Medicinal Properties Of Wild Rosemary

This dangerous medicinal marsh rosemary …

“Somewhere on the hills, wild rosemary is blooming, pines are piercing the sky …” - for many people, and not only townspeople, knowledge about this plant is limited only to these lines from a once popular song. Honestly, for a long time and I did not know this plant.

Until the first meeting in the swamp happened. Relatives invited to hike for cranberries. There were about ten of us. The road was not easy. The familiar state farm driver threw everyone in the back of the van to the edge of the forest.

Then one of the company, a connoisseur of this swamp, took us for a long time to the cranberry places. We climbed over logs across a small river with brown peaty water, then walked for a long time through the wet forest parallel to this river.

And now, under the boots, the moss began to bend, through which the water appeared. The trees ended, but unfamiliar plants started - a shrub a little more than a meter high with numerous oblong leaves. A strong, intoxicating smell emanated from the bushes.

Soon reddish threads of cranberry stalks with red berries appeared on the hummocks. We started collecting them near the fragrant bushes. I got carried away, as picking cranberries was also unfamiliar to me. After half an hour, my head suddenly started to hurt. The relatives said that it was I who had breathed in the scent of wild rosemary, I had to immediately go further, deep into the swamp, where this bush no longer grew. We have moved to a new location. After a while, the pain passed. This is how I got to know the wild rosemary and immediately learned that one should be careful with it. The relatives explained that one must beware, but one must also know that skilled people treat them with various diseases. × Gardener's handbook Plant nurseries Stores of goods for summer cottages Landscape design studios

Features of culture

So what is marsh rosemary - an enemy or a friend of man? Let's try to figure it out.

Ledum is an evergreen shrub belonging to the Heather family, just like the rhododendron. For a long time, scientists and ledum were attributed to rhododendrons, but then the genus Ledum was restored. It contains only a few species, of which the marsh rosemary is the most famous.

Marsh Ledum (Ledum palustre - lat.) Got its Russian name from the place of its main growth - marshland - in raised bogs. And its botanical name comes from the Greek word Le'dum, which means "incense". It is also found in coniferous forests, undergrowth and wooded peat bogs. In our country, wild rosemary is widespread in the Far East, in Eastern Siberia. It is found in swamps and forests of the North-West region, in neighboring Belarus.

It is a shrub up to 120 cm high and a bush with a diameter of up to a meter with a powerful root system extending to a depth of 40 cm, it has numerous branches covered with long alternate leaves, slightly curved inward. They are smooth bright green above, rough below. Numerous white flowers up to 1 cm in diameter are collected in 15-25 pieces in umbrellas. The wild rosemary blooms in May-June. Flowers, leaves and stems of this plant give off a strong odor.

Medicinal properties of wild rosemary

All useful and harmful properties of wild rosemary are determined by the substances that make up the flowers, leaves, stems and roots of this plant. Usually, for medicinal purposes, leaves and young stems of marsh rosemary are harvested.

For example, the leaves contain the glycoside arbutin, which is an antiseptic and can relieve inflammation. At the same time, experts warn that this glycoside can also act as a carcinogen.

They also contain tannins, which have astringent, antimicrobial and hemostatic properties.

The leaves and stem of rosemary contains essential oil. This is precisely the presence of volatile substances - palustrol, iceol, cymene and others that make up this oil, and explains the strong balsamic aroma emanating from the bush in the swamps, as well as its bitter-burning taste. Experts confirm that the headache I had while picking cranberries was not accidental. This affected the effect of the rosemary scent - the evaporation of its essential oil. They argue that this effect can also cause severe dizziness. Beekeepers need to remember: if during the flowering of wild rosemary the bees actively work on its flowers, collecting nectar, then wild rosemary honey can turn out, which is dangerous for people, up to poisoning.

In addition to the substances mentioned above, flavonoids (substances with high activity that affect the production of enzymes and other functions in the body), organic acids, gum, vitamins and resinous substances are found in marsh rosemary.

Due to the presence of essential oil and other substances, wild rosemary in folk and traditional medicine is used in various preparations as an expectorant, enveloping, antitussive agent. For example, the harvested leaves of wild rosemary in the form of infusions and in herbal collections are used for diseases of the respiratory system, as well as a diuretic, antiseptic and disinfectant.

Anyone who decides to take up the preparation of medicinal raw materials for wild rosemary should be careful, given the impact of its intoxicating aroma. You cannot stay in the thickets of this plant for a long time, you should not go to the swamp alone. The flowers of wild rosemary are harvested during flowering in May-June, and the collection of leaves, more precisely, young non-lignified tops of stems with leaves, is better to postpone for a time after flowering. The aroma will then be slightly weaker. And to dry the raw materials of wild rosemary, like all other medicinal plants, you need to under a canopy, in a ventilated room, but not in a residential one!

And in pharmacies you can find dried wild rosemary raw materials, packaged in packs of 100 grams. It can be used for the preparation of infusions, tinctures and decoctions.

The pharmaceutical industry also produces Ledin tablets on the basis of wild rosemary, which are recommended for the treatment of laryngitis, tracheitis, bronchitis, bronchopneumonia, pneumonia, tuberculosis, accompanied by frequent dry cough. In the presence of sputum, they are recommended to be taken together with expectorants. Manufacturers note that allergic reactions are possible.

Infusion of wild rosemary

Two tablespoons of crushed raw materials are poured into an enamel bowl and poured into a glass (200 ml) of boiling water, covered with a lid and placed in a water bath for 15 minutes. Then it is cooled at room temperature for about an hour and filtered. The volume of the liquid is brought to the original (200 ml) by adding cold boiled water. Store the finished infusion in the refrigerator for no more than two days.

Take it warmed 2-3 times a day, a quarter of a glass after meals as an expectorant and bactericidal agent for chronic bronchitis and other pulmonary diseases accompanied by cough.

Wild rosemary decoction

One teaspoon of crushed raw marsh rosemary should be poured with 1 glass of water and put on the stove. After boiling water, keep on fire for one minute. After that, remove the broth from the stove and leave for half an hour, then strain it. Take a decoction for coughs, colds, bronchitis, 1 tablespoon three times a day after meals.

Ledum tincture on alcohol

Pour wild rosemary raw materials in a ratio of 1: 5 and leave to infuse in a warm dark place for 2-3 days. The resulting tincture is used for rubbing with rheumatism, radiculitis, arthritis.

Contraindications

Since wild rosemary is a poisonous plant, then when using it, you must strictly observe the intake rates specified in the recipes. In case of an overdose, excitation is possible, and in severe cases, depression of the central nervous system. Poisoning symptoms - headache, dizziness, increased excitability.

The rosemary preparations should not be taken by pregnant and lactating women, as well as by internal bleeding.

Before you consider taking any medications with rosemary, consult your doctor. It is never superfluous.

E. Valentinov

Photo by Olga Rubtsova