The botanical characteristics of clover and collection of medicinal raw materials

Clover - is a perennial herbaceous plant of the spreading of the legume family. There are many species of clover, but commonly used drug to Trifolium pratense (red). This plant is a many-branched stems and dark pink heads. The main stem is shortened, trifoliate leaves on top and bottom - ovate. The root branching, at the end of it there is a small tubers. Fruit - small bean. It blooms all summer, the fruits ripen until late autumn.

It occurs almost throughout the territory of our country, meadows, forest edges, clearings, among the bushes like a weed. It is an excellent feed for cattle and good honey plant: 1 ha clover bees to 100 kg of honey.

Medicinal raw materials are the above-ground part and roots. Herbs and flowers are harvested during full bloom: flower heads with adjacent leaves tear or cut off, the rest of the plant is left to recover its growth. The collected materials are dried in the air under the eaves, avoiding direct sunlight and laying a thin layer of raw materials.

Chemical composition

The flowers and leaves of red clover contain simple and complex carbohydrates, vegetable proteins and fats, vitamins (C, K, E, group B, carotene), minerals and trace elements (magnesium, copper, calcium, chromium, iron, phosphorus), glycosides trifolin and izotrifolin, alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, steroids, saponins, waxes, essential oil Essential oils and conception: can help the roses? Organic acids (salicylic, coumarin). In the roots of red clover contains antifungal substance - trifolirizin.

Red clover has choleretic, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, anti-sclerotic, diaphoretic, expectorant, hemostatic, diuretic, astringent and desensitizing (allergy) properties, has a strengthening effect on the walls of blood vessels, improves their flexibility and reduce permeability. Clover roots also have antifungal properties.

The use of red clover in folk medicine

Various medicinal products prepared from red clover, used inside:

• for colds as an antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, expectorant and sudorific;
• bronchial asthma as an anti-allergic, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and expectorant;
• protivoskleroticheskoe in atherosclerosis as a means;
• for exhaustion and anemia as a source of vitamins and minerals;
• with diarrhea as an astringent;
• for liver and biliary tract as a choleretic, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial agent;
• with frequent bleeding as a hemostatic agent;
• malignant tumors as an antitumor agent (in the complex therapy);
• in diseases of the cardiovascular system as a diuretic and decongestant.

Outwardly red clover is used as a wound-healing agent, purulent skin diseases, for rinsing with inflammatory diseases of the mouth and throat, eye wash with conjunctivitis, in the form of douches - in gynecology.

Red clover has contraindications for use. This is a disease in which there is a tendency to increased blood clotting: varicose veins Varicose veins - the operation is inevitable? , Thrombophlebitis, condition after stroke Stroke - a serious brain injury   or myocardial infarction. You should not use drugs during pregnancy and clover.

How to make drugs from the clover at home

Houses made of red clover can prepare infusions, tinctures and decoctions:

• infusion of leaves and flowers: tablespoon dried minced raw pour a glass of boiling water, leave for 30 minutes, cool, strain and drink a third cup 3 times a day for half an hour before meals;
• decoction of the roots: tablespoon dried minced raw pour a glass of boiling water, keep the water bath Sauna and health: the benefits and harms of bath procedures   for 30 minutes, cool, strain and drink a tablespoon 3-5 times a day for half an hour before meals;
• infusion of leaves and flowers 2 tablespoons minced raw pour 500 ml of vodka, insist 10 days in a dark place, filter and take a tablespoon in the afternoon and at night in atherosclerosis.

Red clover is generally taken quite a long time, therefore, before this treatment is best to consult a doctor.

Botanical characteristics melilot

Melilotus officinalis - is an annual or biennial plant with a straight stem Venue of 0, 5 to 2, 5 m. The branches begin about the middle of the stem, the leaves are alternate, collected three. The flowers are yellow, drooping, in many hands, reaches a length of 15 cm. The fruit - beans, consisting of one or two seeds. The whole plant has a pleasant odor.

Melilotus officinalis should be distinguished from the toothed clover and white clover - they have no smell and must not be present in the pharmaceutical raw materials.

Flowers in June - July, fruits ripen in August - September, it reproduces only by seed. It grows like a weed in the dry wasteland, slopes of ravines, on the margins of fields and along roads throughout the European part of our country in the Caucasus, in Siberia. On the flooded banks of the Volga forms the whole thicket.

The collection and storage of raw materials

The medicine is used together with the top of the plant flowers collected during flowering. Cut off the top and side shoots long without a major part of the stem. You can not harvest sweet clover drug at the edge of the road, where he was covered with dust and deposited harmful substances emissions. Harvesting melilot made in dry weather, because wet materials very quickly warms up and darkens. The collected grass is laid loosely in containers and sent immediately for drying.

Dried material in a draft under a canopy or in the attic, spreading a thin layer and periodically stirring. Out of dry raw material is from a quarter to a third of the total weight of the freshly.

The chemical composition and effects on the body melilot

The leaves and stems of sweet clover drug contains an aromatic substance coumarin, purine derivatives, essential oil Essential oils and conception: can help the roses? , Tannins, vitamin C, vegetable protein, fat and fiber.

Infusions and decoctions of clover grass have lower blood pressure, expectorant, emollient, analgesic, antithrombotic, and wound-healing effect. Coumarin depresses the central nervous system (calming), has a narcotic effect and anticonvulsant. In large quantities it can cause poisoning.

Which diseases appoint clover medicinal

Melilot prescribed as a sedative with nervousness, various diseases of internal organs, arising on a background of increased excitability, insomnia, menopause and premenstrual syndrome. It helps and in convulsions.

When high blood pressure Blood pressure - dangerous if his swing?   it soothes and relieves spasm of blood vessel, whereby the pressure decreases. Improved status and coronary heart disease Heart disease and heart attacks: that every woman should know As expanding the coronary arteries (which supply blood to the heart muscle). In addition, it prevents the formation of clots in blood vessels.

It has long been in Russia clover drug used in the treatment of inflammatory diseases of bronchopulmonary system as an expectorant and anti-inflammatory agent. It has an impact on the gastrointestinal tract, removing a spasm of smooth muscles of the stomach and intestines, thereby reducing phenomena such as flatulence (bloating) and pain. It has also a slight laxative effect.

Melilotus officinalis and is used as an external agent for washing festering wounds, with pustular skin diseases (including boils), mastitis (inflammation of the breast) in nursing mothers, and so on.

Despite the existence of medicinal properties, medicinal clover is considered a poisonous plant, so it is recommended to use inside as a part of various fees. Can be used independently, but short course and do not exceed the recommended dosage.

If poisoning sweet clover drug nausea, vomiting, headache, bleeding. Do not take the drug at the clover and increased bleeding tendency to bleeding.

How to cook the drug of clover at home

At home, of melilot can prepare the infusion:

• infusion reception inside: two teaspoons dried minced raw pour a half cups of boiling water, to insist on a water bath Sauna and health: the benefits and harms of bath procedures   for 15 minutes, cool for 45 minutes, to add to the original level, strain and drink a third cup three times a day for half an hour before meals;
• tincture for external application prepares the same way, but at the rate of two tablespoons to two cups of boiling water.