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Useful properties and recipes for the use of Amur velvet
Amur Velvet
Amur velvet is a dioecious, perennial and deciduous tree, which has an unusually beautiful openwork crown with feathery leaves. The tree is 25–28 meters in height, and can reach 1 meter in diameter. Velvet leaves have a specific aroma that can be easily felt if you simply rub them in your hands. The trunk of the tree has a cork soft coating – the bark, which is velvety to the touch, light gray in color and has wrinkles.
This plant has pinnate leaves with 3-6 pairs of petiolate leaflets. These leaflets are lanceolate, they begin to lengthen towards the top.
Each sheet of velvet contains from 10 flavonoids, various vitamins, tannins and essential oil. The phytoncides contained in the leaves have an antimicrobial effect, and the essential oil is used not only as an antimicrobial agent, but also has antiseptic and antihelminthic properties.
The flowers of the plant are small, unisexual, which are collected in an inflorescence. Greenish flower petals. The fruits of Amur velvet are black in color, look like a ball, and shine a little.
Velvet blooms from the beginning of summer, and its fruits ripen from late summer to early autumn.
Amur velvet is a plant that is demanding on fertility and soil moisture. This tree is wind and drought tolerant, and its root system is very strong, reaching deep into the soil.
Velvet can easily endure the winter, and even a transplant is unimportant to him.
This plant reproduces only by seeds that have just been collected. If sowing is planned for spring, then seeds must be stratified within three months before sowing. Seeds will germinate for about a year.
Velvet can grow up to 300 years.
Amur velvet fruits
The fruits of velvet are painted black, which is why the Chinese gave it the name “black pearl tree”. If you look closely, the fruits of velvet really look like black pearls.
The use of velvet fruits leads to a decrease in the level of sugar in human blood. The fruits contain about 8% essential oils. The use of Amur velvet fruits normalizes metabolism, normalizes the work of the pancreas. And also the fruits are used in the treatment of flu and colds.
Fruits are also used in diabetes. They are taken 3-4 things daily in the morning, on an empty stomach. When taking fruits, in no case do not drink them with water or other liquid. The fruit only needs to be cracked and chewed. Daily intake of berries is required, otherwise the expected effect will not be. If you take the fruit daily for six months, then the blood sugar level will drop to normal.
For flu and colds, velvet fruits are used as follows: Before going to sleep, you need to take 1-2 velvet fruits. The fruits must be chewed and even just held in the mouth for several minutes. When the fruits of velvet were taken, it is forbidden to drink water for half a day (namely 6 hours). Such a single technique will be sufficient only if the disease has just begun, and if the disease has been lasting for a long time, then this technique must be repeated several more times.
Velvet fruits will also help with high blood pressure. Half an hour before meals, you need to take 1-2 Amur velvet fruits daily.
But, despite so many advantages from the use of Amur velvet fruits, there are still contraindications to its use: – the fruits of the plant contain such substances that in large quantities can harm human health, so more than five fruits cannot be taken; – small children should not take these fruits at all; – from the fruits of velvet there may be an allergy; – when using velvet fruits, you should not drink alcohol, coffee, strong tea, and smoking is also contraindicated.
The use of Amur velvet
Amur velvet in folk medicine is used in the form of tinctures and decoctions of flowers, leaves and bark. A decoction of the bark and fruits is used for pulmonary tuberculosis, pleurisy, diabetes and pneumonia. Decoctions have astringent, deodorizing, anti-inflammatory and antipyretic effects. For various types of skin diseases, a decoction of bast and Amur velvet bark is used.
For dysentery, diseases of the oral cavity and stomach, a tincture of the fruits of the plant is used. With leprosy and jade, a decoction of the bark of young velvet helps.
Scientists conducted a lot of experiments and found that all preparations made from Amur velvet lower blood pressure, have a fungicidal effect, and velvet also increases resistance to sarcomas, tumors and hematomas.
In addition to being used in folk medicine in various countries, velvet is also used as an ornamental plant for outdoor areas in hospitals, sanatoriums and recreation areas.
Amur velvet bark
Velvet bark is no more than 7 cm thick. Thanks to this thick cork layer, velvet bark is used as a source of natural cork.
When the cork is ripe, it is removed, and cork plates will be made from it in the future. These plates can be used for various needs.
Cork is a valuable material for many industries (for example, for footwear). Surely many have seen that the best wines are corked with cork of plant origin.
Cork is used in the manufacture of tropical helmets, fishing floats, life jackets and belts. And also it is used in the production of linoleum.
Cork is used in almost all areas of industry, it has found such wide application because the cork is elastic, flexible, waterproof, and resistant to chemical reagents. When the velvet bark comes into contact with products, it does not change their smell.
Velvet bark is used as an antipyretic and anti-inflammatory agent for various diseases. It is excellent for inflammation of the colon and dysentery. With exhaustion, lung disease, pleural diseases and infectious hepatitis, an infusion of velvet bark with leaves of the same plant is used.
A decoction of velvet bark is used in Tibet by folk healers. There they recommend it to people with lymphadenopathy, kidney disease, polyarthritis, and allergic dermatitis. For ascites, tincture of velvet bark is used.
In the presence of surgical wounds, Amur velvet bark is used instead of rivanol. To prepare this medicine, you need to take 100 grams of velvet bark and insist it in half a liter of distilled water. When 2 days have passed, you need to put this infusion on the fire and warm it up. Next, pour the infusion into a bottle, put it in a large cauldron and boil for half an hour. After that, 15 grams of boric acid and 5 grams of novocaine should be added to the composition of the product. Boil all this for about 10 minutes. The infusion is ready. Now you will need a simple gauze, which you need to soak in this infusion. Apply this soaked gauze to the wound – and soon the wound will heal.
Amur velvet honey
In the middle of the first month of summer, velvet begins to bloom, and its flowering lasts until the end of June. The first thing you can see are the brushes of flowers. Some trees have only female flowers, while others have only male flowers. These flowers then produce velvet fruits. There are more male velvet trees in the forests than female ones.
Bees are the main pollinators of velvet, but it happens that the wind takes over the function of pollination. Velvet blooms very profusely, and it also has a lot of nectar with pollen, which attracts many bees.
Velvet honey has excellent properties. It is dark yellow in color with a slight greenish tint. This honey is very fragrant and pleasant to the taste. The quality of honey depends on the weather: if the weather is good, then velvet is the best honey plant, but if it is cold, and also rainy, there will be no nectar from the flowers.
The honey of this plant does not crystallize, it is stored for a long time (because it contains a small amount of glucose). Very often, velvet honey is used to treat tuberculosis.
Preparation of decoction and tincture of Amur velvet
Decoction of velvet bark. It is used as a diuretic. To prepare a decoction, take 10 grams of dry velvet bark (crushed) and pour 200 ml of boiling water, put on fire and let it boil for about 15 minutes. Then cool and strain. Everything cooked should be drunk per day in 3 doses.
Infusion of leaves. This infusion is used to improve digestion. So, you need to take 30 grams of dry leaves and pour 200 ml of boiled water over them, and then insist this mass for two hours, after which we filter and squeeze. Take this infusion three times a day – before meals, 3 teaspoons.
Leaf tincture. It helps with chronic hepatitis and cholecystitis. It is necessary to pour 30 grams of dry leaves with one glass of alcohol (70%) and leave for about 14 days. Then don’t forget to strain. This tincture should be taken before meals, 15 drops daily, 3 times.