Medicinal Properties Of Ivan Tea, Or Fireweed

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

I remember an old meeting. In the middle of the summer, I was cycling along a country path and passed two elderly women. They walked, talking, and each carried, pressing to her body, large bouquets-brooms of blooming willow-tea.

"Well, and bouquets!" - I could not restrain myself and commented. " “And these are not bouquets, but future medicinal and healthy tea,” the women retorted my reply. Interested, he stopped and got off the bike.

And the women willingly said that every year they go to the fields or to the edges of the forest - away from the city and dusty, muddy roads, in order to stock up on the flowering Ivan-tea plants for the whole year.

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“At home we make real tea from it - tasty and healthy”. It turned out that this process is not easy, it requires certain knowledge and efforts. It includes wilting willow tea leaves, rolling them with palms, fermentation and drying. They told in detail about all the tricks of making folk tea. I thanked the women and drove on.

At home, I opened a guide to medicinal plants and read everything that was written there about Ivan tea. It turned out that he is not just a beautiful plant that delights our eyes almost all summer - from the second half of June to mid-August, but also a valuable healer, a tasty and healthy drink.

Plant features

So, Ivan tea, or narrow-leaved fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) is a perennial plant of the Cypress family. It is widespread and used everywhere in our country, and therefore received more than fifty names in different localities. The most famous of them are ivan-tea, fireweed, koporsky tea (or koporka), ivanovskaya grass, squeak, pozhaka (one of the first inhabits the fires), down jacket (beans form on the lower leaves by the end of summer, which release a kind of fluff - its peasants sometimes used for stuffing pillows) and others.

Perhaps the history of the name Koporye tea is interesting, it is associated with the name of the village of Koporye, which is in the Lomonosov region. This settlement was once founded by Alexander Nevsky near the destroyed fortress. It was an outpost of Novgorod. Then the village became part of the St. Petersburg province. In its vicinity there were huge thickets of narrow-leaved fireweed. And the monks learned to make tea from its leaves, which was eagerly drunk not only by local residents, but also by visiting merchants from England. They appreciated the tea and bought it in large quantities.

I have been to Koporye several times. And although all the fields there were occupied with planting potatoes, grain crops, pastures, but on the wastelands and inconveniences, along the roadsides in summer, tall willow-tea stalks proudly flaunted, the upper parts of which were strewn with pale pink inflorescences.

In Russia, narrow-leaved fireweed was used not only as a remedy, a healthy drink. One of its popular names is wild flax or wild hemp. The fact is that from the stems of this plant, more precisely, from their bast cover, like hemp or flax, the peasants received fiber, which was used to make ropes and coarse fabrics. And dried and powdered ivan tea rhizomes were added to bread. Blooming fireweed thickets are a favorite place for collecting nectar from bees. Sometimes medical fireweed honey is even sold at trade fairs.

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Medicinal properties of narrow-leaved fireweed

In folk medicine, this plant, more precisely, its leaves and flowers have long been used in our country for medicinal purposes. The Russians noticed that Ivan tea has a positive effect on the entire body. It increases the level of hemoglobin in the blood during anemia, normalizes metabolic processes when they are disturbed, for example, with obesity, and strengthens the immune system.

Its preparations reduce inflammation, are detrimental to many strains of viruses and bacteria, and are used to prevent and treat infectious diseases.

Fireweed normalizes blood pressure, it is recommended for diseases of the gallbladder and spleen. A powerful anti-inflammatory agent, it helps with urinary tract infections.

Ivan tea contains a lot of protein, which is easily absorbed by the body and provides energy. Therefore, hunters, fishermen, lumberjacks love to brew it in nature, who spend a lot of energy on walking and various movements.

Its anti-inflammatory and enveloping properties can bring relief from gastritis, colitis, stomach ulcers. The people have long known the sedative and even hypnotic properties of this plant. Ivan tea reduces anxiety and depression.

It is believed that the whole aerial part of the plant is useful in Ivan tea, but most often people collect leaves and flowers. The leaves of the narrow-leaved fireweed, justifying the name, are elongated - up to 12 cm, and the width is much less - 1-2 cm. They sit directly on the stem, therefore, when harvesting, they can be lowered from the plant with just one hand movement from top to bottom. Light pink flowers from the apical conical brush have to be pinched off with your fingers.

It is not difficult to harvest raw fireweed, because this plant is tall, often reaching one and a half to two meters, a person can easily hide in its thickets, and standing at full height. You just need to remember that it is advisable to collect raw materials in dry weather, and away from roads and city enterprises. Experts recommend harvesting the leaves after flowering begins, and flowers during flowering.

Harvested leaves will only be useful if you prepare them correctly. Of course, you can, as many people do, simply dry the collected leaves and flowers in a ventilated room, and then store them in a closed glass container.

Fireweed tea

But real ivan tea, which was appreciated by Russians and foreigners, is obtained by performing the fermentation process, as is done with Indian, Chinese and other types of tea. Therefore, the collected leaves of narrow-leaved fireweed need to be washed after harvesting (when harvesting, choose bright, juicy leaves without spots and lesions) and put in the shade on a clean dry cloth with a layer of 3-4 cm. During the day they must be regularly agitated so that they dry out and wither a little, but did not dry out and did not crumble during further processing.

After that, you can proceed to the most important stage of making tea from fireweed - fermentation.

To do this, the leaves are rubbed tightly with two palms until the juice comes out. Then one portion of the rolled leaves is placed in a basket and the next portion of the leaves is taken. When all the leaves are prepared in this way, they are covered with a damp towel and left in a dark place for 10-12 hours. By this time, the raw materials should already emit a fruity aroma, similar to a pear.

And the last process is raw material drying. It is laid out in a thin layer on a baking sheet, placed in an oven heated to 100 ° C and kept there until the tea acquires a characteristic color - from light to dark brown. The oven should be ajar at all times. During drying, the raw materials must be stirred regularly so that the process goes evenly. Usually tea is ready in 30-40 minutes. The resulting tea is kept in a sealed glass container.

Brew it by pouring boiling water over it, but do not boil it. For example, 2 teaspoons of such tea are poured into 500-600 ml of boiling water, the cup is closed with a lid and insisted for a quarter of an hour. It relieves fatigue, gives strength.

But most often they simply store up medicinal raw materials - the collected leaves and flowers of fireweed are dried in the usual way in a ventilated room in the shade. The ivan tea herb is kept in a sealed glass container and used to prepare medicinal decoctions and infusions.

Ivan tea infusion

To obtain it, 1 tbsp. Pour 1 cup (200 ml) boiling water over a spoonful of dry willow herb. Insist for 12-15 minutes, strain before use. Take 0.5 glasses 2 times a day - in the morning before breakfast and half an hour before dinner. Take it for headaches, migraines, insomnia, and stomach diseases.

Ivan tea broth

To obtain it, crushed leaves of willow-herb tea 2 tablespoons (15 g) must be poured with a glass of water (200 ml) and brought to a boil. Boil for another 15 minutes and then strain. The broth is taken 1 tablespoon 3-4 times a day for gastritis, colitis.

This broth can also be used to wash body ulcers, wounds and bedsores.

Contraindications

Experts recommend taking infusions and teas of fireweed no longer than a month, then you need to take a break for up to two months. With a longer use of them, disturbances in the functioning of the stomach, liver and intestines are possible.

With caution, it is necessary to use decoctions and infusions of ivan tea with increased blood coagulability, thrombosis and thrombophlebitis. In general, it will not be superfluous if you consult a doctor before using drugs according to folk recipes.

E. Valentinov

Photo by Olga Rubtsova