 |
Three-leaf watch, water shamrock or trifol (Menyanthestrifoliata L.) is a perennial herb from the Shift family (in old sources - Gentian) with a thick, creeping rhizome long at the nodes. Leaves on long (up to 20 cm) petioles, vaginal, with a trifoliate plate. The peduncle is leafless, 30 (up to 60) cm high. The flowers are pale pink, collected in an oblong raceme at the apex of the flower-bearing stem. The fruit is a spherical capsule with large seeds. It blooms in May and the first half of June, when the leaves are still practically absent, the fruits ripen in July-August.
It grows along the low banks of rivers and lakes, along low-lying peat bogs, in ditches; often forms dense thickets. The plant got its name for the fact that, as it were, it warns of the presence of water or swamp ahead. The watch is widespread throughout the European part of Russia, in Western Siberia and in the Far East, except for the extreme south, the Lower Volga region. It grows on peat soils of lowland and transitional bogs, as well as in lowlands where moisture stagnates or near groundwater. On the low-lying banks of rivers and lakes, as well as on the edge of swamps, it can form large thickets.
Growing in a personal plot
On the site, you can place a watch along with calamus, marsh cinquefoil at the edge of a pond or in a swampy place of the site. The plant looks very decorative in spring, during the flowering period.
Planting material is best taken from nature. To do this, in August, when the leaves are clearly visible, and the fruits are already ripe, and there is little chance of confusing the watch with other plants, they take pieces of rhizomes with apical shoots. They are planted in a peat-sand mixture. Additionally, you can add chopped sphagnum, which contributes to more efficient moisture retention. When caring for plants, you should pay attention to the fact that almost constantly the soil is well saturated with water.
The plant is quite popular and is known for its very bitter taste.
 |
Medicinal use
Leaves are collected as a medicinal raw material in summer, when they reach their maximum size, in dry sunny weather, leaving a petiole of no more than 3 cm. Young and apical leaves are not harvested, as they turn black when dried. Leaves are dried in the shade in a well-ventilated room, and can be dried in a dryer at temperatures up to 50 ° C.
The leaves contain the glycoside menianthin, and meliatin, the flavonoid glycosides rutin and hyperoside, tannins (about 3%), a small amount of the bitter alkaloid gentianine, as well as fatty acids (oleanolic, palmitic, linoleic), ascorbic acid, choline. The list of micro- and macroelements contained in watch leaves is quite extensive: potassium (15.5%), calcium (6.5%), magnesium (3.1%), iron (0.2%), manganese (218 μg / g) ), zinc (33.1 μg / g), selenium (0.16 μg / g), boron (96 μg / g), iodine (0.15 μg / g), etc.
The roots contain the bitterness of melianthin, tannins, inulin and pectins.
The main active ingredients of the plant are bitterness, which, irritating the taste buds of the mouth and tongue, reflexively increase the secretion of gastric juice, stimulate appetite and improve digestion. Watching helps to increase intestinal motility. The watch's preparations also have anti-inflammatory and antipyretic effects.
The widely known data of scientific medicine, which uses the watch mainly as bitterness with a low acidity of the stomach, find their full correspondence in the practice of its application in folk life. Apply infusion of leaves watch, approximately 5.0-10.0 g of raw materials per 1 glass of boiling water. Insist in an enamel bowl, wrapped in a blanket or covered with a pillow, for 2-3 hours.
Due to the fact that the watch noticeably improves the general tone of the patient, traditional medicine believes that it is useful for pulmonary tuberculosis.Indeed, many phytotherapists note that patients who have been taking the watch infusion for a long time felt much better, even in the presence of caverns, which is associated both with a more active intake of nutrients and vitamins into the body, and with the presence of a number of macro- and microelements in the watch. ...
Instead of an aqueous tincture, it is sometimes also taken leaf powder watch in a tissue paper at a dose of 1.0-2.0 g per dose, but not more than 6 g per day. This is due to the fact that the infusion has a very bitter taste and it is rather unpleasant to drink it constantly and in large quantities.
 |
Given the bitter taste, you can cook watch tincture on vodka. To do this, take 100 g of vodka for 10 g of raw materials, insist for 2 weeks in a dark place, filter and take 20-30 drops before meals on a piece of sugar or with a little water.
Like any very bitter plant, the watch in combination with other anthelmintic plants is effective against helminthiasis.
In recent years, the watch has attracted interest as a selenium accumulator. It is included in fees for atherosclerosis, for senile circulatory disorders, general age-related weakness.
Outwardly, together with plants containing tannins, the watch is used for rinsing with periodontal disease. A concentrated broth of the watch is applied for poorly healing wounds, as well as for trophic ulcers.
Outwardly, the infusion from the watch, together with chamomile, is used for enemas after bowel movements, for cleansing the rectum in diseases with metabolic disorders; with chronic constipation, an enema from the watch's infusion promotes maximum bowel emptying.
In homeopathy, the watch is used for headaches, inflammation of the trigeminal nerve and rheumatism.
Sometimes rhizomes are also used in folk medicine. In particular, Tibetan medicine recommends rhizomes for chronic gastroenteritis.
In nature, the rhizomes of the watch are eaten by beavers, moose and muskrats. In veterinary medicine, the infusion is used externally for washing wounds and ulcers in pets.
