The mad cucumber plant (in Latin sounds like Ekballium elaterium), in reality, neither one nor the other. The name "cucumber" he received because of some external similarities with all of us known vegetable. The epithet "rabid" was given to him because of the way seeds were distributed. By the way, in some countries it is called not mad, but wild or donkey cucumber. And although this plant is completely unsuitable for food, people use it very actively.
Appearance
The genus Mad Cucumber belongs to the Pumpkin family. This plant is one of a kind, its other species do not exist. You can meet him in Asia, the Mediterranean, in the south of Russia, in the Crimea, in the Caucasus, even on the Azores. This cucumber is annual or perennial. Its stalk represents a creeper creeping on the ground or climbing on supports. She has no antennae. Outwardly, our favorite vegetable and mad cucumber have a certain similarity. A photo of a plant demonstrates this. Its leaves are as wide and rough as that of an edible cucumber, the flowers are yellow, in the shape of a corolla. But the fruits resemble a real cucumber only remotely. They are ovoid or oblong, up to 6 cm long, densely covered with setae, very juicy at the beginning of maturity. Seeds are small, only 4 mm or less, slightly elongated, flat. In nature, this plant can be found in garbage heaps, landfills, along roadsides.
Why "frantic"
Each plant, in order to successfully exist, "came up" with its own way of distribution in nature. The seeds of some are decorated with thorns, with which they are attached to the hair of animals, and thus move to a new place of residence. Others are settled by the wind, while others use birds, providing them with juicy fruits. A very original way is mad cucumber. He carries out the distribution of seeds by firing them at a distance of over 6 meters. Therefore, he was given such a wonderful name. The plant blooms from July to September. The fruits begin to ripen in August. They turn yellow, the peduncle dries, and the flesh becomes mucous. At this time, a fairly high pressure forms inside the fruits. If you accidentally hurt a cucumber, it falls off the stalk and instantly shoots mucus with seeds. If you do not touch the fruits, they themselves, as they ripen, fall away from the dried stalk, and the seeds rush under great pressure into the hole formed outward, away from the parent bush.
What good is it
Crazy cucumber is very toxic. Eat no fruits, or any other parts of the plant. Its flowers do not smell and are not melliferous. Nevertheless, it was widely used in the time of Avicenna. There are many steroids, alkaloids, vitamin C, carotenoids and other valuable substances in the roots, stalk and fruits of the plant. Thanks to them, mad cucumber preparations are used in official and traditional medicine to treat many diseases. Outwardly it is used for lichens, tumors, fungal diseases, non-healing ulcers, gout, hemorrhoids. Inside, decoctions are prescribed for suffering migraines, constipation, rheumatism, intestinal colic, cancer patients, people with hepatitis, diphtheria.
For medicinal purposes, leaves and stems are harvested when the plant begins to bloom. Raw materials are dried in places where there is no direct sunlight, crushed. The roots are dug up in the fall, washed and also dried. First in the air, and then in the ovens. You can store finished raw materials for a year.
Some recipes for external use
Grind the dried parts of the plant into powder and sprinkle with it a sore spot.
Prepare a foot bath. Take 200 grams of a fresh plant, pour 3 liters of boiling water and insist. You can add a spoonful of honey to the infusion. So infusion for the prevention of fungal diseases wipe shoes from the inside. It is believed that the infusion of mad cucumber eliminates not only the fungus on the skin, but also on the walls.
Squeeze cucumber juice, mix with vinegar. Dampen the tissue in the solution and attach to the sore spot.
Mad cucumber is successfully used in the treatment of difficult to heal wounds. To do this, you need to prepare a decoction based on: a tablespoon of dried and ground raw materials in a glass of boiling water. Heat in a water bath for 15-20 minutes. Immediately strain and add water to again get one glass of liquid. For treatment, take a teaspoon of flour and a tablespoon of decoction, prepare a flat cake out of it and apply to the ulcer.
Boil the fruit of the cucumber in sesame oil. The resulting tool to lubricate hemorrhoidal cones.
Internal application
It must be well understood that mad cucumber is very toxic. Even its relatively small doses cause severe vomiting, diarrhea, drowsiness, weakness, lead to respiratory failure and heart problems. Inside it can not be used by pregnant women and children.
Decoctions of this plant are drunk with jaundice, malaria, from worms.
Juice from fruits has a stronger effect than juice from the rest of the plant. The healing properties of the roots and the terrestrial part are approximately equivalent.
Freshly squeezed mad cucumber juice is used for tonsillitis, diphtheria, otitis media, migraines, and a runny nose.
- To get rid of migraines, it is bred with milk and buried in the nose.
- From a cold, you can instill juice diluted with water in a ratio of 1: 4, or you can lubricate nostrils with it.
- Earache is relieved by instilling juice in the ears.
- With angina, the juice is diluted with honey and olive oil. The resulting product lubricates the throat.
Thistle, or echinocystis
Out of ignorance, many call the mad cucumber Echinocystis, or, popularly, prickly fruit, vesicle, shooting ivy. Indeed, these two plants are similar in appearance, especially the fruits. Echinocystis came to us from North America. Now it can be found in Europe and Asia, including Russia, and in the Mediterranean. The spread of rabid cucumber and echinocystis has become so widely possible due to their ability to shoot with seeds.
The differences between these two plants are many. So, the flowers of echinocystis smell pleasantly and attract bees. Lianas have antennae, with which they creep up the support. The leaves are smoother than those of a mad cucumber. Flowers are not like pumpkin flowers and are panicles. Seeds are large, reaching one and a half centimeters. The fruits of echinocystis are edible. They contain many vitamins and mineral salts. Only people use this plant not for food, but to create a fragrant and beautiful hedge, adorn it with arbors, arches. The healing properties of echinocystis have not yet been studied.
Anguria
Very rarely called angry cucumber anguria, similar to its fruits. This plant has nothing to do with a mad cucumber, nor with echinocystis. It is very decorative, often grown to decorate not only verandas in private houses, but also balconies in high-rise buildings. Its fruits, which are really somewhat similar to the fruits of a wild cucumber, have a pleasant taste and are used as ordinary vegetables. They do not shoot seeds. Some people, seeing spherical green sausages strewn with thorns on vines, think that this is a mad cucumber, although this is where their similarity ends. So, in Anguria, the leaves are more like grape or watermelon than cucumber. The peduncle is longer, and the fruits are somewhat larger.
Growing
If desired, you can have a medicinal mad cucumber in your garden plot. It is better to plant seeds in the fall, so that they spend the winter in the cold. It is advisable that a place be predefined for them. If not, you can plant the seeds somewhere on the sidelines, and transplant them in spring, like seedlings. For spring planting, seeds must be kept in the refrigerator for two to three months. It is not necessary to make holes or grooves in the ground, the seeds are placed on top of the ground, watered and left alone.
The seeds must be collected very carefully, as ripe fruits are just waiting for someone to touch them to throw a mucus fountain out at a speed of 10 meters per second. To "outsmart" the plant, you need to carefully, without touching the vine, put the fruit in a plastic bag and shake. Rinse the mucus and dry the seeds.