Barberry - a medicinal plant, which has long been used by traditional healers as cholagogue. It found wide application in modern medicine as an aid to better secretion of bile, to facilitate its passage through the biliary ways and the allocation of the duodenum.
The plant barberry and its chemical composition
There are several kinds of barberry in Russia, the most common Berberis vulgaris - thorny shrub with creeping woody rhizomes of the family Berberidaceae up to two meters. The trunks are covered with gray barberry cut. The leaves are about 4 cm long, thin, ovate, alternate, on short stalks. On the elongated branches instead of leaves developed spines. The flowers are yellow, with six petals, middle, orange, pistil and stamen multitude gather in large brush. The fruit is a red berry elongated to 1, 5 cm long, sourness.
Barberry blooms in May - June, fruits ripen in August - October.
Wild barberry is found in central Russia, the Caucasus, in the Crimea. In addition, it is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant. For medical purposes, the leaves of barberry.
Ripe fresh fruit of barberry are eaten, dried, ground or milled - used as a seasoning for various dishes, the young leaves - instead of sorrel.
As a medicinal raw material used the fruit of barberry, the top layer of roots, bark and leaves.
Barberry leaves harvested during the flowering and before him (May-June), bark - in the period of separation of juice (April-May), roots - early spring or late fall, leaving the ground a considerable segment of the root. With shake ground roots (not wash, since in this case the nutrients are washed out), remove dead parts, cut into small pieces and dried in the shade or in a draft oven at a temperature of about 50 ° C, spreading evenly and periodically stirring. Store the roots of barberry in canvas bags.
In fruits barberry found malic, citric, tartaric and other organic acids, sugars, ascorbic acid.
In the roots of barberry contain berberine alkaloid. Alkaloids - are complex nitrogenous organic substances that form when combined with acids readily water-soluble salt. In large doses the alkaloids are poisons, small - drugs. In addition berberine in the roots of barberry contain alkaloids palmitin, Leontine, kolumbamin, yatroritsin, berberrubin and oksiakantin.
Medicinal properties of Barberry
Drugs, prepared on the basis of barberry, promote secretion of bile and release it into the intestine, causing contraction of smooth muscle of the uterus and constriction of blood vessels, increase blood clotting, tone up the body.
Drugs Barberry is used as a cholagogue in diseases of the liver and biliary tract, uncomplicated jaundice. The use of drugs on the basis of barberry leads to a decrease or disappearance of pain in the liver, normalization of stool and temperature in patients with uncomplicated cholecystitis (inflammation of the gallbladder). This increases the amount of bile secreted, it decreases the density and viscosity, removed the stagnation in the gallbladder. When hepatitis (inflammation of the liver), the liver decreases in size, improving its functional state, it decreases the number of white blood cells in the bile, and thus become less inflammation. But if hepatitis
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goes to cirrhosis (liver cirrhosis replaced by connective tissue), the barberry drugs become ineffective.
A decoction of the root of barberry also helps with pneumonia, cough, fever, lowers body temperature, thirst quencher.
The juice from the fruit of barberry is used as a valuable tool vitamin, it stimulates the appetite, reduces blood pressure
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, Strengthens the heart muscle, improves blood circulation.
In obstetric practice barberry tincture prescribed in the complex treatment of bleeding in the postpartum period, with bleeding associated with inflammatory processes in the uterus, endometriosis (swelling of the lining of the uterus in other tissues, such as in muscle).
Medications of barberry
At home, of Berberis vulgaris can prepare the infusion: tablespoon dried crushed leaves are placed in an enamel bowl, pour a glass of hot water, close lid and placed in a water bath
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(in a pot with boiling water) for 15 minutes, then cooled at room temperature for 45 minutes, strain, wring out, bring the volume to the source and take a tablespoon 3-4 times a day for diseases of the liver and biliary tract.
A decoction of the roots of barberry: half a teaspoon of dried minced root pour a glass of barberry water, boil for 30 minutes, cooled and filtered, adjusted the volume to the source and drink a teaspoon 3 times a day for diseases of the liver and biliary tract. Likewise, take a decoction of the roots of bronchitis
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and pleurisy
The pharmacy you can buy raw materials (dried shredded leaves or roots), tincture of barberry leaves and berberine bisulfate. The infusion of the leaves barberry is taken orally 30-40 drops 2-3 times a day, a course of treatment for 2-3 weeks. Berberine bisulfate is available in tablets for oral administration, treatment with this drug lasts about a month.
Medicines from the barberry is strictly contraindicated in pregnancy, as berberine activates the uterine activity.
Galina Romanenko
