Useful properties of walnut in folk and official medicine

The modern range of its natural distribution covers a vast area from the Carpathians to the Himalayas. Huge wild thickets of it are found on the territory of Central Asia, the Caucasus.

We have its culture most common in the North Caucasus, where there are favorable climatic, soil conditions for its cultivation. The development of this culture began here several centuries ago, initially on the Black Sea coast of the Krasnodar Territory. He was introduced here, probably from Greece or the Crimea. Adyghes( Circassians) were especially successful in breeding him. The old Circassian walnut orchards planted near the former villages have survived to this day. A lot of long-lived trees are found here, some of which grow for more than 200-300 years, produce an annual crop of fruits up to 120 kg. It was from these gardens that walnut resettlement began in the North Caucasus region.

Now, thanks to the efforts of breeders, enthusiastic gardeners, this culture has advanced significantly to the north. Experience shows that some selected winter-hardy varieties can not only grow, but also bear fruit - gardeners from the Volgograd, Astrakhan, Belgorod, Kursk, Voronezh, more northern ones - the Lipetsk, even the Moscow, Ivanovo, Leningrad regions - get a good harvest.

The northern limit of walnut culture reached the territories of Sweden, Norway. However, it must be diluted very carefully, taking into account biological features, requirements for growing conditions.

The outstanding Swedish naturalist Karl Linney called this miracle tree "royal nuts", and the ancient Romans called them "Jupiter's acorns."

It was imported to Russia under the name of Persian, Royal, Greek nuts. The people baptized him "the tree of life."This is not an accident. For the concentration of the elements of health, longevity, versatility of use, this unique creation of nature has practically no competitors among plants. This is one of the most valuable plants of the globe.

Walnut - composition, beneficial properties of

Its main wealth is fruits with high nutritional, dietary, healing properties. The cores contain 60-74% excellent digestible fatty oil, 14-24% protein, 8-15% carbohydrates, 1.5-2% mineral substances, mainly phosphorus, calcium, nitrogen, potassium, iodine, iron, a large set of free amino acids, of which six( lysine, valine, threonine, leucine, tryptophan, phenylalanine) belong to the category of essential amino acids that are not synthesized by the human body, as well as tannins, a number of vitamins A, B, C, E, K1, P,F. The proportion of them is about the same as that of wheat. The amount of dry matter reaches 97% of the total mass of the kernel of the fetus. No wonder, thinking about its benefits, they say that "nothing is lost in a walnut nut."

Sherbet

The core in calories( 100 g contains approximately 652 calories) is 1.6 times more than fatty pork, rye bread - 3, lean meat - 4.5, fish, potatoes - 8, milk - 11, and fruits of other fruit crops -about 15 times. For comparison: 1 kg of peeled kernels is a kilogram of meat, fish, bread, potatoes, milk, pears combined. It is established that 20 nuts can satisfy the daily human need for fat, and 400 g of nut kernels provide the daily caloric need of a person. That is why E. Tsiolkovsky called them “cosmonauts food”.The astronauts ration necessarily include prunes, walnut. The menu of the famous traveler Tour Heyerdal, his crew also included it.

For reference: the minimum scientifically proven annual consumption rate of walnuts for one person is 2.4 kg, daily - 7-10 g( or 1-2 pieces).

What can be made from

walnuts You can make high-quality cookies, halva, gozinaki( shredded kernels filled with hot honey), nut cream, butter, jam, pastille, flour, various oriental sweets.

Churchkhela

In Georgia, for a long time, a kind of delicacy is made from mature kernels - nut sausages( churchkhels) containing all the main nutrients, useful elements. At the same time, peeled dry kernels are strung on a string, and then they are poured with condensed grape juice mixed with wheat flour and dried. Such "sausages" can last for a long time.

Salads prepared from the cores are very nutritious, tasty. If you grind them, add finely grated cheese, boiled beets, season with mayonnaise or sour cream, you get an original salad.

In France, a pate is prepared from nuts with garlic, which combines the high nutritional + phytoncidal benefits of two plants.

Pate smeared bread, getting a kind of phytoncide sandwich.

I love meat, vegetable dishes seasoned with peanut sauce. Cook it is not difficult.

Even a small amount of such a nut sauce adds great taste to any dish.

From the walnuts they produce the very valuable medicinal vegetable diet , peanut butter( which is not inferior in quality to olive oil), which is widely used by confectioners and physicians. The oil is very rich in unsaturated fatty acids - oleic, linolenic, lenoleic, which have a beneficial effect on the human body. It persists for a long time( up to two years), practically without losing its qualities.

The oil obtained in the production of oil is extremely rich in proteins. It is used to make tahini halva, used for filling pastry.

Walnut oil is one of the best components in the production of high-quality varieties of soap, quick-drying varnishes, pink, orange, violet oils, natural printing inks. Outstanding painters( Leonardo da Vinci, etc.) painted their famous canvases with paints mixed with peanut oil. They are very resistant, fast drying.

Healing properties of walnut

He has long been famous for its healing and healing properties. The science of nutrition, its fruits, is widely considered a universal product. They can be used for all diseases. There is evidence that the combination of nut kernels with wheat bread is a good substitute for meat. Such food is especially necessary for elderly people.

Its fruits are used in case of poisoning: you need to eat a tablespoon of honey on an empty stomach, two nut kernels with fig fruits. They are recommended to weakened people for a quick recuperation, with urolithiasis, as a good laxative, antihelminthic. In diseases of the stomach apply the kernel, crushed with raisins. The low carbohydrate content makes them useful for diabetics, and the presence of iodine is effective for the prevention of goiter.

Daily use of nut kernels normalizes the functions of the central endocrine gland( pituitary), increases sexual potency, improves digestion, increases intestinal motility, which allows them to be used by older people, as well as obese people. It is proved that potassium salts, vitamins, which contain nuclei, strengthen the heart muscle, improve digestion.

Unsaturated fatty acids, which are also rich in the nut kernel, regulate metabolism, reduce cholesterol levels, delay the development of atherosclerosis, and are important for the treatment of inflammatory, ulcerative diseases of the stomach, intestines, cardiovascular diseases, and some liver diseases. These acids increase the resistance of the body's immune system to carcinogens, X-rays, and promote the localization of various tumor formations. A few walnuts( 4-5 pieces / day) are enough to protect themselves from the harmful effects of radiation.

In the traditional medicine of the Caucasus, peanut oil has long been used to heal wounds, old ulcers, eye diseases, burns, frostbite, and to treat inflammation of the middle ear and nasal mucous membranes. Famous phytotherapeutist professor F.I.Mamchur, who wrote the book "Vegetables and fruits in our diet" leads a large set of popular recipes, made with the use of nut raw materials used to treat a variety of diseases. The use of 100 g of nut kernels with honey for a month and a half has a beneficial effect on patients with arterial hypertension, it is indicated for those who have increased fragility of blood vessels. Patients suffering from high or low acidity of gastric juice are advised to eat 50-60 g of kernels for two to three weeks, after which the functions of gastric secretion are normalized.

To improve the activity of the intestines, to improve its peristalsis, it is good to use nut milk. It is especially useful for children. Prepare it as follows:

In a walnut, not only the fruit is beneficial. Traditional medicine is also used leaves, bark, branches. Application is also the shell( pericarp) of the fetus. The therapeutic benefits of green leaves, fruit shells are associated with a high content of ascorbic acid( vitamin C), as well as vitamins B, carotene( provitamin A), tannin, inositol, essential oils, flavonoids, alkaloid juglon, pectin, etc.

Green fruits, pericarp, leaves accumulate a record amount of vitamin C - up to 3-5 thousand mg%, that is 3-5 times more than rose hips, sea buckthorn, 8-13 times more than black currant berries, 50-100 times more,than lemons, oranges, tangerines.

Vitamin C is known to regulate redox processes, has anti-sclerotic, anti-cancer effect, reduces overall cholesterol. It has been established that an organism that receives enough vitamin C is better able to withstand various infections and other unfavorable environmental factors, and is more resistant to the action of toxic substances.

Green fruits are also rich in vitamins P, E, which are especially necessary for pregnant women. The high content of vitamins C, P, which strengthen the walls of capillary vessels, reduce their fragility, as well as reduce blood pressure, making it an excellent tool for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. In addition, green fruits contain a lot of iodine. Therefore, they are used traditional medicine for the treatment of certain diseases of the thyroid gland.

Using these advantages of green fruits, highly nutritious jams, marinades are cured from them, they prepare healing nut honey. For this, the juice obtained from green fruits is mixed with sugar syrup, given to bees, which process all this into vitamin honey.

Green fruit jam is rightly considered the “king of jam”.The most simple, affordable way to prepare it was proposed by TE.Arrow.

To do this, prepare sugar syrup from natural berry or fruit juices, it is advisable to add to them extracts from flowers, leaves or fruits of medicinal or spicy-aromatic plants( in the absence of homemade preparations, berry-fruit syrups can be bought).

Below are a few recipes for preparing the most common cooking syrups for nut jam, designed for 1 kg of peeled kernels:

• berry syrups: -

1. 200 ml of strawberry juice with pulp, 50 ml of lemon juice, 1.5 kg of sugar;
2. 250 ml of black currant juice or red with pulp, respectively 1.5 or 2 kg of sugar, cloves;
3. 200 ml raspberry juice with pulp, 50 ml lemon juice, 1.5 kg of sugar;

• fruit syrups

1. 250 ml of cherry juice, 1.6 kg of sugar, 5 leaves of black currant, 3 leaves of cherry;
2. 250 ml of plum juice green varieties with pulp, 1.7 kg of sugar, 5 pcs.cloves cloves, cinnamon;
3. 150 ml of cherry plum juice with pulp, 100 ml of mint leaf tincture, 1.7 kg of sugar, some cinnamon;
4. 250 ml of juice of sour apples with pulp, 50 ml of strong tincture of tarragon leaves, 2 kg of sugar.

Pre-harvested berry or fruit juice is poured into an enamel pan, sugar is gradually added to it, other ingredients are stirred until completely dissolved, the syrup is brought to a boil, filtered.

Green fruits collected in the phase of dairy maturity( their cover is soft and the core is gel-like - in the south this phase of maturity usually falls on the middle - end of June), thoroughly washed with running water, dried, cleaned from green skin that is not discarded, and alsoused for the preparation of vodka or alcohol tinctures, or simply dried for the preparation of nut-fruit drinks.

Each peeled fruit is immediately poured over with freshly boiled sugar-fruit syrup removed from the heat. This operation significantly prevents oxidative processes, reduces the darkening of the fruit. Then the syrup is drained, heated to boiling again, all fruits are poured, boiled over low heat for 3-5 minutes. Then insist 12 hours.

During this time, some of the juice from the fruit goes into syrup, and the sugar penetrates into the fruit, which from this become smaller, denser. Then the fruit is boiled again for 5 minutes, left for a day. The third time the jam is boiled for 10 minutes, the boiling is poured into pre-sterilized jars, hermetically sealed with a lid.

Widespread use of traditional medicine uses alcohol or vodka extracts from immature fruits. Prepare them as follows: 15 finely chopped green fruits are placed in glass jars, poured with 0.5 liters of vodka or 45-70-degree alcohol, tightly covered with a lid, stand for two weeks in the sun. Then, having filtered the infusion, the liquid is drained and sealed.

Use nut tincture inside, as an antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory agent, to improve digestion, in diseases of the kidneys, urinary organs, dysentery, pain, inflammation of the stomach, intestines, especially for their disorders.

Percentage of one-time intake of 5-15( up to 30) g alcohol tincture per half glass of water 3 times a day before meals. But, as always, the medication should be coordinated with your doctor.

You can remove the hair of the body with the juice of a cut green fruit, for which two or three times it is enough to lubricate those parts of the body that you want to release from the hair.

For the treatment of various diseases, they also successfully use green dried fruits, their pericarp. Green fruits can be used for hypo-and avitaminosis. Juice, infusions of leaves, green pericarp are ingested as a vitamin, tonic for exhaustion, avitaminosis, muscle weakness, heart disease, tuberculosis, inflammation, fungal infections, mercury poisoning, scrofula, diabetes mellitus( for better absorption of glucose by the body), rachitisas an antihelminthic, as a blood-purifying agent( juice mixed with honey), for various skin diseases, and also as an astringent for diarrhea.

To prepare a water infusion of leaves, 5-10 g( 1-2 tablespoons) of dried and crushed vegetable raw materials is poured with one glass( 200 ml) of boiling water( like tea), tightly closed with a lid, infused at room temperature for two hours - daily dose. Use the infusion in equal parts three to four times daily.

Vitamin leaf tea is also used in gastroenteritis, to increase appetite, improve digestion, mouth rinsing for sore throat, stomatitis, and douching for gynecological diseases. Folk medicine decoction of leaves( 250 g + 1 liter of water) is recommended for bathing, washing patients with rickets, polyarthritis, gout, rheumatism, scrofula, venereal diseases.

For oozing skin diseases( itching, weeping eczema, nettle fever, ulcers), baths from the infusion of nut leaves are recommended( according to Zalmanov).Ingredients: pour boiling water with 400 g of leaves, leave for 15 minutes, drain. Take a bath with infusion at a temperature of 38.5 degrees for 15 minutes.

Green nut leaves, previously crushed, are applied to wounds, ulcers, furuncles for their quick healing. Aqueous extract of the leaves is used to treat unlived forms of tuberculosis of the skin, throat, tuberculous lymphadenitis. For diseases of the liver, gastrointestinal tract, it is recommended to drink oil infusion on fresh leaves( 70 g of crushed green leaves insist on 300 g of sunflower oil at a normal temperature of 15-20 days).

Bulgarian Dr. Iordanov recommends impregnated boiled nut leaves gruel like a compress for eczema, cervical gland tumors, hemorrhoids. For the treatment of warts use a combination of nut leaves with leaves or parsley roots.

Nowadays, domestic pharmacologists from the leaves and the shell of the fruit of the walnut have identified a valuable substance - juglone, which is used to treat various skin diseases, as well as a preservative of soft drinks.

It should be remembered that traditional medicine for medical purposes uses all parts of the walnut, but mainly the leaves that need to be harvested for future use. The best collection time is June, when the leaves accumulate the largest amount of biologically active substances. The collected leaves are tied with bunches, dried in air, in the shade or special dryers at a temperature of 35 degrees. Store them in an unheated room.