The Healing Properties Of The Knotweed Bird Or Knotweed

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

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In my childhood, I loved to lie on the grass in the summer and watch the snow-white clouds lazily crawling across the sky, trying to make out some figures among them: the head of a fairy-tale hero, a dragon or mountain peaks.

From time to time he was distracted, watching the flying birds. And then I noticed that sometimes small birds sat on the path that passed next to the meadow, and pecked something there in the thickets of grass with small leaves that spread along its edges.

Later I saw that this grass was pecked by the village chickens released into the street. I didn't know what the name of this herb was, but I remembered that its leaves tasted sweet, and walking on it barefoot was very pleasant, because it tickled its legs with its flexible branches.

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That this grass is a bird's mountaineer, I learned much later. Now I understand that the birds ate either its sweet leaves or the seeds ripe after flowering. And, perhaps, they were even treated with these leaves: now I also know that the bird's mountaineer is a very useful medicinal plant and has long been used in folk medicine.

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Then I thought that the plant crawling along the roads and paths is a perennial, because again and again it revived in the spring in the same places where it grew last summer. It turned out that it is annual, just very prolific and creepy - it scatters its seeds and sprouts very quickly - quickly and actively - and also quickly restores damaged shoots. This determines its main popular name - knotweed.

In general, the bird knotweed plant has a lot of other popular names - the already named name is most often used - knotweed, it is often also called bird buckwheat, grass-ant, in different areas there are also names.

Highlander bird (Polygonum aviculare) is an annual herb that creeps on the ground, belonging to the Buckwheat family. Its stems are highly branched, on poor soil, the twigs rise to a height of 10 cm, but on rich soils, especially with good moisture, knotweed stems rise vertically up to half a meter or more, on them juicy, bright leaves. They are elliptical, on poor soils they are not very large, up to 1 cm, and on rich soils they can reach a length of several centimeters. Small white-green flowers are placed in bunches in the axils of the leaves. Knotweed begins to bloom in spring and continues until autumn.

You can meet this plant everywhere, but more often it catches your eye near roads and paths (why in some areas it is even called plantain), along the banks of streams and rivers, in wastelands, near dwellings. In the city, he sometimes releases his stems even on concrete or asphalt surfaces.

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Medicinal properties of knotweed

Of course, no one will recommend harvesting medicinal raw materials on the asphalt or along noisy roads - the grass of the highlander bird. This should be done away from polluting enterprises, smoky and dusty roads, preferably along forest and field paths and roads, on the edges and banks of streams.

Experts recommend harvesting knotweed during flowering in dry weather. After flowering, the stems of the plant become hard. The harvested grass is dried in a ventilated area or under awnings, spreading it on a clean cloth in a thin layer. Finished raw materials can be stored for up to three years.

The medicinal properties of knotweed were noticed by the people for a long time and used them as a hemostatic, anti-inflammatory, diuretic, antihelminthic agent. Preparations from this plant accelerate wound healing, increase immunity, blood clotting rate, and moderately lower blood pressure.

Research by scientists has shown that the knotweed plant contains soluble silicic acid compounds that prevent the formation of kidney stones.

It turned out that in addition to silicic acid, this herb also contains other useful substances - ascorbic acid, flavonoids, carotene, bitterness, mucus, tannins and essential oils, which determine its medicinal properties.

In folk medicine, this herb in the form of infusions and decoctions is used for chronic diseases of the urinary tract. Like St. John's wort, knotweed helps with mineral metabolism disorders. It is widely used in kidney diseases (urolithiasis) - it helps to improve kidney function, removes excess salts, with stones in the gallbladder, liver diseases, stomach catarrh, diseases of the pancreas, diarrhea and dysentery, as an astringent. The herb is part of the blood purification tea.

Outwardly, knotweed broth is used to treat long non-healing wounds, ulcers, and abscesses.

How do traditional healers prepare their remedies?

Infusion of knotweed

It is used to treat kidney stones because it helps reduce the size of kidney stones. They are affected by silicic acid, which is part of the herb. She gradually destroys them. To do this, pour 3 tablespoons of dry herb with 1 cup of boiling water (200 ml), cover the container with a lid and put it in a water bath for 15 minutes. Then cool the resulting infusion for an hour and strain. Bring the volume to the original with cold boiled water.

Take a heated infusion three times a day for 1/3 cup.

For the treatment of gastritis, stomach ulcers and duodenal ulcers, hemorrhoidal bleeding, they also prepare their own infusion.

To do this, three tablespoons of herbs are placed in an enamel container and poured into a glass of boiling water (200 ml). The liquid is heated in a water bath for a quarter of an hour, and then insisted for 45 minutes. Then the infusion is filtered and the volume is brought to the original. Take 1/3 cup infusion three times a day 15-20 minutes before meals.

Highlander herb decoction

The broth is taken with general weakness to strengthen the body.

It is prepared from 10 g of dry knotweed herb, which is poured with two glasses of water (400 ml) and heated for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath. The resulting broth is infused for 10 minutes, filtered and drunk like tea.

Knotweed broth is also used for external use. Liquid in the form of compresses or tampons is applied to non-healing wounds, ulcers, tumors, abscesses, bruises, boils.

The mountaineer bird has some contraindications. Its preparations should not be taken by pregnant women, as well as people with increased blood clotting, with thrombosis, thrombophlebitis, as well as those who have suffered a heart attack or stroke. Decoctions and infusions of knotweed are not recommended also for exacerbations of urolithiasis and kidney stones and with inflammation of the bladder. In general, it will not be superfluous if you consult a doctor before using drugs according to folk recipes.

E. Valentinov