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Ancient doctors knew about the healing properties of the centaury. For the bitter taste, the Romans called it the bile of the earth, and Dioscorides and Avicenna even then treated them with fresh and non-healing wounds, boils and eczema. According to Pliny, the mythological centaur used the centaury. It is no coincidence that the book name of this plant is translated as “grass of the centaurs.” Among the people, the centaury was called the heart, the spool, the small cornflower, the scrofula, the yarrow and the golden grass.
The distribution geography of the centaury is quite large, this plant grows well in the floodplain, in damp meadows and near swamps throughout Europe from Sweden and Denmark to Italy and Turkey. Most often, “centaur grass” can be found in the Ukrainian Carpathians and less often in Siberia in Asia. In botany, it is divided into “small centaury (umbrella)” and “beautiful centaury” and is classified as a biennial or annual naked herbaceous plant of the gentian family.
The flowering period of the centaury falls in the summer, and the fruits ripen in August. The height of a small (umbrella) can reach 40 cm. The plant is cut during the flowering period with a knife or sickle and dried in a thin layer in dryers with artificial heating, as well as on attics or roofs.
In terms of chemical composition, centaury is rich in various organic substances, including bitter glycosides, which have an anthelmintic effect. It also contains ascorbic and nicotinic acids. The first, being a powerful antioxidant, helps fight bacterial infections, and the second contributes to the proper functioning of the cardiovascular system and lowers cholesterol levels in the blood.
The plant also contains resins, essential oils and even alkanoids in small quantities. If desired, the centaury can also be grown in your garden, it is enough to find a ripe box with seeds and a warm and dry place for sowing.
Medicinal properties of centaury
Due to the wide range of useful substances, the aerial part of the centaury is widely used in both official and folk medicine. The plant extract is a part of many medicines, mainly for the treatment of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, kidneys, pancreas, liver and alcohol addiction. The most popular are the diuretic and anti-inflammatory drug Kanefron and the herbal collection for the kidneys Nephroton.
In folk medicine, centaury is used to treat worms, improve blood composition, reduce fever, improve appetite and reduce stomach acidity, as well as a diuretic and a remedy for alcoholism.
Centaury can be used both for therapeutic and prophylactic purposes and combined with other herbs. Studies have shown that the plant stimulates uterine contractility and improves intestinal motility. Centaury, in combination with the main treatment, improves digestion and fights well with some pathologies of the female reproductive system.
Centaury contraindications
Like all herbs, this plant has contraindications. You can not drink preparations with centaury with exacerbations of gastritis, ulcers of the stomach and intestines, predisposition to diarrhea, overweight and individual intolerance to the composition. Infusions and herbs with centaury are especially contraindicated for pregnant and lactating women, as well as children under 12 years old.
– Excessive consumption of centaury can provoke digestive disorders, – emphasizes Candidate of Medical Sciences, Head of the Department of Phytotherapy of the Institute of Internal Medicine of the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, Head of the Educational and Health Center at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Elena Korsun.
The use of the centaury
Centaury is used in the form of water decoctions, infusions and alcoholic tinctures for internal use, a little less often used externally for skin diseases. Decoctions and infusions, like all bitterness, are taken with poor appetite, with nausea, vomiting and belching to improve the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and as a mild laxative. For medicinal purposes, centaury is added to liqueurs and wines.
Centaury extract improves the general condition of the body with:
- bowel disorders and diarrhea;
- poor appetite;
- stasis of bile and diseases of the gallbladder;
- pyelonephritis and kidney disease;
- cystitis;
- neuroses;
- headaches against the background of chronic fatigue;
- alcohol addiction;
- as an aid in colitis and dysentery;
- diabetes.
Centaury can be bought at a pharmacy in the form of:
- powder in packs;
- infusions;
- as part of appetizing and gastric preparations.
To improve appetite and digestion
To improve the functioning of the digestive tract, centaury will be used in the form of tinctures and decoctions.
decoction
Mix centaury grass equally with chamomile flowers and valerian rhizomes, pour boiling water and cook for 10 minutes. Strain.
Take 50 ml warm before meals with colitis and poor secretion and gastric motility.
With cholecystitis, chronic hepatitis and diabetes mellitus
Infusion
Pour 20 grams of herb powder into 1 liter of hot water, leave for 30 minutes.
Take 1 glass or half a glass one hour before meals.
Strengthening the digestive system has a good effect on the work of the liver, so the common centaury is included in some herbal remedies for hepatitis.
With eczema, exudative diathesis and neurodermatitis
Infusion
1 st. pour a spoonful of grass with a glass of boiling water, leave for half an hour, strain.
Take 1 tbsp. spoon half an hour before meals.
Compresses and rubbing from this infusion can treat long-term non-healing wounds, rashes and boils.
With worms
Tincture
1 st. mix a spoonful of centaury grass with 125 ml of vodka and leave for 2 weeks.
Take 10 days on an empty stomach, diluting 20 drops of tincture in a spoonful of water.
Centaury has good anthelmintic properties. The effect is achieved due to the high content of bitterness and alkaloids in its composition. These substances interfere with metabolic processes in different types of parasites, which leads to their death and exit from the body.
With alcoholism
decoction
2 tbsp. spoons of centaury herb pour 250 ml of boiling water and put on a small fire. Boil for about 10 – 15 minutes, then insist under the lid for 2 hours and strain.
Drink 1/3 cup 3 times a day.
Centaury for the treatment of alcohol addiction has been used for a long time. By providing a tonic effect, the plant cleanses the body of toxins and reduces cravings for alcoholic beverages. Experienced herbalists recommend using centaury in combination with other plants, such as horsetail, bitter wormwood, etc. In each case, the dosage selection of the composition of the collection should be individual, since all these plants are potent.
Reviews of doctors about the centaury
Svetlana Barnaulova, candidate of medical sciences, cardiologist of the highest category, phytotherapist:
– Not often this plant fell into my hands, but I can say that among its many indications for use, I always choose the nephrological direction. The positive effect in the treatment of pyelonephritis, nephrolithiasis and kidney failure is very worth it. It is no coincidence that the centaury is part of the herbal preparation Canephron for the treatment of urological infections and kidney failure.
Elena Korsun, Candidate of Medical Sciences, Head of the Department of Phytotherapy, ICM RUDN University, Head of the Educational and Health Center at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine:
– Centaury is a choleretic, anti-inflammatory, anthelmintic. It stimulates the secretion of the digestive glands, raises the acidity of gastric juice, has a mild laxative, blood-purifying, analgesic, antiseptic and soothing effect. Preparations based on this plant are successfully used for diseases of the liver and biliary tract, pancreatitis, gastritis with low acidity, anemia, diabetes mellitus, and helminthic invasions.