Cactus "Queen of the Night" - a rare and unique plant. It earned its unique fame by blooming only once a year, and even then only at night. The Queen of the Night cactus is also called the dragon flower.
One beautiful legend is associated with him.
There is a belief that thousands of years ago a certain kingdom ruled a small kingdom. She was kind, generous and very pretty, and so much so that she was embarrassed by her beauty and did not appear to her subjects. She left her castle only once a year - on the darkest night. She went around her small possessions and left gifts and letters at the doors of her people’s houses. People who woke up in the morning found these gifts and were happy. They simply idolized their queen.
But all good things come to an end sooner or later. The end of peaceful life in this kingdom has come. No one knows where this evil dragon came from and why he decided to attack this little kingdom. But he demanded that he build himself huge chambers of gold and precious stones, cover the floors with carpets. The dragon warned that if the inhabitants of the small kingdom did not fulfill his requirements, he would eat every day the most beautiful girl. People became desperate, because all that they had was love and kindness. They were so poor that they did not even have carpets. But they could not explain this to the evil dragon - he simply did not want to listen to them. And then the beautiful queen came out to meet the fire-breathing snake.
She asked him not to touch the defenseless people and invited him to eat herself instead of all the beauties of the kingdom. The dragon became thoughtful and promised not to touch anyone, but on condition that the queen would give him all her beauty, and she herself would become an ugly monster like him. The girl happily agreed and held out her hands to the beast. At that moment, the terrible fire-breathing monster turned into a beautiful woman, and the queen - into a completely nondescript prickly cactus, somewhat reminiscent of a winged snake.
But whatever the appearance, nothing can destroy the
beauty of the soul. From then until now, one night of the year, the Queen of the Night cactus gives people a wonderful flower that can heal broken hearts. Indeed, kindness and a generous heart are eternal, in contrast to beauty, which blooms and fades.
The Queen of the Night cactus is used in homeopathy. Most appreciated are its young stems and flowers, from which tincture is made. In medicine, when using extracts from this plant, the source material is carefully examined at first, since it often happens that unscrupulous suppliers bring not the Queen of the Night cactus (photo attached), but an ordinary prickly pear.
The resulting homeopathic remedy is used in the treatment of angina pectoris, neurosis, to restore weak heart muscle. However, almost all cacti (photos and names are given) are often used in homeopathy, but their healing properties have been studied very little. No researchers have yet given any accurate data on the effect of alkaloids contained in the cactus, which positively affects the heart.
Currently, the Queen of the Night cactus is more and more attracting the attention of scientists involved in the development and research of drugs designed to improve cardiac activity. After all, as the legend says, this cactus is able to heal sick human hearts. It may well turn out that in this plain flower lies the salvation of the lives of many thousands of people. Like a legend.