice or infusion from dandelion will cope with spring vitamin deficiency, restore strength, help restore lost energy, because it was not without reason that the ancients called it “the elixir of life”.
The root is the concentration of the strength of any plant, and the dandelion root is without exaggeration called "Russian ginseng." The range of its therapeutic effects is truly wide, despite the availability. During the growing season, the root accumulates triterpene constituents, insulin, organic acids, sucrose, flavonoids, vitamins, proteins, resins, and fatty oils.
The medicinal properties of dandelion root and contraindications:
- It is used in the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases, as well as to improve the digestive process.
- For gastritis with low acidity (improves the outflow of bile).
- It treats diabetes and lowers blood sugar.
- To improve intestinal motility in chronic constipation (natural laxative, mild effect).
- In the treatment of hepatitis, diseases of the gallbladder.
- To alleviate the manifestations of skin diseases (acne, boils, psoriasis, eczema).
- In the treatment of nervous disorders.
- In the treatment, as well as for the prevention of malignant tumors.
- For the treatment of gout.
- With atherosclerosis.
- For the treatment of the thyroid gland.
In addition, dandelion root, along with marjoram, lemon balm, and nettle grass, helps increase lactation in nursing mothers.Take the same amount of these herbs - prepare an infusion - 3 tbsp. spoons of the mixture pour 3 cups of boiling water, insist 3 hours - it is better to use a thermos for this. A decoction of the root is also used as an auxiliary therapeutic agent in the treatment of tuberculosis.
Contraindications for taking the root are:
- Blockage of the bile ducts.
- Increased acidity (taken carefully, only after consulting a doctor).
- Large doses - an overdose is fraught with manifestations of diarrhea, nausea, vomiting.
- Hyperacid gastritis.
- Stomach ulcer.
- Duodenal ulcer.
How to use dandelion root?
For the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases, you can use not only decoctions, but also powdered dry ground root. You can grind it with a coffee grinder, and then take dry 1 teaspoon 20 minutes before eating (with plenty of water). Such a powder has a weak bitter taste, it can be successfully used as a seasoning for the first and second dishes, brewed as coffee (slightly roasted before grinding) or tea.
Fresh chopped root can be steamed (1 tbsp.spoon, filled with 1 cup boiling water, infused for 2 hours), consumed in a quarter cup 3 times a day for half an hour before eating. Such an infusion successfully treats skin diseases, and you can also use it externally.
With a well-chosen “company”, the properties of the root are revealed, complemented by each other. Ancient recipes, where burdock, dandelion, wheatgrass are mixed, had amazing healing properties, helped with many diseases. Despite the fact that these plants were considered weeds, their roots were mixed in equal proportions, and cystitis, kidney diseases, and various joint pains were obtained by the collection. They treated bronchitis, female inflammation, skin diseases, and many other ailments.
This recipe has not lost its relevance even now: the roots of plants are dug up, cleaned of the earth, washed, dried in a shaded place.
After drying, they are finely chopped. For storage, it is better to use glass containers. One spoon of such a mixture is poured into 500 g of boiling water, insisted for 2 hours, you need to take half a glass 15-20 minutes before meals for 3 weeks. Also, they can be taken separately - a spoon of each root for a week. In duration, these are the same 3 weeks of the course.
A good remedy for treating insomnia, manifestations of hypertension, as well as natural anthelmintic, laxative is an infusion, the preparation of which includes dandelion root + burdock root. Compound (equal parts) are mixed, 2 tablespoons are poured with 3 glasses of water, left overnight. In the morning the infusion is boiled for 10-15 minutes, insisted for 15 minutes, taken in half a glass 5 times a day before meals.
How to prepare raw materials?
For medicinal, as well as culinary purposes, the ground part, roots are used. This plant blooms from early spring to autumn, it has healing properties, it must be harvested even when dandelion fluff appears. However, if you want to extract the maximum of useful substances from it, it is better to collect inflorescences with leaves during flowering, and roots in early spring or autumn.
Ecologically clean zones, planting, forest areas - the best place to collect plants. The best time for this process is the morning when the flowers just opened. Inflorescences, dandelion leaves are dried in shaded places, spread out on clean paper with an even thin layer, periodically turning over (about 10 days). To get the root for subsequent storage, it must be carefully removed from the ground - pry off with a spatula. The roots are washed with cold water, cut, dried (you can use a dryer at 50 ° C), a properly processed root breaks with a crunch.
Glass jars, paper boxes or bags are suitable for storing raw materials, the ground part is subject to 2-year storage, the roots - up to 5 years.
How to cook jam or honey from dandelions?
These natural desserts are very tasty, really useful, because they contain all the strength of the plant, its beneficial properties, which were described above. Dandelion jam is cooked from selected raw materials collected in a clean area.
May is the best time to collect inflorescences that will be used to make jam, this is a period of mass flowering - the maximum concentration of nutrients. For jam, as for honey, it is recommended to select only the yellow petals of the inflorescences - they are cut with scissors or nibbled off with your fingers. However, there are many recipes that use especially large inflorescences cut to fit the hat itself.
Dandelion jam recipe:
- We take 400-500 large flowers (this is not so much as it seems) without stems, thoroughly rinse them with cool water.
- We put the inflorescences in an enameled (or stainless steel) pan, pour 500 g of water, boil for 2-3 minutes.
- Filter the dandelions through a fine sieve, squeeze it well.
- To the resulting liquid, add 4-5 glasses of sugar, put on fire, bring to a boil.
- From the moment of boiling, cook the jam for about 8 minutes.
- Pour into pre-prepared clean jars.
This is the simplest recipe for such a jam, more sophisticated methods include daily soaking inflorescences, the addition of citrus juice, infusions of acacia color. Cherry or blackcurrant leaves are sometimes added for added flavor.
Dandelion jam, both in taste and in appearance, really resembles honey.
The so-called dandelion honey is the same jam, only for its production exclusively yellow flower petals are selected, and not the inflorescences completely. Thus, they take a full two-liter jar of petals, two lemons (or limes), two kilograms of sugar (or powders). Petals are laid out in a container, poured with two liters of cold purified water, left for 24 hours. At the end of this time, water with petals is filtered through cheesecloth, squeezed out well, and squeezed juice of two lemons and powdered sugar are added to the resulting infusion. This mixture is cooked until thickened, after which it is poured into jars.
Dandelion jam - benefits:
- This jam is useful for the body, it restores the liver at the cellular level, it is recommended for hepatitis, gall bladder diseases.
- Helps with bronchitis, asthma.
- Beneficial effect on the function of the urinary tract.
- It has antioxidant properties, helps to eliminate toxins, free radicals from the body.
- Good prophylactic against cancer.
- Relieves symptoms of diseases of the skeletal system.
- Helps with hypertension, anemia, asthma.
This jam can enhance the beneficial effects of other products, such as green tea. If you take it during a viral infection with bee honey, then two useful products will complement and enhance the effect of each other. This jam goes well with herbal teas: mint, lemon balm, chamomile.
Dandelion jam, harm:
- Here, as with decoctions, infusions of dandelion, you need to follow the correct dosage so as not to earn allergies or itchy skin.
- If you are sensitive to iodine, then do not use this jam.
- The tendency to upset stomach (diarrhea, vomiting) is a contraindication to the use of jam or dandelion honey.
- With cholelithiasis (gallstone disease), do not use this product.
- Gastritis is also a contraindication.
About Dandelion Wine
Many of us, when they hear this phrase, immediately recall the story of Ray Bradbury. However, dandelion wine does exist; moreover, you can make it yourself.
Dandelion wine recipes:
To have “caught and corked in a bottle summer” at home, you will need selected large flowers (a tightly packed liter jar with a slide), citric acid (1-2 teaspoons), sugar (1 kilogram), blue raisins (20 pieces) purified water (4 liters).
Bring the water to a boil, fill it with dandelions, leave it for 24 hours. At the end of the day, filter the infusion, wring out the raw materials, add citric acid. Separately, take half a liter of water, add sugar to it, dissolve it, then add the resulting syrup to squeezed infusion, put raisins. It is very important that the raisins are unwashed!
We find a warm place for the container, hold it there for about 2 days, after which we pour the contents into bottles. Cork the bottles so that carbon dioxide escapes, but the air does not get inside the bottle. Here you can resort to the old method - put on a bottleneck a balloon, a medical fingertip or a rubber glove.
About a month later, when the fermentation ends, the wine needs to be carefully transferred from the bottle to other vessels without disturbing the sediment at the bottom.
According to the second recipe, take:
- sugar - 1.5 kg;
- orange - 2 pieces;
- lemon - 2 pieces;
- raisins - 150 grams;
- dandelion flowers - a tightly packed 3-liter jar.
We take a glass or porcelain bowl for the flowers, pour them there, sprinkle them with sugar on top, and carefully pack them. We put the container in a dark place for 3 days, pour half a liter of boiled water on top, and then again leave it alone for three days. At the end of the specified period, filter the sweet mass through a small colander, carefully squeeze the flower raw materials, pour the liquid into a glass bottle with a narrow neck. In the resulting "syrup" we put unwashed raisins (it will provide fermentation), squeeze the juice from oranges.
Pour flower cake again with clean boiled water, so that it only covers the mass, leave for two days. After the indicated time, we filter again, squeeze the raw materials, add the resulting infusion to our syrup with raisins. Squeeze the juice from two lemons there, after which we take the bottle to a warm, dark place. We put a rubber ball on the neck of the container, pierce a small hole in it for the release of carbon dioxide.
In the process of fermentation, the ball will be inflated, and when about a month has passed, the ball will gradually deflate - this will be an indication that the wine can be poured into other containers. We do this carefully, do not disturb the sediment, for the convenience of transfusion, you can use a thin tube. We cork bottles with young wine, send to a dark place for six months, after that you can enjoy the taste - remember the past summer.
In any form, a yellow doctor is good, useful - a dandelion, the medicinal properties and contraindications of which have been studied, but continue to be recognized by people. We hope that thanks to this article you also learned more information about this valuable medicinal plant.
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