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This seemingly unpretentious plant with small dark seeds is surprisingly prolific. In just one season, a shepherd’s purse can produce over 60 thousand seeds, which immediately germinate when they enter the soil. Thanks to this property, it grows throughout Russia.
In addition to phenomenal fertility, this plant boasts healing properties known since ancient times. The ancient Romans with the help of a shepherd’s bag stopped the blood and improved the functioning of the digestive system. In the Middle Ages, this plant was liked by alchemists – seekers of the philosopher’s stone. Shepherd’s purse has been widely used in China, where it has been bred for centuries as a vegetable crop. Shepherd’s purse can be found in Korean salad recipes or as an alternative to nettle or sorrel in borscht. Its leaves go well with fresh cucumbers and white cabbage. In modern India, this plant is even used to combat worms.
In Russia, the medicinal properties of shepherd’s purse have been used since the end of the XNUMXth century. The handbag or core, as it was once called in folk medicine, is actively used to this day as a natural alternative to medicines. Today, raw materials of shepherd’s purse can be bought in the form of cut grass in a package, infusion and liquid extract in a pharmacy, or you can prepare it yourself.
In botany, shepherd’s purse is described as an annual herbaceous plant from the cabbage family with flattened fruit and yellowish-brown seeds. Its height can exceed half a meter. As a weed, shepherd’s purse prefers moist soil. It grows in thickets and blooms from spring to the end of summer, while the fruits ripen in May. It is customary to mow, cut or pull out the grass in the flowering phase in the middle of summer, while it is important not to confuse the shepherd’s purse with the field yarutka that looks like it. The latter has more rounded-epileptic fruits.
Before harvesting, at the shepherd’s bag, you need to cut off the remnants of the roots and leaves withered or soiled with soil. Dry raw materials in attics or in the wind under a covered canopy without sun for a week. The dried plant should retain the natural green color of the leaves and the white color of the flowers.
Healing properties of shepherd’s purse
The shepherd’s purse growing everywhere is surprisingly rich in vitamins, organic acids, microelements and macroelements. The plant contains ascorbic oxalic, malic, tartaric, fumaric acids, vitamin K and B, carotenoids, saponins, steroids, glycosides, coumarins, phytoncides and tannins. The seeds of the plant contain a small amount of essential and allyl-mustard oils.
Simply put, zinc, copper, and chromium, combined with magnesium, iron, calcium, and potassium, make shepherd’s purse an effective remedy for malnutrition and anemia. Vitamin K and other beneficial substances in the composition of the plant increase the tone of the uterus and intestinal smooth muscles. Therefore, herbalists use shepherd’s purse as an adjuvant for lowering blood pressure, for stopping blood in gynecology, for the treatment of acute and chronic bowel diseases and for diseases of the bladder and hemorrhoids. The effectiveness of shepherd’s purse infusion in pulmonary tuberculosis with frequent hemoptysis, typhoid fever and atherosclerosis has been proven.
Outwardly, the grass is used to heal cuts with clean and purulent wounds. Minor wounds and bruises are impregnated with pure fresh plant juice using lotions and compresses.
Phytotherapeutists believe that the plant is able to cleanse the blood of toxins and improve the protective functions of the body, therefore, it is prescribed for frequent colds and for recovery by cancer patients. Thus, in phototherapy, anti-inflammatory, diuretic, astringent, blood-purifying, antipyretic, vasodilating and wound-healing properties have been assigned to the shepherd’s purse.
And more and more often, herbalists use its hemostatic effect, so it is included in almost all multi-component hemostatic fees that are sold in pharmacies.
Shepherd’s purse contraindications
Like all medicinal herbs, shepherd’s purse also has contraindications.
So, with caution, with a maximum of half the dose, it is recommended to use infusions and decoctions from this herb for allergy sufferers.
It is better to refuse the use of a shepherd’s purse for patients with thyroid diseases, prone to blood clots and survivors of heart attacks.
Consult a healthcare professional before taking shepherd’s purse in patients with heart problems, kidney stones, pregnant or breastfeeding women.
Due to the thickening properties of shepherd’s purse, it should not be consumed at the same time as blood thinners.
Application of the shepherd’s purse
Women
Due to the ability to contract the muscles of the uterus and activate blood coagulation, the liquid extract and infusions of the shepherd’s purse are used to treat uterine bleeding after abortion and childbirth, heavy juvenile and menopausal bleeding, as well as bleeding on the background of fibroids, inflammatory and dyshormonal processes.
Infusion
Pour 2 teaspoons of raw materials with 300 ml of boiling water and boil in a water bath for 15 minutes, then strain. Take half a glass three times a day before meals to stop female bleeding and with intestinal ulcers.
For vessels
Due to the property of the shepherd’s purse to dilate blood vessels and a positive effect on blood circulation, it is used both to reduce and increase blood pressure, but it is recommended to regularly measure the indicators, and coordinate the dosage of the herb with your doctor.
Infusion
Pour 1 teaspoon of crushed grass leaves with a glass of cold boiled or spring water and leave for at least 8 hours. Drink 1 – 2 tbsp. spoons 30 minutes before meals for hypertension.
Tea
Put 1 teaspoon of dried herb into a cup and pour boiling water over it. Drink 2 cups a day, morning and evening before meals to stabilize blood pressure.
For kidneys and liver
Shepherd’s purse is also used in urology. Men and women are recommended to take infusions for diseases of the genitourinary system. The herb is included in the composition of medicinal preparations for the treatment of pyelonephritis, cystitis and urolithiasis.
Juice
Squeeze the juice from fresh grass, grinding it with a blender. Dilute the resulting juice with water 1:1. Take 40 drops three times a day for diseases of the liver and kidneys. Fresh juice from the herb, diluted with water, can also be used against nosebleeds by dripping into both nostrils.
Such juice can also be prepared for the winter, pouring vodka. You can take canned juice in the same amount beforehand, diluted with water.
Infusion
2 tbsp. spoons of shepherd’s bag mixed with 2 tbsp. spoons of horsetail, pour 3 cups of boiling water and insist in a thermos for 2 hours. Take half a cup three times a day for bleeding from the bladder and kidneys.
With tuberculosis
In combination with other herbs and medicines, shepherd’s purse is used for tuberculosis to stop hemoptysis, reduce coughing and spasms.
Infusion
2 teaspoons pour 200 ml of boiling water, leave for an hour and strain. You need to take the infusion during the day for a tablespoon for hemoptysis.
decoction
2 tbsp. spoons of shepherd’s purse grass mixed with 1 tbsp. spoon of oak bark and 100 ml of port wine and pour 500 ml of boiled water. Cook in a sealed container for 10 minutes. The decoction is drunk after cooling during the day with cavernous tuberculosis.
For the skin, for allergies and for the healing of wounds and abrasions
Herbalists recommend using the healing property of the plant by applying compresses from the infusion or decoction of the herb to problem areas. For clogged, oily skin, decoctions of shepherd’s purse are used for daily rubbing.
Reviews of doctors about the shepherd’s bag
Svetlana Barnaulova, candidate of medical sciences, cardiologist of the highest category, phytotherapist:
– In practice, I use the aerial part of the shepherd’s purse most often to treat diseases of the female genital area. Be sure to prescribe it for heavy periods, endometriosis and fibroids. I often use this herb for hypertension. In addition, the above is often combined.