Carrots are one of the most consumed vegetables on our table, along with cabbage and beets. But besides nutritional value, it has a lot of properties useful for our health. In the old days, it was considered a dwarf delicacy. There was a belief: if you take a bowl of steamed carrots to the forest in the evening, the gnomes will eat it at night and pay generously for your favorite food, and in the morning you will find an ingot of gold at this place. Gullible people carried bowls of carrots into the forest, but, alas, no gold appeared.
But let's start in order.
Wild Cinderella and the cultured aristocrat
Sowing carrot(DaucuscarotaL.) originally from Europe. This is a biennial herb from the family of celery (in the old way - Umbrella) with a thick, conically elongated, although now varieties with a cylindrical and even rounded root crop have been bred. The root vegetable of carrots is formed directly from the root, therefore, it cannot be planted and dived like beets. In this case, the tip of the main root is cut off and instead of the expected root crop, gnarled freaks are obtained. And for the same reason, fresh manure cannot be applied under the carrots - increased doses of nitrogen cause the root tip to die off and the root crop turns out to be "horny".
Apparently, the carrot we are used to comes from the biennial wild carrot that was well known to the Germans, Romans and Greeks. For example, Pliny called her "Pastinaca gallica", which means Gallic parsnip. And Dioscorides recommended seeds for urinary retention, as well as for amenorrhea. He wrote that they use wild carrots and "a root that even goes well with wine." The ancient Greek name for carrots - "davkos", derivatives of which are used here and now (crush, devki), formed the basis of the modern botanical name.
In Crete, wild carrots have long been cultivated, in those days it was considered a fruit and a delicacy for children, but as a vegetable root crop, it begins its march around the world only since the Middle Ages. In the writings of Albert Magnus (1193-1280), this plant takes pride of place. In the herbalists of the 16th-17th centuries, carrot seeds are recommended as an effective remedy for stones in the kidneys and bladder, during obstetrics, and the juice of root crops is recommended for poisoning.
Wild carrots are found quite widely from Moscow to the southern outskirts of the European part. It grows along the edges of fields, roadsides, orchards, vegetable gardens, fallow lands, dry meadows, among shrubs. It is especially abundant in the Krasnodar Territory and in the North Caucasus. If you decide to grow carrot seeds on your site, then you will have to climb all the neighborhoods within a radius of 100-300 m and destroy all the savages, otherwise there will be few root crops from such seeds.
Outwardly, wild and cultivated plants differ little. In the first year, a rosette of double- and four-pinnately dissected leaves is formed. In the second year, a longitudinally grooved, simple or branched stem up to 1 m high is formed in the upper part. The flowers are white or yellowish, collected in dense complex umbrellas. Fruits are elliptical, consist of two semi-fruits with 4 ribs, provided with long thorns. Carrots bloom in June-July, fruits ripen in August-September.
Reading such a long botanical description, the reader is probably perplexed - everyone knows the carrot. But few people know that the fruits of wild carrots are a valuable medicinal raw material, which was known 4 thousand years ago and now, unfortunately, is rarely used in phytotherapeutic practice for diseases of the urinary tract, but we will talk about this in more detail. Now there is renewed interest in wild carrots, at home its tender leaves are harvested for the preparation of pie fillings along with other herbs or simply boiled.Coumarins, sterols, vitamins ...
It should be noted right away that root crops and seeds are used for medicinal purposes in carrots, but they are used in different cases, and their chemical composition is completely different.
Root crops contain a large amount of fiber, up to 15.5% sugars, nitrogenous substances (1.1%), a small amount of essential and fatty oils, vitamins B1,V2,V6, V12, D, E, K, PP (0.4 mg%), ascorbic acid (up to 0.5 mg%), pantothenic acid (up to 0.15 mg%). Special mention should be made of carotene, provitamin A, which is an excellent antioxidant and prevents the formation of free radicals that cause the development of many diseases, such as atherosclerosis, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, cataracts. In root crops it contains 4-9.4 mg%. The more the root vegetable is colored, the more carotenoids it contains. To meet the daily requirement of vitamin A, it is enough to eat only one medium carrot per day, but always with something fatty, such as sour cream, vegetable or butter. This promotes the efficient absorption of carotenoids in the body. In addition, these compounds, which have a bright orange color, can serve as an excellent food coloring for coloring noodle dough, butter, margarine. Potassium, iron, cobalt, copper, phosphorus, iodine were found from mineral salts in root crops.
Carrot fruits contain organic acids (formic, acetic, butyric), sterols, aromatic compounds, coumarins psoralen, bergapten, xanthoxin (up to 0.8%), flavonoids (luteolin, apigenin, diosmetin, quercetin), fatty oil (11-50% ), up to 2.9% essential oil. 60% of the essential oil consists of geraniol, according to German researchers, it contains quite large amounts of alcohol carotol, which is able to stimulate cell regeneration and restore the liver in degenerative diseases. In addition, carrot essential oil, when added to creams and lotions, can revitalize pale and dry skin.
Harvest the fruits before they are fully ripe and begin to crumble. The stems are cut, tied into sheaves and dried under a canopy with good ventilation. Then the fruits are threshed and cleaned on sieves. Well, you don't have to talk about harvesting root crops.
Carrot therapy
May readers forgive me for such a peculiar term, but carrots are used in folk medicine for a wide range of diseases.
First of all, this is a wonderful vitamin plant, which in salads will support a weakening body well during the winter. It is used for hypo- and avitaminosis, loss of strength, anemia. This is not the last product in the diet of hypertensive patients. In this case, it is recommended to mix a glass of carrot and beet juice, 100 g of cranberry juice, 200 g of honey and 100 ml of alcohol. Insist for three days in a dark place and take a tablespoon 3 times a day. Carrot juice is also useful after a myocardial infarction, as it helps to improve the state of blood vessels.
Carrot juice is recommended to be included in the diet of pregnant and lactating women, as well as children. It helps prevent anemia and prolongs the life of red blood cells.
Fresh carrots are of great importance in case of vision disorders associated with a lack of vitamin A, the so-called "night blindness".
Popularly, carrots are used as a mild laxative for constipation and hemorrhoids. Freshly squeezed juice with pulp, which is taken 150-200 ml on an empty stomach, has a similar effect. In this case, small children are given a tablespoon each morning and evening. Sometimes for hemorrhoids, an infusion of carrot tops is recommended as a laxative.
Juice mixed with honey is used for colds and hoarseness. French scientists have obtained positive results both in experiments on animals and in the clinic, when using carrot juice for pulmonary tuberculosis. Substances that have a beneficial effect on the condition of patients with diabetes have been isolated from root crops.
Juice is often recommended as an aid for bladder stones and metabolic arthritis. To do this, for several months, together with other plants of the corresponding action, take 3-4 times a day for a tablespoon. However, the fruits of wild carrots are considered more effective in this case. They are part of the drug "Urolesan", which has an antispasmodic effect and promotes the discharge of roots from the ureters, and also reduces inflammation in the urinary tract. Studies have shown that carrot preparations not only increase the volume of urine excreted, but also the amount of uric acid in it. The infusion is prepared from 3 tablespoons of seeds and 3 glasses of boiling water. According to some authors, it is better to insist in a thermos for several hours. After that, the infusion is filtered and taken 3 / 4-1 glass 3 times a day. For kidney stones, as well as as a carminative and laxative, seed powder is sometimes recommended, which is taken 1 g 3 times a day.
In a mixture with other plants, the fruits of wild carrots are used for impotence and prostatitis.
Externally grated carrot roots or juice treated frostbite, purulent wounds, ulcers and burns. And they have been using medicinal cosmetics for a long time carrot masks with dry skin. To prepare the mask, grate two medium carrots, mix the resulting gruel with egg yolk and apply a thick layer on the face for 20-25 minutes. After that, the mask is washed off with warm water. It is advisable to repeat the procedure 1-2 times a week.
