Horsetail

Horsetail, sosennik, tolkachik, pestushki - Spore perennial herb, which can be often found in meadows, spruce, light-, linden, aspen, birch and mixed forests. Grows like a weed in gardens, along roadsides, in fields. On the sandy banks of rivers, sand and clay quarries sometimes forms part of the thicket. As Russia grows everywhere except the deserts and semi deserts, as well as the Far North. Sporangiums horsetail shoots appear, when the snows melt. In late April - May sporangiums spikelet matures - spores get enough sleep, and the stalk dies. This spring shoots of medicinal value are not. In the summer begin to develop green shoots up to 40 inches, branched, similar to a small Christmas tree.

Latin name horsetail "ekvizetum" derived from the word "horse" and "tail"-a horse's tail, which corresponds to and the Russian "horsetail "pointing to the similarity of the plant with tufts of hair, with a tail.

as a medicinal plant has been used for a long time. Ibn Sina used the juice to heal wounds and ulcers, and infusions at fault - for the treatment of tumors of the liver and stomach, dropsy, and intestinal disorders.

Collect green summer branched shoots of horsetail, which contains flavonoids, organic acids, vitamin C and carotene, saponins and tannins.

in scientific medicine recommend horsetail as a diuretic for heart diseases, inflammation of the urinary tract (but is contraindicated in jade and nefrozonefritah).

Use a bottlebrush and cosmetic purposes. In Poland, used the juice and infusion of horsetail for hair loss; in China - with inflammation of the eye, in France - with sweating feet in the form of trays or rubbing tincture of horsetail, are included in the lotion in Bulgaria - to rinse with stomatitis, abrasions, in the form of baths for suppurating wounds. According to German researchers, the herb horsetail has a disinfectant, antiseptic, astringent and wound-healing effect. Recommended for external use as baths and lotions, washes - with nosebleeds. In Austria, known as horsetail hemostatic and wound-healing agent. Used in dermatology as a means of intensifying epithelization tissue.

Cosmetologists designate infusion in the form of rinses, washes, lotions, compresses and baths for inflammatory skin, mouth and throat, is found in many creams. Juice and infusion of horsetail well help with seborrheic dermatitis and seborrhea oleosa, a beneficial effect on dry and oily skin of the face and hands. Horsetail tincture is a part of a treatment and strengthen the hair.

Collectors of raw materials is very important to distinguish horsetail from plants similar to it: marsh horsetail (which stems unbranched, hollow, rectangular), meadow (with no branched trihedral horizontal stems), horsetail (with heavily branched drooping shoots) and horsetail streamside (with unbranched short branches). The plant spreads spores and vegetatively.