Walnut
Lives walnut long - up to 300-400 years. Fruiting begins with 10-12 years of maximum yields gives a ripe old age - in 100-180 years. Abundant fruiting was the reason that many people walnuts are considered symbol of wealth, fertility and longevity. The ancient Greeks portrayed the fruit of a nut to each other on festive occasions. The Romans wedding rituals did not do without nuts. We in the Caucasus and Moldova, there is a great tradition: the child was born - plant it in a dowry walnut ...One of the first descriptions of the walnut is owned by the father of botany - Theophrastus. Mention this plant in their writings Diosko Reed, Cicero, Pliny, Virgil, Hippocrates. The latter recommended a decoction of green shell at the gastro-intestinal disorders and praises about this tool in his book "The diet in acute diseases».
In the wild the largest forests are preserved on the slopes of the Ferghana and Chatkal ranges in southern Kyrgyzstan. Has long been widely cultivated in southern areas. Harvest nuts from one adult tree in different years can vary from 1 to 300 kilograms.
Leaves of walnut large, imparipinnate (as they define Botany); male flowers in long, drooping catkins, female - sessile spikelets with 2-3 greenish flowers. Bivalve drupe fruit topped with a fleshy pericarp, but inside the shell - an edible kernel of 4 identical slices, as the "four little brother a shirt." Resemblance nucleus of a human brain gave rise to numerous legends about this plant. Translated from the Latin "yuglans regia (plant name) means" royal acorn ».
Since ancient times, and still is widely used in folk medicine, and in case everything goes: leaves, twigs, bark, green pericarp, immature and mature fruit. Used walnuts and doctors to treat various diseases. For example, recommended that eat nuts with honey and figs on an empty stomach as the downward pressure and normalizing activity of intestinal drug. "Walnut softens the body, resolves dense matter, is useful for indigestion, strengthen supreme in organs - brain, heart and liver, exacerbating feelings, especially consumed with raisins and figs, and is very useful for older people", - wrote Mahzan-Ul-Adviya in treatise, "Treasury drugs».
In most cases, drug raw materials are still the leaves, especially in cosmetology and dermatology. Powder from the leaves and the pericarp has long been considered a styptic and antiseptic - they kept on the wounds and sores, apply, and fresh leaves. Infusion of leaves used in scrofula and boils and in the form of compresses - for many skin diseases; pericarp and leaves used for strengthening and hair coloring, and juice - to remove excess vegetation on the legs and body. And now residents of Arab East used extracts from the leaves and rind of the walnut as a depilatory - depilatories. Fruits Walnuts contain fats, proteins, carbohydrates and vitamins, leaves - tannins and vitamins.
Masks from crushed walnut kernels soften the skin, promote healing of fractures, relieve inflammation of the skin ... Decoction of leaves is used to treat skin diseases, scalp and diathesis.
Interesting to note that the masterpieces by Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci and many other great artists of the Renaissance, created about 500 years ago, hit us with their freshness and the purity of colors, which were prepared in walnut oil. The same oil is used for the production of cosmetics and soaps.