Common meadowsweet (six-petalled, beetifolia), meadowsweet grass or, as it is also popularly called, the whitehead is a perennial wild-growing medicinal plant belonging to the Rosaceae family. Places of growth of meadowsweet of the cirrhose covers the whole of Asia Minor, Europe, Kazakhstan, the Caucasus, Mongolia, Siberia. In Russia, it grows in the forest-steppe and forest strip of the European part, Eastern and Western Siberia and the North Caucasus. Since the grass of the meadowsweet plant is hygrophilous, its favorite places of growth are swampy meadows, clearings, moist forest glades, on the banks of rivers and ponds. In such conditions, the meadowsweet grows in the form of vast dense thickets that can be seen from afar by flower-bearing shoots. It is known that the common meadowsweet is popular with traditional healers and successfully used in traditional medicine.
The tall grassy meadowsweet plant has up to 1.5 m in height with a straight, leafy, ribbed stalk. The leaves of the grass have a pinnate shape, they are smooth at the top and felt-pubescent at the bottom. Numerous whitish, small flowers combined into several fragrant honey panicle inflorescences. The rhizome near the grass of the meadowsweet creeping, branched with tuberous thickenings.
Meadow grass is used entirely for medicinal purposes. The flowers, leaves and roots of common meadowsweet contain volatile, flavonoids, steroids, glycosides, terpenes, tannins, vanillin, starch, essential oil, and most importantly - vitamin C in large quantities.
Preparations, in the manufacture of which the grass of the meadowsweet is used, have, first of all, anti-inflammatory, astringent, bactericidal, choleretic, diaphoretic, hemostatic and restorative effect on the body. Such an important property as stimulation of antitoxic function, as well as antitumor effect, is noted.
Meadow grass in folk medicine treats colds , cardiovascular diseases, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, genitourinary system, bronchial asthma, gout, rheumatism, bleeding, osteochondrosis, hemorrhoids, eczema, burns, wounds, leucorrhoea, aches, hernias, dysentery. Dry color in the form of a powder is used to powder scalded places, and they also inhale it in the nostrils to get rid of a cold. Rhizomes and flowers are also used for rheumatism, a decoction of the roots is used to wash wounds that fester, and the roots are used for hypertension and dysentery. A variety of medicines are prepared from it: infusion and decoction from the root, infusion of flowers and herbs, ointment.
In addition, the flowers of the meadowsweet have a pleasant honey smell. They are used to flavor drinks and tea. For example, adding a small number of flowers to Ivan tea, which is used for food and medicinal purposes, gives the drink a unique, specific taste, while increasing its healing effect.
In all its parts, the grass of the meadowsweet contains a huge amount of tannins. Extracts made from grass and its rhizomes are suitable for tanning the skin and coloring it in black. Also, the grass of the meadowsweet is widely used in veterinary medicine.
Meadowsweet is also an excellent honey plant, and in the Caucasus its young shoots are added to salads.
The ground part of the meadowsweet is harvested during flowering, in July, and the roots are harvested in early spring or late autumn. The roots and grass are crushed into powder and dried in the shade, always in a ventilated room. The raw materials are spread in a thin layer and from time to time they are tedious. Store it in a closed glass container in a dark place. If the meadowsweet roots are dried correctly - they will have an astringent taste and dark brown color.