Chamomile odorous

Probably, each of us has repeatedly turned to traditional medicine for help in various life situations.Medicinal herbs and plants have long become indispensable assistants in the life of modern man and therefore it is just necessary to know their beneficial properties. It is also important to apply them correctly and in time to solve health problems.

Lepidoteca odorous, fragrant or green daisy - Annual herb of the Asteraceae family. The botanical name in Latin sounds like Matricaria discoidea.

The homeland of this species is East Asia and North America. In our country, green chamomile has become widespread in the southern and western regions of Siberia, the Far East, the Arctic, Chukotka and in some regions of the Caucasus. It is also commonly found in Kazakhstan, Moldova and Belarus.

The plant often grows in continuous thickets along railroads, deep ditches, river banks, on waste grounds and other poor places.

Chamomile odorous is considered to be a weed plant, growing in height from 25 to 35 centimeters. The densely growing peretosechennye leaves are located on a single branched stem, rolling in inflorescences.

The flower formula is a small basket consisting of yellow-green toothed tubular flowers with no white petals, like an ordinary chamomile, for which it received another name for itself - “tongueless chamomile”.

The plant has a rich flowering from May to September and has a very specific spicy smell. By autumn fruits ripen - ribbed seeds from about 1 to 1.5 millimeters in length. Despite the fact that the plant is a weed, it is officially recognized as medicinal.

Not only the flowers, but also the leaves of the chamomile without a tongue, have useful antiseptic and anti-inflammatory effects, however, as a rule, only inflorescences are used in medicine. For medicinal purposes, decoctions and tinctures from it are mainly used as:

• lotions or compresses;
• hot poultices;
• cleansing enemas;
• for rinsing with ARI and ARVI;
• drops in the head cold;
• for washing eyes with conjunctivitis;
• inhalation of the upper respiratory tract;
• medical baths for skin itching and allergies.

The infusion of fragrant chamomile is widely used in traditional medicine in the treatment of gastritis, colitis, gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer, as well as bloating and flatulence.

To prepare the healing infusion, take three tablespoons of herbs and pour half a liter of cooled boiled water and leave in a sealed container for the whole night. In the morning, the resulting infusion must be filtered, after which it is completely ready for use.

Drink at one time for half a glass. Recommended use from three to four times a day.

It has a strong anti-inflammatory and analgesic agent, and also has a sudorific and disinfecting effect on the body.

It should be remembered that treatment with medicinal herbs should be started only after consulting with your doctor: he will tell you the appropriate composition of the collection and the most reasonable duration of herbal medicine.

Increased dosage can cause severe headache, accompanied by nausea and dizziness, tension on the part of the nervous system, diarrhea and general muscle weakness.

There are a number of diseases in which the use of this drug is extremely undesirable and even dangerous to your health:

• anacid gastritis, triggered by the patient's lack of hydrochloric acid, as well as a gastric ulcer that occurred on the background of this disease
• all sorts of mental and nervous system disorders;
• painful and heavy periods in women;
• diarrhea and diarrhea;
• with great care and under the strict supervision of the attending physician - in the treatment of the genitourinary system;
• It is strictly prohibited during pregnancy - it can cause miscarriage;
• chamomile cannot be combined with homeopathic remedies.

It is very simple to visually distinguish these types of daisies: the fragrant in the flower basket has no white reed petals. But the smell is not so easy to do, since both of them have the same pronounced odorous spicy smell.

Both the chemical composition and the medicinal properties of these two medicinal plants are, in principle, very similar. Both representatives contain approximately the same percentage of nutrients and vitamins.

The composition of the essential oils of these medicinal plants include:

• terpenoids b-myrcene and b-farneseene;
• flavonoids luteolin, cynaroside, quercetin and quercimeritrin;
• coumarins - herniarin iumbelliferon.

Also in the composition is salicylic acid, carotene and tannins.

However, the lepidoteca essential oil contains a large amount of chamazulene, so this type of chamomile is more effective in external use for the treatment of skin and mucous membranes. For internal use it is used with extreme caution and under the strict supervision of a specialist.

For medicinal purposes, individual flower baskets are harvested with remnants of peduncles no more than one centimeter.

Harvesting is done manually, starting from the moment of flowering at the beginning of summer. For all the time of flowering in the summer season can be made from four to five fees.

Since the flowers must keep their shape and not disintegrate into small fractions, before putting them out to dry it is necessary to remove all the plants with long stems and leaves.

Dried chamomile flowers are dried in drying chambers at a temperature not exceeding 40 - 45 ° C. You can also make drying in attics, expanding the collection in a thin layer, in conditions of constant access of fresh air.

Properly dried ready-made raw materials consist of individual baskets of yellow-green color without peduncles. It has a strong bitter-spicy smell.

Permissible humidity for finished raw materials is not more than 14 percent. Medicinal herbs are stored in fabric or paper bags for a period not exceeding one year.

If you have a small plot of land and plenty of free time, you can independently grow these wonderful medicinal plants.

Seed should be sown at the beginning of autumn or late summer, on those days when it is warm but not hot. About a month before sowing, it is necessary to prepare the soil. To do this, select a piece of land on the sunny side and carefully dig it up by adding organic fertilizers (preferably, if it is cow or horse manure), as well as fertilizing.

Seeds are placed in shallow grooves, well spilled with water, at a distance of about half a meter from each other, then covered with a layer of mulch to one centimeter.

As soon as the first shoots appear, they need to be thinned out so that no more than thirty young shoots are left on one shoulder strap. This should be done very carefully so as not to damage the root system.

As a rule, after 55 - 75 days after germination, the daisy will bloom. Such a process for one plant lasts from a week to ten days.After pollination, seeds are formed in flower baskets with stamens and pistils, which can be carefully collected for future plantings. Do not forget that the plant is one-year-old, and if you collect all the daisies before their seeds mature, then next year you risk being without a crop.

With the right approach, in one summer season you will be able to harvest up to six harvests from your plot, since all shoots have a different flowering period.

A faster and easier way to reproduce this useful plant: find wild-growing thickets in nature and dig up several specimens with roots, wrapping them with a damp cloth to move. Then follow as quickly as possible carefully plant in the prepared soil in your garden or at home - in a flower pot.

In addition to medical purposes in everyday life, there are many very useful ways to use odorous chamomile:

• Compresses and infusions will help rejuvenate the skin. They can also be used to remove signs of fatigue from the eyes, alleviate irritation and get rid of dark circles.
• Well proven and rinsing hair with chamomile infusions. This procedure nourishes and strengthens the scalp, relieves dandruff, slows the production of sebaceous glands, makes hair soft and shiny, and also neutralizes the negative effects of aggressive substances in many modern shampoos and hair dye.
• When visiting the bath, you can use infusions for rinsing the whole body - this will contribute to the rapid healing of minor irritations, scratches on the skin, removal of allergic reactions.
• In the steam room chamomile essential oils can be applied - It will bring relief from chronic diseases of the throat and upper respiratory tract, such as asthma or bronchitis.

• Many women who care about their health and do not want to apply chemical hair coloring use chamomile. for straightening. I must admit that sometimes it gives no less brilliant result, while eliminating the problems with dandruff, dryness and brittle hair. After several procedures, this small nondescript flower is able to lighten even dark curls, giving them a rich copper tint. And fair-haired beauty and natural blondes with its help can easily give their strands shining golden hues.

• When conducting modern cosmetic procedures to clean the skin Chamomile hydrolat or chamomile water, which is produced as a spray, is often used. The drug perfectly soothes and regenerates the skin, which is especially sensitive to the effects of an aggressive environment.
• Hydrolat irrigation in summer will bring you relief for sunburn and nettle burns, bites of blood-sucking insects, will help with peeling and itching. And in the winter he will help carefully restore dry, chapped skin.
• Chamomile hydrolat is simply indispensable in the care of delicate baby skin.

And finally, it remains to add about such an important problem as struggle with moths, which can be very easily solved with the help of the essential oil from chamomile extract. To do this, in a small jar of water, you need to add a few drops of essential oil and treat with a damp cloth, moistened furniture and the floor in the whole apartment.

You can also put fabric bags with dried plants in cabinets on shelves and in drawers where clothes are stored. The specific spicy smell will scare away the harmful insect and prevent it from settling in your home.

Here she is, fragrant chamomile - a seemingly small, nondescript, but very useful flower!

How to lighten hair with camomile, look in the video.