Grass shepherd’s bag is an annual plant belonging to the cabbage family. It has other names: buckwheat, heart grass, girchak, milkman. The plant has an erect stem with small leaves and white-yellow flowers. Asia is considered the birthplace of the shepherd’s bag, but this plant is found throughout Russia.
The plant got its name because of its special appearance: its fruits are very similar to the bags that shepherds used to use. Grass is found on pastures, along roads. It has been used in folk medicine since ancient times: even in ancient Greece, a shepherd’s bag was used as a hemostatic agent.
The plant is harvested for the winter by drying, and in the summer you can take freshly squeezed juices, which are much more effective than infusions from dry raw materials. The main thing when using the plant is to strictly observe the dosage recommended by the doctor.
The legend of the plant
This small plant has its own beautiful legend. According to her, God sent a remedy for a variety of bodily ailments to people in a shepherd’s bag. Therefore, the plant is ubiquitous as a reminder to humanity of the kindness and care of God. In Ukraine, where this grass also grows, another legend is associated with it. It is believed that many years ago there lived a shepherd named Gritsko. At a young age, he injured his leg, and the wound was constantly bleeding, the shepherd left his strength. When the young man was already completely exhausted, he put a sheet of an unfamiliar plant on the wound, and, surprisingly, the blood stopped. Soon the wound healed. The young man told everyone he knew about the miraculous power of the plant. So the grass became famous as a styptic and was named in honor of this shepherd.
What does grass look like?
A shepherd’s bag is a plant about thirty centimeters high with a straight or branching stem. At the top there is a straight brush with small flowers. Leaves are located at the root and have an oblong shape. The flowers are small, white, located on long peduncles, collected in umbrellas at the tops of stems and branches. After flowering, fruits resembling a shepherd’s bag are formed. The plant blooms from April to late autumn, and the fruits begin to form in June.
Chemical composition
Due to its special composition, grass shepherd's bag has unique properties. It contains rhamnoglucoside gissopina, bursa acid, tannins, tartaric, malic, citric acid, choline, acetylcholine, inositol, ascorbic acid, alkaloids, saponins. There are a lot of fatty oils in the seeds.
Plant properties
Healing grass shepherd's bag is widely used in folk medicine as a means of stopping bleeding. After numerous studies, scientists came to the conclusion that the properties of this plant are not inferior in medicinal qualities to other hemostatic agents, such as Canadian hydrostisis.
Scientists have proven that long-stored grass has a stabilizing effect on the blood and lowers blood pressure. It was also found that freshly squeezed juice is able to have a weak stimulating effect on hemocoagulation.
After a series of experiments, scientists found that long-stored grass is not able to exert a hemostatic effect, but, on the contrary, drastically slows down this process. But freshly picked, the first year of storage, and freshly squeezed juice have a hemostatic effect. Therefore, when applying grass to a shepherd’s bag, it is important to look at the date of packing. The fresher the grass, the more pronounced will the hemostatic effect be.
Indications for use
The properties of the grass of a shepherd’s bag allow the plant to be used in the fight against a variety of ailments. The main properties are as follows:
- Blood purifying.
- Vasodilator.
- Febrile.
- Treatment of cystitis, pyelonephritis, urolithiasis.
- Neutralization and elimination of toxins after treatment of cancer patients.
And this is far from all the useful healing properties of the grass of a shepherd’s bag.
Contraindications
You can not use the plant in violation of blood coagulation, during pregnancy, with hemorrhoids. This plant has properties that can harm in the wrong dosage. Therefore, before using this herb, you should consult your doctor.
Traditional medicine recipes
The infusion of herbs has a wound healing, anti-inflammatory effect. It is recommended for use in pulmonary, gastric, and renal bleeding. Also, this plant is recommended after abortion, with heavy menstruation.
To prepare the infusion, you need to take one teaspoon of raw materials and pour a glass of boiling water. The tool is infused for ten minutes, then filtered. Such an infusion is taken daily in two glasses. It is better to divide this dose into several doses.
The plant shows good results with problems with the gastrointestinal tract, in particular with gastritis, diarrhea, dysentery, peptic ulcer, liver pathology. The infusion is used as a choleretic agent for cholecystitis, cholelithiasis, and vomiting. It has a diuretic effect.
Given the medicinal properties of the grass of a shepherd’s bag and contraindications, the drug is recommended for rheumatism, gout.
Another tincture can be made from this plant by taking a tablespoon and steaming it with a glass of boiling water. The drug is allowed to infuse for an hour and a half, and then it is taken in a tablespoon three times a day.
A slurry is prepared from the plant for external use. With bruises and wounds, when it is necessary to quickly stop the bleeding, it is recommended to attach the pulp from the plant to the injured area.
Use in gynecology
The healing properties of the grass of a shepherd's purse in gynecology are used very widely. Extracts, tinctures and decoctions are used for atony of the uterus, for menopause, and for postpartum hemorrhages. Also, this tool is used as a hemostatic agent for meno- and metrorrhagia, after abortion. Good results are shown in pregnant women with severe vomiting, therefore, based on the herb, a drug designed for expectant mothers has been developed.
Use for other ailments
Shepherd's bag is used in the following cases:
- In folk medicine for colds.
- It helps with urinary incontinence.
- Preparations based on a shepherd’s bag are able to dilate blood vessels, thereby lowering blood pressure.
- Infusions can be instilled into the nose to prevent bleeding.
- In India, the plant is used as a contraceptive.
- Medicines from grass help get rid of worms, scurvy.
- Recommended remedy for malignant cancer, ulcers, with uterine fibroids.
- Grass has an antibacterial effect.
- The plant successfully treats erysipelas.
- The herbal bag infusions are a good antidote.
- The herb is prescribed for headaches resulting from a rush of blood to the brain.
- Infusion can wash your hair to get rid of dandruff.
- A shepherd’s bag is approved for use in diabetes and helps fight this ailment.
Doses and methods of application
If there are no contraindications, the grass shepherd’s bag can be used as follows:
- Freshly squeezed juice is used in fifty drops twice a day.
- Freshly dried grass, taken in the amount of two tablespoons, is poured with a glass of boiling water and infused for an hour. The drug is taken in half a glass three times a day.
Other dosages and methods of administration may be prescribed - they depend on the type and stage of the disease to be treated with grass.
Workpiece Features
Collect this grass is recommended in June-July. At this time, it blooms. For medicinal purposes, the entire aerial part is collected, and the roots are not used. Fees are held only in ecologically clean areas, away from roads.
The collected raw materials are dried in the shade, in a ventilated room or under a canopy. Then the dry raw materials are ground and stored in cloth bags. The shelf life of the collection is three years.
Some interesting facts
Shepherd’s bag is used as food, preparing a variety of dishes with it. This plant is recommended for those who have constant constipation, uterine bleeding, diseases of the bladder, liver. Fresh leaves of grass are used to prepare a variety of dishes in China, India, Japan. Even in France, a variety of dishes are prepared from herbs, which in this country are considered a real delicacy.
To prepare a light salad, you need to take one hundred grams of fresh leaves and the same amount of tomatoes and cucumbers. Everything is cut, seasoned with sour cream, and decorated with a boiled egg on top. You can cook okroshka using this herb. To do this, the leaves are finely chopped and poured with kvass or whey. Grated radish, potatoes, cucumber, egg, green onions are added there. Everything is seasoned with sour cream.
In countries where shepherd’s bag is used for food, it is salted along with other herbs, and its seeds are also harvested for winter cultivation on the windowsill.
The plant is slightly bitter in taste, and its leaves emit a pleasant aroma. When boiled or stewed, the shepherd’s bag looks like a cabbage. Due to its taste and great benefits, the plant is specially grown on plantations of a country such as China.