Where to look for the right plants
First of all, to do this does not quite straightforward, we must learn to recognize medicinal plants "in person". Conveniently, of course, meet with them on the color photographs or slides, sometimes Herbarium (if good), but it's better to just directly by the living plant. But just as found in nature, the right plant? Where to find him - in the woods, in a field in a swamp?
To facilitate the search for medicinal plants, in most publications, said about them, in what conditions they grow and together with some familiar plants are found. Completely in vain, for example, to search for Bearberry in the desert: she's not growing, it is unlikely to find it and in the fir grove - where it also does not happen. But almost certainly it can be found in a pine forest with a veil of white lichen - a forest-belomoshnike. Water shamrock grows always at the edge of the fens, valerian - to damp forest meadows, etc. No wonder Plantain takes its name: the back roads - a popular place to live. The seeds of this plant contain a lot of mucus and swelling from moisture and become sticky, easy to stick to his feet and carried along the roads for long distances. "Traces of white" - so called plantain North American Indians, because the seeds of his bailiff, along with the dirt in shoes of immigrants from Europe, crossed the ocean and arrived in America. Wherever set foot aliens would grow this undemanding plant. One copy of the plantain yields from 8 to 60 thousand seeds, which is why he and spreads so fast! Plantain leaves - a popular folk remedy for wounds and abscesses, and it is always at hand.
Here in the woods beautiful silvery plant, whose leaves have a very bitter taste. This is wormwood. It is because of the bitterness she ranked among the medicinal plants. In fact, as a rule, bitterness are a signal of danger: "Caution - Poison!" Harmless to us the bitter substance found in nature does not happen very often. At the same time, the bitterness needed by the body: they stimulate appetite, improve digestion. For this purpose, used the herb wormwood mixed with some other plants. But even in the cosmetics, this plant (or rather, an essential oil which it contains) readily enter into the composition of ointments, lotions, using both the odor and anti-inflammatory properties of its biologically active substances.
There are about 150 species of wormwood, but only one kind is used in medicine and cosmetics - is wormwood, but it is this never grows in the forest. Wormwood - a typical plant of open spaces. Shabby-looking plant with leaves, split into many small segments, and with an umbrella of white flowers. It is mentioned in chronicles: its juice was cured grandson Dmitry Donskoy from debilitating nosebleeds. The plant is called milfoil. In some areas it is called poreznik. It is well-known folk remedy for stomach disorders and bleeding. As a styptic plant also occurs in the composition of certain cosmetics. Yarrow can be found in sparse forests, well-lit open spaces, but it forms large bushes in the meadows.
, however, to find medicinal plants and learn it - still only half the battle. To use it as a remedy, we must know when to gather, as it is to collect as drier, so it does not lose its medicinal properties, how to store the finished raw material before it is cooked from the medicine, how much time it can be stored without sacrificing quality, and most importantly - you need to know what to do to this plant did not disappear forever in a place where you assemble it.