Common Lingonberry, Vaccinium Vitis-Idaea
Lingonberries are ubiquitous. Grows in coniferous and mixed forests, in the mountains and lowland tundra. Especially characteristic of pine and pine and spruce forests. Likes poor acidic soils.
It is a small evergreen shrub of the lingonberry family. 5-30 cm high. Stem erect, branched. Rhizome creeping. Wintering leaves, elliptical, leathery, along the edge wrapped, dark green above, light green below, slightly matte, with scattered brown dots. Blooms in May – June.
The flowers are white with a pink tint, collected in short drooping top brushes. The fruit is a multi-seeded spherical red berry with reddish-brown crescent-shaped seeds. Ripens in August – September.
Medicinal raw materials are leaves and berries. Usually overwintered leaves are harvested in early spring, as the leaves of the current year, collected in the summer, turn black when dried. blank lingonberry leaves begin immediately after the snow melts and finish before the start of their flowering. The secondary harvest is held in the fall after the harvest of berries.
Leaves are harvested manually, separating them from the stems with a hand movement from the bottom up. Blackened and browned leaves are thrown away. Dry the raw material attic with good ventilation or under a canopy where they do not get direct sunlight. For drying, the leaves are spread in a thin layer. on paper or cloth, stirring often.
The leaves contain arbutin, hydroquinone, phenol carboxylic acids and tannins. Berries are high in sugar vitamin C, carotene and organic acids. Berries are better wet. They are stored all year round, as they contain a natural preservative – benzoic acid. Lingonberry has diuretic, astringent, anti-inflammatory, sedative, antiseptic and antiseptic properties.
Fresh and dried berries – good antidiarrheal means. They are used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, infectious and non-specific origin in the initial stages of the disease.
Leaf preparations are used orally at night. urinary incontinence in children, pyelitis, cystitis, urolithiasis diseases, inflammation of the bladder and gastric mucosa with low acidity, arthritis of rheumatoid origin, gout, articular rheumatism, osteochondrosis, diarrhea.
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