Blackberry - is a useful, beautiful berry, it was named one of the currently popular mobile phone (Blackberry) is native to Asia, Europe, North and South America. In Europe, it is used for more than 2000 years - for food, as a medicine, as well as a beautiful (and safety - thanks to thorns) hedges. In Europe and in Russia is not a popular blackberry crops, and in the USA it is widely cultivated and used in the production of various food products.
Blackberry - is a bushy perennial plant with thorny branches that lifelong gives new shoots that grow from the ground, from the root of the main plant. Blackberry leaves are composed of 3-5 leaflets arranged on one stem; one middle lobe, located at the end of the stalk - the biggest. Blackberries bloom in early summer. She has white or pink flowers with five petals. Most of the species are self-pollinating blackberries.
Blackberry plant usually begins to bear fruit in the second year, and under normal conditions is fertile for about ten years.
When the flowers wither blackberries in their place first appear very small green berries. After a while they turn red, and by 40-70 (depending on weather conditions) kept pace with blackberries and becomes black.
Facts about blackberry
- Blackberries - very useful berry; it is rich in vitamin A, thiamine (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), niacin, vitamin C, calcium, phosphorus, iron, sodium and potassium, and other vitamins and trace elements.
- In 140 g fresh blackberries contains about 62 calories.
- In ancient Greece, the blackberry was used to treat a variety of diseases of the mouth and throat, as well as for the prevention of many diseases.
- Several centuries ago, blackberry leaves in Europe have used hair dye black.
- Recently, scientists have found that blackberries actively fights free radicals, and is probably one of the most efficient plants to fight cancer.
- In the US, there are farms where grown blackberries, where in the late summer or early autumn everyone for their money may be useful to collect these berries. The popularity of such farms in recent years is growing rapidly.
The healing properties of blackberries
Phenolic compounds, which are contained in the leaves of blackberry, such as gallic acid, coumaric acid, known for its powerful antioxidant action. Phenolic compounds - is alcohol, which are attached to the benzene ring. Gallic acid is carcinogenic - it is toxic to cancer cells.
Furthermore, blackberry contains ferulic acid and caffeic acid - a substance capable of exerting anti-inflammatory effects, particularly in brain tissue, lung and digestive tract. They inhibit the enzyme dopa-decarboxylase and 5-lipoxygenase and activate potassium channels. Hydrolyzable tannins, which are in the leaves of blackberry, also have anti-inflammatory properties. They are split and form gallic acid and glucose. The effect of these substances also promotes healing of wounds, has analgesic effect and improves bowel. Saponin - another useful substance in blackberry, reduces absorption of cholesterol, and has a protective effect on the liver.
Flavonoids, such as rutin, quercetin and kaempferol, have many useful properties. In particular, they lower blood pressure and exert beneficial effects on blood vessels, making them useful in cardiovascular diseases.
Blackberry can be used in the treatment of diarrhea, dysentery, hemorrhoids, ulcers, sore throat, bleeding gums
How to prevent bleeding gums: important rules
. A decoction of the leaves of blackberry helps with acne scars, burns and stretch marks.
The botanical characteristics blackberry
Blackberry - a perennial shrub of the family Rosaceae (the closest relative of raspberries) with creeping, often lying on the ground slaboodrevesnevshimi stems covered with small spines and bluish bloom. The leaves are divided into three parts, on thorny stalks. Flowers white, large, collected at the end of a stalk, bloom stretched from May until the winter. During this time, there are breaks in flowering, then bushes bloom again. Fruits dark purple, almost black, covered with a bluish bloom. On one bush can simultaneously find flowers, unripe and ripe fruit already. Often blackberry blossoms even when the first snow. Juicy blackberries, sour taste.
It grows on wet soils: among bushes on the banks of water bodies across the central part of Russia, in the North Caucasus, in Western Siberia, Central Asia.
What are the ingredients and how to harvest blackberries medicinal raw materials
The blackberry fruit contains many carotene (precursor of vitamin A), vitamin E, B1, P, PP, K, ascorbic acid. It includes many of digestible carbohydrates (glucose, fructose, sucrose), pectic substances, organic acids (malic, tartaric, citric, salicylic), mineral substances (phosphorus, potassium and magnesium), flavonoids, tannins, a significant number of phenolic compounds that strengthen capillaries having anti-inflammatory and anti-sclerotic effect.
For medicinal purposes of collecting the young but already fully unfolded leaves and shoots of blackberry usually in late April - in May. The leaves are dried under a canopy immediately after collection. Blackberries harvested only fully ripened.
Curative effect blackberry
The blackberry leaves contain a lot of tannins, so they are used as an astringent and a fixing agent for diarrhea. Tea made from blackberry leaves are used as a vitamin tonic. Richer infusions and decoctions of blackberry leaves are used for rinsing the mouth with bleeding gums, as the blackberry leaves contain vitamin K, which has hemostatic properties.
Blackberries have a soothing, mild laxative, anti-inflammatory, wound healing, diuretic and diaphoretic properties, relieve joint pain
Joint pain - how to understand what is going on?
, They treat colds and bladder inflammation
Inflammation of the bladder - inconvenient and unpleasant
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Blackberry Application in folk medicine
Decoction and infusion of blackberry leaves has astringent properties and is used for diarrhea, and fresh ripe berries, on the contrary, have a laxative effect and are used for diarrhea. Tea with fresh berries and dried leaves of blackberry drink for colds, accompanied by high fever, cough and runny nose. Warm juice blackberries relieves hoarseness. Infusions and decoctions are used for inflammation of the joints, bladder, edema. Fresh berries blackberries are advised to take at night for insomnia and as a sedative, they are especially recommended for women suffering from premenstrual syndrome and during menopause. Blackberries normalize metabolism
Improves metabolism and losing weight without dieting
Therefore useful for obesity, diabetes and atherosclerosis.
Infusions from the leaves and roots of blackberries are also used topically as a wound-healing agent, and hemostatics. They are added to the bath to treat any skin disease. Such infusions rinse the mouth in various inflammatory diseases and bleeding gums.
What can you make of the blackberry
Blackberries eaten fresh, boiled jam, candy, jellies, prepare refreshments, fruit drinks, teas.
From the leaves and roots of blackberries at home can be prepared:
- tea from the leaves of blackberry and raspberry, one of the fresh leaves of raspberry mixed with two parts of fresh blackberry leaves, give them a little fade, then to stretch (for example, a rolling pin), a little sprinkle with water, placed in a fabric bag and hang in a warm place for fermentation (biochemistry recycling process under the influence of its own enzymes); After a few days these leaves will be a wonderful smell, after which they were finally dried and stored with a closed glass jars; brewed tea from the calculation - teaspoon dried minced raw in a glass of boiling water; perfectly helps with colds;
- infusion of blackberry leaves to rinse the mouth and throat: three tablespoons dried minced raw pour a liter of boiled water, 30 minutes, filter and rinse the throat with a variety of inflammatory diseases;
- infusion of blackberry leaves for ingestion: tablespoon dried minced raw pour a glass of boiled water, about three hours and drink a third cup 3 times a day for half an hour before a meal as a sedative and for colds.
