This amazing plant is used for a wide variety of ailments. Celandine in traditional medicine is used for skin diseases, liver dysfunctions, flu, gout and rheumatism. It has the ability to slow down the division of cancer cells, which is why it is widely used to treat oncology of the skin and internal organs. Like other popular medicinal herbs, celandine has many names.
What is called celandine in the people
The scientific name of the plant is large celandine. Its most popular name is celandine, chistoplot - grass gained from the ability to treat skin diseases: rash, scrofula, lichen, acne and acne, eczema and even skin tuberculosis.
For the ability to get rid of warts, the plant is sometimes called a wart, and for helping with unexplained violations in the liver, it is called jaundice. Another name - yellow milkweed or red milkweed - received celandine in folk medicine because of the characteristic milky juice of a dark orange or orange-red color. The juice of the plant was replaced by iodine for our ancestors, it was used to lubricate wounds, disinfect dishes for milk and fumigate cattle from death. Its use in some eye diseases explains the name "seznik".
Other names of the plant are yellow grass, crest, cow grass, golden grass, bloodsucker, dog soap, witch grass, yellow euphorbia, swallow grass. By the way, the Latin name for celandine (Chelidonium majus L.) is translated as "swallow". The plant blooms precisely during the arrival of the first swallows, and withers and dries during their departure.
Plant characteristics
Celandine is a perennial. This is a herbaceous plant with bright yellow or orange milky juice. Belongs to the poppy family. The leaves are alternate, pinnate, with large pairs of leaves set aside. Above they are painted green, and below the surface is bluish. Large enough, 15-20 cm long, 5-10 cm wide. Flowers on long pedicels, bright, yellow. They have four rounded petals and many stamens. Fruits - thin pods with two leaves, their length is about 5 cm. Seeds are arranged in two rows. They are dark in color and ovoid in shape.
Plant height from 30 to 100 cm. The stem is erect, hollow, covered with small hairs, moderately branching.
The range of grass covers almost the entire European part of the former Soviet Union, Siberia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Celandine prefers humus-rich land. Widely distributed in the forest zone, grows in abundance in gardens, shrubs and ravines, near houses. Settled in the steppe zone on the slopes and along the banks of the rivers.
Celandine blooms in late May and blooms until September. The fruits ripen from July to September. For medicinal purposes, the whole plant is used as a whole: stems, flowers, leaves, celandine juice and roots. The roots of celandine are rod, branched, with a short rhizome. Outside they have brown-red color, inside - yellow.
The grass is harvested at the time of flowering, in June - July, and the roots - in the fall. Dried in the shade, the raw materials are stored for three years in cardboard boxes or bags of thick paper. The room should be dry, cool and well ventilated.
The chemical composition of celandine
All parts of the plant contain alkaloids (roots - 1.90-4.14%, grass - up to 1.87%), chelidonin and its derivatives, sanguinorin, protopin, berberine, helidamine, helirubin, spartien and a number of other potent substances.
Be careful! Celandine is a poisonous plant. All parts are dangerous, especially the roots.
The celandine also contains organic acids (chelidonic, malic, succinic, citric), vitamins A and C, essential oil, flavonoids and phytoncides.
Due to such a complex composition, celandine in folk medicine is used to combat malignant tumors and in the treatment of liver diseases of unknown etiology.
Beneficial features
Celandine extract has many wonderful properties.
- Slows the growth of malignant neoplasms.
- It has a pronounced soothing and analgesic effect.
- Local anesthetic properties.
- Removes warts, tongs and corns.
- Relieves cramps and spasms of smooth muscles, has a bradycardic and hypotensive effect.
- Heals wounds.
- Enhances urination.
- It has an irritating and choleretic effect.
- Used as a laxative
- It has antimicrobial and insecticidal effects.
The plant contains many alkaloids, some of which have a contradictory effect. Therefore, before using celandine, be sure to read the contraindications.
Contraindications
Caution is required to take celandine by mouth. Since the plant is poisonous, this method of treatment requires medical supervision. With an overdose or prolonged use, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, depression of the respiratory center up to a fatal outcome are possible.
Also, celandine can cause irritation of the stomach and intestines, lower blood pressure and, in rare cases, provoke loss of consciousness or hallucinations. At the same time, severe convulsions can develop under the influence of protopine alkaloid.
Who should not use celandine? In traditional medicine, the following groups of people are not recommended to use the plant:
- During pregnancy and lactation.
- To the children.
- Patients with epilepsy.
- Persons with mental disorders.
- With bronchial asthma.
- With angina pectoris and decompensation of cardiac activity.
Pure juice is not used for wound damage to the skin - it has an irritating effect and can cause inflammation.
Celandine broth and infusion: external use
A decoction of the plant is used to lubricate the affected areas of the body and in the form of lotions for psoriasis, lichen, eczema. The crushed raw materials in an amount of 20-25 g (for dry raw materials) are placed in an enameled pan, 250 ml of water are poured and boiled for 15 minutes. Then it is cooled and filtered in a glass dish. Store the celandine broth for two days.
Also, infusion in the form of baths is used to treat eczema and dermatitis. Twenty grams of grass brew 200 ml of boiling water and insist for about half an hour. For baths, a warm infusion is used (temperature 37 ° C), the duration of taking the bath is about 15 minutes. Do daily until the signs of inflammation disappear. To treat acne and acne, wash with diluted juice twice a day. After the first application, the skin condition may worsen, but after a few days all inflammations disappear.
With extensive damage to the skin, they take clean baths. They are especially effective for furunculosis, weeping eczema and wound damage to the skin. To do this, use the roots of celandine. They are crushed and infused in cold water for two hours, then boiled for twenty minutes. Filter and add to the bath, which is taken at night. The water temperature is about 37 ° C, in total about 10 baths are included in the course of treatment.
The infusion of the plant is rubbed into the scalp to get rid of dandruff.
In the same way, you can save a dog from fleas: celandine has an insecticidal effect. After processing, the infusion must be washed off so that the animal does not lick it, otherwise poisoning is possible.
Fresh Juice
Juice and celandine extract are extracted from fresh stems and leaves. They are passed through a meat grinder and squeezed carefully. Then the juice is placed in the refrigerator for three days, filtered through cheesecloth in a glass container with a lid. For about three weeks, the juice ferments, in the lid you need to make a hole for the exit of gases. After fermentation, the resulting extract can be stored in the refrigerator until the next harvest. Before use, the juice is diluted with water in equal proportions.
Without fermentation, the juice can be diluted with alcohol (25 ml per 100 ml of juice) or vodka (50 ml per 100 ml of juice). This tincture will be stored for a long time.
Celandine juice is used to treat herpes, burns, acne and acne, for scabies and peeling, wound skin lesions, non-healing ulcers and fistulas, polyps, warts, and about 250 other skin diseases.
The celandine from nail fungus is used in the form of juice - rubbed into the nail plate in the morning and evening or make warm baths with broth. The treatment is long, as with any fungal infection, so be patient.
Juice from a freshly cut plant lubricates the tongs and warts until they disappear. With skin cancers, it is lubricated with fresh juice three times a day. With mastitis, the area of inflammation is treated.
For external use, the juice is applied twice with an interval of 1-2 minutes. In this case, the extract acts not only on the superficial, but also on the deep layers of the skin.
With hemorrhoids, a cotton swab or bandage is injected into the anus soaked in celandine broth or in diluted juice. At the same time, it is recommended to take an infusion of herbs inside 100 ml per day.
For the treatment of eye diseases, juice is prepared as follows. Settled and filtered celandine juice is mixed with honey in equal parts. Add 2% pure table salt and boil the resulting mass in a water bath for 20 minutes, stirring and removing the foam. The result is a concentrate that can be stored for several years. When instilled into the eye, dilute in a ratio of 1: 1 or 1: 2 with distilled or boiled water. Drip 1-2 drops three times a day for ten days. Then they rest for 10 days and conduct another course. It is used to treat conjunctivitis, barley, and thorn, to improve visual acuity and relieve eye fatigue.
Celandine: how to take orally
When administered, celandine has a choleretic, anti-inflammatory, diuretic and anti-cancer effect. For the treatment of hepatitis, cirrhosis, cholecystitis and cholelithiasis, an infusion of celandine grass is used. One art. l flowering grass is brewed in a glass of water. Insist one hour. Take 1/3 cup 3 times a day for half an hour before meals.
The same scheme is used to treat neurosis and vegetovascular dystonia, with whooping cough, gout, rheumatism.
How to drink celandine in the form of a decoction? For oral administration, it is prepared as follows. 30 g of celandine are taken per 500 ml of water, boiled for five minutes. Then insist for 50 minutes and filtered. Drink 3 times a day for 20-30 minutes before eating half a glass.
With malignant tumors of the internal organs, skin cancers, diseases of the rectum, an infusion is prepared: 1 tbsp. l celandine put in a thermos and pour 250 ml of boiling water. Stand for 1-1.5 hours. Take 1-2 tablespoons before meals.
Another scheme for the use of celandine juice in oncology: taken with milk. Begin with a minimum of one drop - then daily add drop by drop and bring to 20. Then reduce every day drop by drop, returning to one. With liver cancer, drink celandine juice with vodka (diluted in equal proportions) 3 times a day, 10-15 ml, washed down with water.
A decoction of the roots is used to treat dysentery. One art. l chopped root pour 500 ml of water and boil for 5 minutes, then insist for one hour. Filter the broth and drink 25-50 ml three times a day.
Celandine tincture
Ethyl alcohol dissolves most of the active ingredients in the grass and plant roots. Therefore, tincture is a stronger drug than decoctions and infusions. It can be purchased at the pharmacy chain, or can be made at home.
Use fresh or dried grass. Raw materials are placed in a glass dish. If the grass is dry, then fill half the volume, if fresh - then the whole. Pour vodka to the top of the can. Insist in a dark place for 14 days, occasionally shaking. Before use, celandine on vodka needs to be diluted: an additional 350 ml of vodka is added to a half-liter can of tincture.
Another proportion for the manufacture of tinctures is 20 g of celandine per glass of vodka.
Tincture is taken for violations in the liver and gall bladder: 3 times a day before meals, 10 drops for three months.
To treat tumors of the female reproductive system, they drink according to the following scheme: for 21 days, half a teaspoon three times a day 15-20 minutes before meals. Then rest 10 days. After the break, the second stage - one tablespoon 3 times a day for 14 days.
With periodontal disease, alcohol tincture of celandine 30% is used. It is mixed with sunflower or olive oil and applied to the gums for 15 minutes. Then wash off with warm water.
Plant cultivation
The infusion of large celandine is used to spray plants from pests. In this regard, many summer residents cultivate celandine and other medicinal herbs on their site. The plant propagates only by seed. They are sown before winter or early spring in a place protected from direct sunlight, slightly sprinkling with earth. Seeds withstand frost up to –30 ° . The row spacing is about 50 cm. The celandine is a weed, therefore, special care is not required. The first shoots must be weeded and poured with water, then loosened the ground. Cut the plant during flowering, lay out a thin layer to dry or use fresh.
Celandine is an indispensable tool for combating skin diseases. In summer, you can use the fresh juice of the plant, and for the winter to prepare raw materials or tincture. It can be used in the form of infusions and decoctions, dry raw materials, extract and tinctures. With skin diseases, lubrications, lotions, and in severe cases, baths with infusion or decoction of the grass are effective. Celandine is ubiquitous throughout Russia, it is unpretentious to the growing conditions, so we can say that it is always at hand. Remember that the plant is poisonous, therefore, take drugs inside it with caution.