Black nightshade is an annual plant that is quite widespread in Asia, Europe, Australia and America. Most often it is perceived as weedy and poisonous. The benefits of this plant are not known to many. Can black nightshade harm? How is it used in traditional medicine? We will talk about this in the article.
Spread
Black nightshade, a photo of which you can see below, is common in our country. It grows everywhere, including the northern regions. The plant is found even in the southern regions of Siberia. This is a native of Europe and Asia, which was later introduced into North America. The plant adapts perfectly to a temperate climate.
Black nightshade is considered weed because of its unpretentiousness: it is undemanding to the composition of soils and moisture. It is equally actively developing among garden plants and in ravines, gullies, along roadsides.
Description
Black nightshade is an annual grass. Unlike other varieties of this plant, it does not differ in the outstanding beauty of flowers and is practically not grown in garden and summer cottages; it is rarely cultivated for harvesting. The needs for this plant, as a rule, are satisfied by nightshade, which grows in natural conditions. Consider the structure of nightshade:
- The stalks. Nightshade has massive erect cylindrical stems that branch up. Stems can be either bare or slightly pubescent.
- Leaves. They are simple, without stipules, placed on the stem on the stalk alternately. The leaf plate is ovoid, slightly elongated. Its length can reach 13 cm, with a width of 8 cm. The surface of the plate is deep green, matte, with a well-defined venation. The edge is most often flat, but sometimes it is angularly notched.
- Flowers At black nightshade, they are bisexual, painted white. The flowers have a double perianth and a five-pointed star-shaped corolla. Small flowers (up to 1 cm) are collected in umbrella inflorescences, they are often called curls. Flowering black nightshade begins in mid-May. Under favorable weather conditions, it lasts until September.
- Fruit. The spherical black berries of black nightshade in diameter do not exceed a centimeter. They are covered with a smooth, matte skin. The fruits ripen from early August to mid-October.
There are different opinions about the benefits and harms of black nightshade: some consider the plant to be poisonous, others consider it useful and healing. You will be surprised, but both parties to the argument are right. The fact is that only green nightshade berries are poisonous, containing solanine, which has a toxic effect on the body. When the fruit ripens, solanine is destroyed, and ripe berries become an effective therapeutic agent.
Chemical composition
The composition of different parts of the plant nightshade black includes many useful substances. This explains its powerful effect on the body. The main beneficial substances include:
- glycosides and alkaloids;
- carotene;
- organic acids;
- tannins;
- ascorbic acid;
- sugar compounds;
- magnesium salts;
- calcium;
- manganese
Healing properties
The beneficial properties of black nightshade are used by folk healers to get rid of many diseases. For healers and healers, the whole aerial part of the plant is valuable. The selectivity of nightshade is interesting in the manufacture of drugs in the same ways. For example, the infusion of the plant is equally effective for both internal and external use.
Black nightshade has the following properties:
- choleretic;
- antispasmodic;
- laxatives;
- diuretic;
- painkillers;
- anti-allergic;
- anticonvulsant;
- sedative.
When is the use of grass indicated?
Preparations from black nightshade grass are used in the following cases:
- with diseases of the stomach, intestines;
- with cholecystitis, pyelonephritis;
- with epilepsy, neurosis;
- with skin diseases.
A water extract from grass with lichens, furuncles, allergies of an unknown nature cleanses the blood. In addition, herbal infusions are an effective complement to therapeutic baths. Known grass nightshade expectorant and bronchodilating properties, and therefore use drugs based on it for colds, bronchitis, bronchial asthma, tuberculosis.
Fruit use
Numerous patient reviews confirm the benefits of black nightshade fruits when eating its fruits in different forms:
- Fresh berries. Fresh berries are useful for hypertensive patients, they are used as a prophylactic and therapeutic agent for atherosclerosis, infectious diseases, kidney diseases, and vision improvement.
- Alcohol extractor hood. It has anticonvulsant, sedative, muscle relaxant properties. It is used in the treatment of neurosis, mild forms of neurasthenia.
- Juice from berries. This remedy from nightshade is used to treat inflammation of the oral cavity: periodontal disease, stomatitis, tonsillitis. Lotions of juice help fight conjunctivitis and a chronic form of rhinitis when instilled into the nose. Berry juice has anti-inflammatory, astringent, healing, bactericidal properties. It is bred and used in the form of compresses for the treatment of psoriasis, eczema, lichen.
Traditional healers believe that nightshade can heal from malignant tumors, including blood cancer. In oncology, extracts from flowering grass or fruits are taken. The plant cures hepatitis of any origin, cirrhosis of the liver. The hypoglycemic properties of this plant have a beneficial effect on blood sugar.
Solanum-based preparations
Effective remedies for the treatment of many serious diseases can be prepared from black nightshade at home. We offer you recipes for some of them.
Nightshade ointment
Solanum grass is used to treat many skin lesions: infectious, mechanical, allergic, trophic, autoimmune. To enhance the effect, the ointment is covered with a bandage. The procedure lasts two to four hours. To prepare the ointment, dry nightshade grass is used. It should be ground into powder in a mortar or coffee grinder.
Mix a teaspoon of powder with four teaspoons of refined vegetable oil. The resulting drug lubricates damaged skin three times a day.
Berry juice
It is used for edema, ascites, hypertension, for external use in diseases of the mucous membranes and skin. Making juice is easy. To do this, grind a glass of berries through a sieve or grind in a blender. The resulting mass must be squeezed through cheesecloth. A quarter glass of freshly squeezed juice is diluted with boiled water at room temperature to a full glass.
The resulting solution can rinse the mouth, throat and wash the wounds. When rhinitis, instill 2-3 drops of diluted juice in each nasal passage. With cystitis, hypertension, dropsy, 30 drops of undiluted juice are taken every day. It should be washed down with milk or clean water. A decoction of the herb is used as an antispasmodic, antitussive, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anti-allergenic agent.
Pour a glass of boiling water into a spoon (teaspoon) of crushed dry nightshade grass. Heat the resulting mixture in a water bath for 15 minutes. When the composition has cooled, strain it. Take the drug in a spoon (teaspoonful) twice a day. A new portion is prepared every two days.
Alcohol extractor hood
When taken orally, it has an anti-inflammatory, cold, diuretic and choleretic agent. Dry fruits of nightshade pour in 60% alcohol in a ratio of 1: 6. For a week, the mixture is infused in a dark place, shaking the container daily. Take the drug in 15 drops once a day.
Infusion
It is used to treat joint, stomach, headaches, and disorders of the nervous system. From a warm infusion make lotions for ulcers, boils, wounds.
Steam 5 grams of herbs nightshade with a glass of boiling water. Allow the composition to brew for three hours. Then the composition can be filtered. Inside, the infusion is taken in a tablespoon up to four times a day.
Nightshade bath
In the cold season, such a bath enhances the body's resistance, eliminates joint and muscle pain. Eliminates allergic rashes, helps in the treatment of eczema, psoriasis. Two liters of boiling water pour three tablespoons (tablespoons) of grass. It is insisted until it has cooled to room temperature, filtered, and the cake is squeezed. Pour the resulting infusion into a bathtub filled with warm water.
Safety regulations
By opening any herbal treatment guide, you can see a photo of black nightshade. The benefits and harms of this plant are closely intertwined. We have already said that the green fruits of the plant are toxic, therefore, when harvesting raw materials, you must be extremely careful. You can collect only fully ripened fruits, evenly painted black.
Preparations based on black nightshade are contraindicated for children under three years of age, pregnant women, and also during lactation, people with individual intolerance to the substances that make up the plant. Side effects that you should pay attention to when taking drugs prepared from nightshade include:
- fatigue;
- dizziness;
- nervous excitability;
- diuresis;
- diarrhea.
According to reviews of people taking these drugs, the negative effect of the plant is very rare and only if the dosage has been exceeded. Its violation leads to intoxication of the body, which in the absence of medical care can result in death, since the harm of nightshade is caused by the content of potent substances in its composition. Traditional healers claim that the side effects of nightshade effectively eliminates natural bee honey.