Dandelion - medicinal properties and contraindications for health

Bright yellow double flowers of dandelion are familiar to each of us. Mother Nature laid a powerful healing qualities in dandelion, healing properties and contraindications of which are known throughout the world. With the onset of spring, the abundantly flowering carpets of this perennial plant cover lawns, squares, places near roads, the edges. About 200 different species of this small flower on a fragile leg grow on our open spaces, they will not surprise anyone, especially since it is considered a weed.

Of the above number of species, about 100 varieties are medicinal, and in some places this plant is cultivated and entire plantations are sown. Fields of dandelions can be observed in Germany, France, Holland, where they are grown for various useful, therapeutic purposes.

содерж to content ↑

Benefits and therapeutic properties of dandelion

If we consider the medicinal qualities of dandelion, we can see that all its parts have useful properties: root, leaves, flowers. Traditional medicine is known for numerous recipes for drugs from this plant, its cooking uses no less widely. They make salads from dandelions( especially from young leaves), make jam, put it in soups, cook broths, even use them as coffee substitutes. In addition to medicinal decoctions, dandelion tinctures make wine, which we will talk about later.

This plant improves the digestive tract, has choleretic, blood-purifying( promotes the formation of white blood cells), diuretic properties. A decoction of inflorescences lowers fever, has a diaphoretic, bactericidal effect, helps with inflammation of the lymph nodes.

The presence of potassium salts, vitamins, phosphorus in the composition of dandelion contributes to the overall strengthening of the body, restores strength, optimizes metabolism. The use of medicinal decoctions, tinctures helps to remove toxins, slags, has a positive effect on the function of the pancreas, has a calming effect in sleep disorders, nervous disorders. His milky sap has long been used to treat warts, corns, reduce freckles, spots on the skin.

Medicinal Dandelion is a powerful tool for treating oncological diseases, it is especially good for prophylactic purposes. An effective hematopoietic effect is observed when drinking the juice of fresh leaves of a plant or decoction of roots. Juice or infusion of dandelion cope with spring vitamin deficiency, restore strength, help restore the lost energy, because it was not for nothing that the ancients called it "the elixir of life."

The root is the concentration of the strength of any plant, and the root of a dandelion is without exaggeration referred to as "Russian ginseng."The range of its therapeutic action is truly wide, despite the availability. During the growing season, the root accumulates triterpene constituents, insulin, organic acids, sucrose, flavonoids, vitamins, proteins, gums, fatty oils.

Medicinal properties of dandelion root and contraindications:

• It is used in the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases, as well as to improve the digestive process.
• For gastritis with low acidity( improves the flow of bile).
• Treats diabetes, lowers blood sugar.
• To improve intestinal motility in chronic constipation( natural laxative, light effect).
• In the treatment of hepatitis, gallbladder disease.
• For relief of skin diseases( acne, boils, psoriasis, eczema).
• In the treatment of nervous disorders.
• In the treatment and prevention of malignant tumors.
• For the treatment of gout.
• with atherosclerosis.
• For the treatment of thyroid.

In addition, the dandelion root, together with the grass oregano, lemon balm, nettle helps to increase lactation in nursing mothers. Take the same amount of these herbs - cook infusion - 3 tbsp.spoon mixture pour 3 cups of boiling water, insist 3 hours - it is better to use a thermos for this. Broth root is also used as an auxiliary therapeutic agent in the treatment of tuberculosis.

Contraindications for taking root are:

• Bile duct obstruction.
• Increased acidity( take caution, only after consulting a doctor).
• Large doses - an overdose is fraught with manifestations of diarrhea, nausea, vomiting.
• Hyperacid gastritis.
• Gastric ulcer.
• Duodenal Ulcer.

содерж to content ↑

How to eat dandelion root?

For the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases, it is possible to use not only decoctions, but also powdered dry root powder. You can grind it with a coffee grinder, and then take dry for 1 teaspoon 20 minutes before a meal( squeezed with plenty of water).Such a powder has a weak bitter taste, it can be successfully used as a seasoning for the first, second courses, brewed as coffee( lightly roast before grinding) or tea.

Fresh chopped root can be steamed( 1 tbsp. Spoon, filled with 1 cup of boiling water, infused for 2 hours), consumed in a quarter cup 3 times a day half an hour before meals. This infusion successfully treats skin diseases, you can also use it externally.

With a well-chosen “company”, root properties are revealed, complemented by each other. Old-fashioned recipes where burdock, dandelion, couch grass mix, had amazing healing properties, helped from many diseases. Despite the fact that these plants were considered weeds, their roots were mixed in equal proportions, the resulting collection healed cystitis, kidney diseases, and various joint pains. Treated bronchitis, female inflammation, skin diseases, many other ailments.

This recipe has not lost its relevance even now: the roots of plants are dug out, cleaned from the ground, washed, dried in a shaded place. After drying, they are finely chopped. For storage it is better to use glass containers.500 g of boiling water is poured over one spoonful of such a mixture, they insist 2 hours, you need to take half a glass 15-20 minutes before meals for 3 weeks. Also, they can be taken separately - a spoonful of each root for a week. The duration is the same 3 weeks of the course.

A good remedy for the treatment of insomnia, manifestations of hypertension, as well as natural anthelmintic, laxative is an infusion, the preparation of which includes dandelion root + burdock root. Components( equal parts) are mixed, 2 spoons are poured with 3 cups of water, left overnight. In the morning, the infusion is boiled for 10-15 minutes, insist 15 minutes, take half a glass 5 times a day before eating.

↑ to contents ↑

How to prepare raw materials?

For healing as well as culinary purposes, ground portion, roots are used. This plant blooms from early spring to autumn, it has healing properties, subject to harvesting, even when there is a dandelion fluff. However, if you want to extract the maximum of useful substances from it, it is better to collect the inflorescences with leaves during flowering, and the roots - in early spring or autumn.

Eco-friendly zones, planting, forest areas - the best place to collect plants. The best time for this process is the morning when the flowers just opened. Inflorescences, dandelion leaves are dried in shaded places, laying on a clean paper in an even thin layer, turning over periodically( approximately 10 days).To get the root for later storage, it must be carefully removed from the ground - pry with a spatula. Roots are washed with cold water, cut, dried( dryer can be used at 50 ° C), properly processed root breaks with a crunch.

Glass jars, paper boxes or bags are suitable for storing raw materials, the ground part is subject to 2-year storage, the roots are up to 5 years old.

содерж to content ↑

How to cook dandelion jam or honey?

These natural desserts are very tasty, really useful, as they contain inside all the strength of the plant, its beneficial properties, which were described above. Dandelion preserves are boiled from selected raw materials collected in a clean area.

May is the best time to collect inflorescences that will be used for making jam, this is the period of mass flowering - the maximum concentration of beneficial substances. For jam, as for honey, it is recommended to select only the yellow petals of the inflorescences - they are cut with scissors or pinch off with fingers. However, there are many recipes that use very large inflorescences, cut to the very top.

Dandelion Jam Recipe:

1. We take 400-500 large flowers( this is not so much as it seems) without stems, thoroughly wash them with cool water.
2. Put the inflorescence in an enamel( or stainless steel) pot, pour 500 g of water, boil for 2-3 minutes.
3. We filter dandelions through a fine sieve, squeeze well.
4. Add 4-5 glasses of sugar to the resulting liquid, set on fire, bring to a boil.
5. From the moment of boiling, we make jam for about 8 minutes.
6. Spill on pre-prepared clean banks.

This is the easiest recipe for this kind of jam; more sophisticated methods include dipping inflorescences daily, adding citrus juice, and extracts of acacia color. Sometimes leaves of cherry or black currant are added for additional flavoring.

Dandelion jam, both in taste and in appearance, really resembles honey. The so-called dandelion honey is the same jam, only for its production only the yellow flower petals are selected, not the inflorescence completely. Thus, they take a full two-liter jar of petals, two lemons( or lime), two kilograms of sugar( or powder).Petals are laid out in a container, poured with two liters of cold purified water, left for 24 hours. After this time, the water with the petals is filtered through gauze, squeezed out thoroughly, to the resulting infusion add the squeezed juice of two lemons, powdered sugar. This mixture is cooked until thickened, and then poured into cans.

Dandelion Jam - Benefit:

1. Such a jam is good for the body, it restores the liver at the cellular level, it is recommended for hepatitis, diseases of the gall bladder.
2. Helps with bronchitis, asthma.
3. A beneficial effect on the function of the urinary tract.
4. has antioxidant performance, helps to eliminate toxins, free radicals from the body.
5. A good prophylactic against cancer.
6. Relieves symptoms of bone diseases.
7. Helps with hypertension, anemia, asthma.

This jam can enhance the beneficial effects of other products, such as green tea. If you take it during a viral infection along with honey bee, then two useful products will complement, multiply the action of each other. This jam is very well combined with herbal teas: mint, lemon balm, chamomile.

Dandelion jam, harm:

1. Here, as with decoction, infusion of dandelion, you need to observe the correct dosage, so as not to earn allergies or itchy skin.
2. If you are sensitive to iodine, then you should not use this jam.
3. The tendency to indigestion( diarrhea, vomiting) is a contraindication to the use of jam or dandelion honey.
4. For gallstones( cholelithiasis) do not use this product.
5. Gastritis is also a contraindication.

↑ to content ↑

About dandelion wine

Many of us, when we hear this phrase, immediately recall the story of Ray Bradbury. However, dandelion wine really exists, moreover - you can cook it yourself.

Dandelion Wine Recipes:

To have a “summer caught and bottled in a bottle” at home, you will need selected large flowers( tightly packed one liter jar with a slide), citric acid( 1-2 teaspoons), sugar( 1 kg), blue raisins( 20 pieces), purified water( 4 liters).

Bring water to a boil, pour dandelions with it, leave for 24 hours. At the end of the day we filter the infusion, squeeze out the raw materials, add citric acid. Separately, take half a liter of water, add sugar to it, dissolve it, then add the resulting syrup to the squeezed infusion, put the raisins. It is very important that the raisins are unwashed!

We find a warm place for the container, keep it there for about 2 days, after which we pour the contents into bottles. It is necessary to bottle the bottles so that carbon dioxide is released, but the air does not get inside the bottle. Here you can resort to the old method - put a balloon on the bottleneck, a medical fingertip or a rubber glove.

About a month later, when fermentation is over, the wine should be carefully poured from the bottle into other vessels without disturbing the sediment at the bottom.

According to the second recipe, take:

• sugar - 1.5 kg;
• orange - 2 pieces;
• lemon - 2 pieces;
• raisins - 150 grams;
• dandelion flowers - tightly stuffed 3-liter can.

Take a glass or porcelain container for flowers, pour them there, sprinkle it with sugar on top, tamp it well. We put the tank in a dark place for 3 days, pour half a liter of boiled water on top, then leave it alone for three days. After the expiration of the specified period, we filter the sweet mass through a small colander, carefully squeeze the floral material, pour the liquid into a glass bottle with a narrow neck. Put the unwashed raisins into the resulting “syrup”( it will ensure fermentation), squeeze the juice from the oranges.

Flower cake again filled with clean boiled water, so that it only covers the mass, leave for two days. After a specified time, we filter again, squeeze the raw materials, add the resulting infusion to our raisin syrup. We also squeeze the juice of two lemons there, after which we place the bottle in a warm dark place. We put a rubber ball on the neck of the container, pierce a small hole in it to release carbon dioxide.

In the process of fermentation, the ball will inflate, and when it takes about a month, the ball will gradually deflate - this will be an indication that the wine can be poured over other containers. We do this carefully, do not disturb the sediment, for the convenience of transfusion, you can use a thin tube. We cork a bottle with young wine, send it to a dark place for half a year, after which you can enjoy the taste - remember the past summer.

In any form is good, useful yellow doctor - dandelion, therapeutic properties and contraindications of which have been studied, but continue to be known by people. We hope that thanks to this article you also learned more information about this valuable medicinal plant.

From a dandelion you can cook a lot of healthy, delicious dishes with healing properties. See this video:

You may be interested in the following information: