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Useful properties and application of the watch
Watch – This is a shift plant, it has been growing for many years. The rhizome of the plant is long, thick and loose, and in places where the leaves have fallen off, there are sharp scars. Three to five stems appear on each top of the rhizome shoot, on which there are rosettes of leaves. Long leaves with sheaths, very large. Collected in oblong racemes, pale pink flowers have fused petals, which are ciliated from the inside. The fruit of the watch is a spherical box with large seeds. The seeds of the plant are elliptical in shape, shrinking on both sides.
Watch flowering lasts from May to mid-June, and fruit ripening occurs from July to August. Watch reproduces vegetatively, by seeds and rhizomes.
This plant can be seen in almost the entire European part of the CIS. The watch is also common in Eastern Siberia and the Far East.
Watch grows on soils that contain a lot of peat, namely in swamps, lakes, on the banks of ditches and rivers.
Let’s tell you about the legend that is associated with the watch. For a long time, on the banks of the Velikaya River, there lived a queen. The queen had a stepdaughter, whom she disliked from the first days. The evil stepmother killed her stepdaughter. But the girl did not die, but became a mermaid. The mermaid girl really missed her friends – the forest gnomes, with whom she talked when she lived with her stepmother. Magus – the queen of the sea – ordered Vakhka (that was the name of her stepdaughter) that she never sailed away from her mermaid friends, but she did not obey, and one day she fled to the ground, trying to visit her dwarf friends.
Due to the fact that Vahka disobeyed, the sea queen forbade her to appear in the underwater kingdom. The queen ordered Vakhka to stand “on watch” at the gates of the underwater kingdom. The little mermaid cried every day and every night with bitter tears, she reproached herself for having disobeyed the mistress of the sea. And one day the mermaid became a beautiful plant: roots appeared instead of legs, leaves instead of arms, and beautiful white-pink flowers bloomed in place of the head. Due to the fact that the mermaid cried a lot, the plant became bitter. This is how the watch plant appeared.
watch preparation
For medicinal purposes, the leaves of the watch are used. The leaves grow faster after the plant itself has faded, for this reason the leaves are harvested after flowering (July-August). Already developed leaves must be cut off with a small petiole. You can not collect the apical and young leaves, because during the drying process they turn black. When collecting the watch, be careful: do not pull out the entire plant with the root, otherwise you will be left without a plant.
Leaves should be dried in the fresh air, but in a dark place, and finally the raw materials are dried in dryers with a temperature of 50 ° C Celsius. If the raw materials are dried using this method, then the dried leaves will be a beautiful green color.
During the entire drying time, the leaves must be turned over. Signs of dried leaves are as follows: the remains of the petioles and the main veins should break easily (do not bend) when bent. Dried leaves can be stored for up to two years.
The healing properties of the watch
The bitterness contained in the watch is the most active biological compounds. Bitterness refers to bitter substances. When bitterness enters the oral cavity, it irritates the taste buds of the mucous membranes of the mouth and tongue, thereby increasing the secretion of the glands of the gastrointestinal tract, increasing appetite and improving the digestion process.
Preparations from the watch have anti-inflammatory and relaxing effects. In addition, watch is a tool that can improve gastric peristalsis, promotes the release of bile. Also, experts say that fresh leaves and dry crushed help heal wounds on the human body.
Watch application in medicine
In folk medicine, rhizomes and leaves of the watch are used. The rhizomes are used to prepare medicines in the treatment of chronic gastroenteritis, colds, pulmonary tuberculosis and gastric hyposecretion.
An infusion prepared from the leaves of the watch is used as an appetite stimulant for gastritis, constipation and flatulence. The leaves are added to choleretic teas, various tinctures, laxatives and sedatives. Also, the plant is used to treat liver diseases, hypoacid gastritis, malaria, scurvy, migraine.
The watch can also be used externally – for example, it can be used to get rid of acne on the face.
Infusion of watch leaves. Taken 10 grams of watch leaves should be poured with a glass of boiling water and put in a water bath for a quarter of an hour. After 45 minutes of cooling, the infusion must be filtered and the remnants squeezed out. The resulting volume should be diluted with boiling water to 200 ml. It is recommended to take this medicine three times a day, 70-100 ml. the drug should be taken half an hour before meals. The taken infusion will stimulate the appetite. And in case of chronic constipation, the same infusion is used before bedtime as a microclyster. Before making a microclyster, you need to dilute 20 ml of infusion in 40 ml of boiled water.
A decoction of the leaves of the watch. Take 1 tablespoon of crushed leaves, fill them with a glass of boiling water and put in a water bath for 15 minutes. Infused for two hours, the broth must be filtered. Every day, 3 times before meals, take 1 tablespoon of this medicine.
Tincture of watch leaves. Everyone can prepare such a tincture, as it is done easily. So, let’s take 10 grams of crushed watch leaves and fill them with 50 ml of alcohol. Leave this liquid to infuse for 3 weeks. After straining the tincture, take 10-15 drops 3 times daily as a choleretic agent.
Watch tincture on vodka. To prepare it, you need to take 100 grams of freshly picked leaves, pour them with one liter of vodka. After insisting 2 weeks, strain the tincture. Take this remedy for attacks of fever or malaria. After drinking 100 ml of tincture, you need to go to bed and wrap yourself in a blanket. Traditional medicine experts highly recommend taking this medicine. After three doses of tincture, you can forget about seizures.
Contraindications to the use of the watch
To date, everyone in need can take watch medications, since no contraindications and side effects have yet been identified.