Shepherd's purse: medicine and vegetable from under the fence

Ordinary shepherd's bag, or shepherd's handbag (Capsella bursa-pastoris) - herbaceous plant from the cabbage family.

This is a well-known grass with a height of 20-40 cm, which gardeners usually mercilessly weed out and discarded. It grows and blooms in vegetable gardens, wastelands, in gardens and flower gardens almost all summer and early autumn.

It has a single erect simple or slightly branched stem, a basal rosette of leaves and rare leaves sitting directly on the stem.

The shepherd's purse begins to bloom with small white flowers at the end of April, and in early June, starting from the bottom of the stem, numerous pods are formed on the plant, having a heart-shaped, purse-like shape (hence the name of the herb). Blooms and bears fruit all summer.

Medicinal raw materials

The aerial part of the plant is usually used as a medicinal raw material. It is recommended to cut a flowering shepherd's bag in dry weather, when the dew dries up. You can simply cut off the stems, or you can cut off the root of a weeded plant.

The grass of a shepherd's purse is dried under a canopy or in a ventilated attic, spreading it out in a 5–7 cm layer on paper or cloth. The plant usually dries up in a week, the "readiness" is judged by the fragility of the stems. Dried raw materials can be stored for up to three years.

Application

The herb of shepherd's purse has a rich chemical composition and has, above all, a very strong hemostatic effect in internal bleeding and is used primarily in gynecology. It also has a choleretic, diuretic and anti-inflammatory effect, normalizes metabolism. Shepherd's purse plays an important role in Tibetan and Chinese medicine.

For cooking infusion shepherd's purse needs 1 tbsp. pour a spoonful of chopped herbs with 1 glass of boiling water, insist, wrapped in a warm place for 1 hour, drain. Take 0.25 glasses 3 times a day.

For cooking extract the infusion of shepherd's purse is evaporated to a third of the volume and take it 1 dessert or tablespoon 3 times a day.

Fresh Juice Shepherd's purse take 30-40 drops 3 times a day for gastrointestinal disorders. In folk medicine, it is recommended to drink it to children 25-30 drops 3 times a day for bedwetting.

The main area of application for shepherd's purse is internal bleeding. For renal, nasal and gynecological bleeding, a collection consisting of equal shares of herb of shepherd's purse and herb of horsetail is used.

For cooking infusion you need 1 tbsp. pour a spoonful of chopped herbs with 1 glass of boiling water and insist in a warm place for 1 hour or pour 1 glass of cold boiled water and leave for 8 hours. Take 2 tbsp. spoons 4-5 times a day.

In case of gastrointestinal and gynecological bleeding, herbalists recommend a collection consisting of 3 hours of shepherd's purse herb, 3 hours of yarrow herb, 3 hours of Potentilla erectus rhizomes, 1 hour of oak bark. To prepare the broth, you need 1 tbsp. pour a spoonful of the chopped mixture with 1 cup of boiling water, boil in a sealed container in a water bath for 30 minutes, strain. Take 1 glass 2 times a day.

For heavy periods, herbalists recommend collecting shepherd's purse, mistletoe herb, and knotweed herb from equal parts. To prepare the infusion, you need 1 tbsp. pour a spoonful of the crushed mixture with 1 glass of boiling water, insist in a warm place for 1 hour, strain. Take 1 glass in the morning and in the evening during the critical period.

In these cases, it helps well. wine infusion collectionconsisting of equal parts shepherd's purse herb, blackberry leaves and white mistletoe herb. To prepare it, you need 3 tbsp. Pour 0.5 liters of dry white wine into a spoonful of chopped mixture, insist in a warm place for 8 hours, bring to a boil, cool, strain. Take 0.25-0.5 glasses 3 times a day with water.

For rheumatism and sore joints, herbalists recommend taking 40 drops of shepherd's purse juice 3 times a day with water.

For stones in the kidneys, ureters and bladder, a complex collection is used, consisting of 2 hours of shepherd's purse herb, 4 hours of parsley fruits, 3 hours of bearberry leaves, 3 hours of steel root, 3 hours of dandelion root, 3 hours of fruits juniper, 2 hours of anise fruit, 2 hours of lovage root.

To prepare the infusion, 1 tbsp. pour a spoonful of chopped collection with 1 glass of cold water, leave for 7-8 hours, bring to a boil and cook in a water bath for 15 minutes, drain. Take 0.25 glasses 4 times a day.

In Bulgarian herbalists, it is part of the diuretic collection, consisting of 2 hours of shepherd's purse, 2 hours of anise fruits, 4 hours of parsley herb, 3 hours of juniper fruit, 3 hours of dandelion root, 3 hours of steel root. To prepare the infusion, you need 2 tbsp. pour spoons of the collection with 1 glass of boiling water, leave for 30 minutes, drain. Take 0.5 cups 3 times a day warm.

And there is one more advantage of a shepherd's bag. Its juice neutralizes medicinal substances accumulated in the body of a chronic patient. To cleanse this harmful ballast, the juice of a shepherd's purse is taken in the usual dose.

Remember! Preparations from shepherd's purse should not be taken by pregnant women and in acute inflammatory diseases of the kidneys and urinary tract.

Shepherd's purse as a vegetable plant

And now about something completely different. The leaves of this young plant in many countries of the world are widely used in spring for making soups, borscht, salads and as a filling for pies.

In China, shepherd's purse is bred as an unpretentious vegetable plant on poor waste land, various varieties of this plant have been bred. Even one of the names of this plant in English - Chinese cress - means Chinese watercress.

In Japan and India, shepherd's purse leaves are stewed with meat and added to broths. Old greens give broths their nutritional value and flavor. Mashed potatoes are made from boiled leaves. Dried and crushed leaves add flavor to meat and fish dishes.

In the Caucasus, immediately after the snow melts, young leaves are collected, from which salads are prepared, used in broths as spinach and for vinaigrette. In France, the delicate greens of this plant are an indispensable component of spicy salads. And ground shepherd's purse seeds can be used instead of mustard.