For a long time, people used natural gifts in order to be treated, took extracts from plants and decoctions prepared on their basis. The most famous healing plant, which is used to enhance health and maintain beauty, is the immortelle. In order for the plant to benefit, the collection, drying and storage of the immortelle must occur according to the rules.
What is this plant?
This is a perennial plant, which is distinguished by its bright color. When flowering, the immortelle "dresses up" in a bright yellow "hat" of flowers. The people called this plant in different ways: "cat's paws", goldflower, "sunny gold", immortelle sand. When to collect, how to dry and use is a long-standing tradition that came to us from herbalists and doctors. To get all the benefits from the plant, do not neglect these rules.
The immortelle, which is scientifically called the Helichrysum monstrosum, externally differs from the sandy immortelle, but there are useful properties in both.
The first species has a long stalk on which numerous "double" flowers bloom. The second, sandy immortelle, has many straight leaves with tops down. The flowers of this plant are also numerous, small, have either a bright yellow color or an orange tint.
Useful properties of the immortelle
So what makes this goldflower so special that our ancestors recognized the useful in it and brought this information to us? Immortelle is a real medicinal plant, it contains ascorbic acid, essential oils, resins, carotene, tannins, many vitamins and minerals. These substances are contained in the flowers of the plant, flowering lasts from June to late autumn. But you need to know exactly when to collect the immortelle for drying.
What will help the immortelle?
Immortelle drugs are very popular, since they are low toxic, in comparison with chemical medicines. What diseases should the immortelle use?
- Bowel and stomach disease, digestive upset. In this case, the immortelle will establish the production of gastric juice, normalizes acidity.
- Stones in the pancreas. Immortelle establishes the secretion of bile, activates and stabilizes the gland. By changing the composition of bile, it helps to remove stones and sand from it.
- Cholecystitis, cirrhosis, jaundice, and other liver diseases.
- Atherosclerosis.
- Obesity, metabolic disorders.
- Coronary artery disease.
- Atherosclerosis.
- Diabetes.
- Stones in the kidneys.
Of course, it is more efficient to use decoctions from the immortelle not as the main medicine, but as an addition to the course therapy to accelerate the healing process.
Do not prescribe yourself treatment with an immortelle, consult your doctor. Only a specialist will be able to determine how the immortelle will be combined with already prescribed and used drugs.
When to collect immortelle for drying?
Immortelle blooms from June to September, but the time of flowering may vary depending on the region and summer conditions. The plant stores the most useful properties in its colors, but not for a very long time. Therefore, it is necessary to catch the moment when to collect the immortelle for drying. If you make a mistake, pick the flowers sooner or later, then they will not be endowed with any useful properties, they will fit only on the herbarium. Consider the basic collection rules:
- Flowers must be collected before they are fully opened. On the outer rim of the inflorescences, the buds should still be closed. If you wait until the flowers are fully bloomed, then you can be left without medicine. With further manipulations with the plant, the blossomed buds will simply crumble, leaving you with a peduncle.
- Do not cut the plant completely, cut only baskets of inflorescences. In order to make the process go faster and make drying easier, you can cut whole panicles.
- Use scissors for assembly. If you pick flowers by hand, then you can destroy the whole plant. Its stem is very strong, there is a danger of tearing the immortelle directly from the root.
- Choose gathering places that are far from roads and the city. This is an important point, since the immortelle must heal, and not fill the body with harmful substances. Flowers growing not far from the roads absorb all the exhaust poisons and dust. This is what you will take along with beneficial substances. So do not be lazy, leave the car at the curb and go on foot to look for the immortelle.
Weather for collection should also contribute. When is it better to collect the immortelle for drying - in the morning or in the evening? It should be dry and warm outside, morning dew should be gone. The best time for collecting is before lunch, until the sun begins to “drink” useful substances from flowers along with moisture.
If you collect immortelle in the rain or with dew, then you will lose many useful substances.
If you follow all the above prescribed rules, how and when to collect the immortelle for drying, then from one bush in the season you can extract raw materials several times. New baskets after collection will be ready in a week.
Immortelle drying
When to collect the immortelle for drying, we determined. The question remains: how to dry the plant correctly? To become a truly experienced herbalist, you need to remember that you need to harvest and dry herbs correctly, without depriving them of their beneficial properties. The following points should be followed:
- You can not leave flowers in a basket or bag for a long time. Start harvesting a maximum of four hours after harvesting. If you keep the plant closed for a long time, it will begin to deteriorate.
- Whisk better to hang. If you collected plants with part of the stem, then tie them in small bunches and hang them on a rope with flowers down.
- Spread the flowers evenly with a thin layer on a flat surface. If only flowers were collected, then you need to scatter them on a surface covered with thick paper or cardboard.
- Dry only indoors with warm, dark and well-ventilated. For these purposes, a pantry or a room where the rays of the sun do not fall will fit.
- The temperature in the dryer is not higher than forty degrees. If you use a special dryer for drying, then the temperature in it should be at least thirty and not more than forty degrees.
How to store a ready immortelle?
So you collected the plant correctly and dried it. It remains only to save it correctly.
To begin with, make sure that the plant really dried well and that drying should be stopped: break a couple of twigs, if they become brittle and crumble, then you can proceed to packaging.
In order for the plant to not deteriorate, you need to pack it in well-ventilated containers. It can be cardboard or paper boxes, cloth bags. Banks are by no means suitable!
Sign on bags or boxes the date of collection and packaging. Immortelle can be used for treatment for three years from the date of collection.
Immortelle: planting and care, when to pick flowers
Many gardeners plant immortelle on their own site. Someone does this for decorative purposes, someone grows it for medicine, so that you don’t have to go far for it.
Immortelle, although it grows without the help of people in the meadows, but in the garden will have to properly care for him. The first thing a person should know who decides to plant this plant in himself is the immortelle's love of heat and the sun. Do not plant bushes in shady places near bushes and trees.
Immortelle is annual and perennial. Annual seeds can be bought or harvested immediately after flowering. Plant seeds for seedlings in a greenhouse or in pots at home. After the plant has two leaves, it can be planted on the ground. Put sand and peat in each hole. Do not forget to loosen and water.
The roots of a perennial species will have to be extracted in nature. Find a good adult bush that consists of several bushes. Gently dig it with the root, divide into separate twigs. Plant on your site in good land. In winter, carefully cover the roots of the plant with foliage and grass so that frost does not destroy it.
To collect flowers of the domesticated immortelle follows the same technology as the wild. Watch the watering carefully - do not overdry and do not overfill the ground.
Take Immortelle Seriously
This is a truly medicinal plant. He, like other drugs, has contraindications. Be sure to consult your doctor so as not to harm your health. Do not heal yourself, you can only harm yourself and your family with this.