Nettle - medicinal properties and contraindications

If anyone did not know about the burning nature of nettles, but fell into its thicket, he will remember this incident for his whole life. And the plant will be recognized from afar, trying not to get closer, because, having touched the plant, pain and burning are felt on the skin, a rash appears. After a short time, everything passes, but the unpleasant impression of the "wild nature" of the nettle remains.

Many believe that leaves that have burning hairs are to blame. But in fact, these hairs break when touched - they are so fragile. Under them is hidden formic acid, which, appearing on the skin of a person, gives such a reaction (it seems that a real burn has occurred).

Interesting nettle

The plant grows like a weed. You can see it in the most unexpected places: in forest zones, where there is a lot of shade and high humidity, in wastelands and burnt places, along ditches and ravines, in felling areas and in vegetable gardens, near houses and ponds.

Nettle is a dioecious perennial plant. Its stem reaches a length of about one and a half meters. The leaves are located on rather long petioles, have large serrated edges. On veins and on a stalk it is densely strewn with burning hairs. Contains female inflorescences that are thickened, and to the touch are quite dense, their color is green. There are male inflorescences. They differ in color - with a yellowish tint, and much thinner.

Flowering plants fall in early May and lasts until July. And while this period continues, you need to have time to prepare the plant for medicinal needs. Because they collect leaves in June and July. But some herbalists believe that grass should be prepared in the spring and at the very beginning of the summer season. Their opinion is based on the fact that in the future leaves often attack caterpillars, and therefore the plant becomes unsuitable for treatment.

Unfortunately, after the nettle has dried, part of the therapeutic effect is irretrievably lost. Before sending for storage, you need to carefully review all the leaves and flowers in order to discard the darkened ones, since they are no longer suitable. And then spread the crop in cloth bags so that there is air access, and put dry and well-ventilated into the room.

If there are no such conditions, you can store the crop in freezing conditions. To do this, you need to wash the fresh leaves, spread them on the fabric. After drying, the leaves will require processing: they are finely chopped and sent to the freezer. But, if this method of storage is impossible, then preservation remains. The recipe is this: the leaves are washed thoroughly and chopped very finely. Pre-sterilized jars are taken, and leaves are placed in them. They need to be tamped, only then the plant will begin to secrete juice. When the cans are full, they are corked and sent to a dark room with a low temperature.

Nettle roots are no less useful, even with some diseases, they play the main role during treatment.Therefore, they are also harvested by digging in the spring until flowering begins. It is enough to wash, dry, cut them.

Why nettle is considered a medicinal plant

Doctors take only leaves in nettles as a basis. And traditional medicine believes that rhizomes, flowers, seeds and juice will bring benefits to human health.

If you examine the leaves of a lighter (the so-called plant is called differently), then first of all you can find in them a high content of vitamins C, K and B2 and carotene.

They also have:

• acids - formic and silicic;
• urticin glycoside;
• volatile;
• many different trace elements;
• carotenoids;
• mineral salts;
• chlorophyll;
• tannins.

How is nettle useful to people?

First of all, it should be noted that the plant has the ability to stop bleeding. Nettle has a lot of hematopoietic effects, it can:

• increase blood coagulation;
• increase hemoglobin and platelet count;
• narrow the lumen of the blood vessels;
• increase prothrombin if anticoagulants have been introduced into the body.

Leaves increase the tone of the smooth muscles of the intestines and uterus, restore the epithelium of the affected tissue, regulate metabolism.

Nettle preparations have such effects on humans:

• diuretic;
• anti-inflammatory;
• choleretic;
• anthelmintic;
• expectorant;
• antirheumatic;
• astringent.

Taking funds containing nettle, the body becomes more resistant to various diseases, and the extract can normalize the disturbed menstrual cycle and lipid metabolism, improve the cardiovascular system.

Using fresh juice or a decoction can lower blood sugar levels.

To get the juice, the raw materials are washed, a little cool boiled water is added to it, and then they are passed through a meat grinder. You can grind the leaves in a blender (then you need to strain the juice). Take a teaspoon three times a day. If the juice is difficult to drink, you can add a little honey to it. The prepared juice remains useful only for several days, stored in a cold place.

In medical practice, a lighter is used for hypo-, vitamin deficiency, various bleeding.

There is a proportion of nettle in the popular allochol, which is used against the liver and intestines.

Many doctors recommend patients with a flare if patients are diagnosed with diseases such as:

• atherosclerosis;
• Iron-deficiency anemia;
• arterial hypotension or hypertension;
• neurosis, epilepsy or hysteria;
• liver pathology;
• jade;
• cystitis;
• bronchial asthma, whooping cough.

Nettle is necessarily included in those collections that are prepared when it is necessary to increase appetite if peptic ulcer or gastritis, enterocolitis or heart failure of I or II degree are found.

Adherents of herbal medicine claim that nettle is most effective in treating pulmonary tuberculosis, jaundice, severe coughing and suffocation, vomiting and constipation.

It helps with edema, a strong heartbeat, if the spleen is sick or cramps occur in the intestines and stomach.

Use in treatment: flowers, roots and seeds

Flowers
Be sure to harvest herbalists flowering tops of plants. They will be useful in the future to those people who have kidney problems, bleeding or dysentery. In these cases, nettle helps as a vitamin remedy. Cooked flower tea helps as an expectorant. A pinch of flowers for four 200-gram cups is enough to cook it.

Seeds
From the seeds, a medicine is obtained whose action is aimed at combating fever, paralysis and problems in the gallbladder. Seeds will also be useful if stones are formed in the kidneys - oxalates (nettle is an excellent prophylactic against stone formation) or a loss of strength is simply felt. In these cases, the seeds are ground in water.Daily dose - 1 teaspoon per 250 ml of water.

Seeds will be needed if sexual weakness occurs. Seeds are also used when diabetes is treated. They are added to sour milk.

You can get rid of stones and cough if you take the seeds of nettle - 5 teaspoons, 2 parts of the spore of the club-clown, and three parts of sugar. Mix and take everything three times a day.

Root
The roots will benefit those people who have not been able to cough for a long time or have old kidney stones. Then use the candied roots.

If a person has a fever, it is possible to treat it with the help of a root of a lighter. The roots and garlic are placed in a container and infused with a 40 percent spirit. The tool will bring special benefit if it is kept for 6 days in a dark place. Then tincture is used:

• rubbing the patient;
• give him inside twice a day - only three spoons.

Nettle Against Many Diseases: Recipes

1. Some women have problems with an irregular menstrual cycle. To prevent this from happening, you can try using a nettle broth, starting to drink it 3 to 5 days before the onset of menstruation, this method will also help reduce blood loss.
2. After the winter period, a decline in strength and a decrease in immunity are observed in many. And while a new crop of fruits and vegetables has not yet appeared that will saturate the body with useful substances, nettle can replace them. Who makes soup from young nettles, claims that after a month the body's defenses increase, the mood improves and eyesight becomes sharper.
3. To satisfy the body with vitamins and minerals, to prevent exhaustion, they do this. Take two tablespoons of nettle leaves to dilute in 0.5 liters of freshly removed water from the fire. For an hour, insist in a tightly closed container. Strain. Drink before meals, measuring the third part of a glass. The amount of funds received is 3-5 times a day.
4. To quickly normalize metabolic processes in the body, lose weight and improve the digestion process, the following recipe is recommended. Mix one spoonful of chopped nettle and yarrow leaves (about 10 g each), boil for 10 minutes in 0.5 l of boiling water. Take preferably only before a night's sleep half a cup. This tool well removes some manifestations of a disease such as atherosclerosis.
5. Nettle helps restore lost sense of smell and saves from dropsy. To remove eczema, take note of such a recipe. Taken 50 gr. nettle and birch leaves, hop cones and dandelion root, mint and 100 gr. herbs repeshka. All ingredients are mixed, and then 2 tablespoons are poured into 0.5 liters of water and boiled for 5 minutes. Drink 100 ml before meals 4 times a day.
6. The plant uses special qualities - such as irritating and distracting - during the treatment of rheumatism and radiculitis. The method is a bit unpleasant, but effective: they use a section, that is, a touch of fresh nettle. The procedure is repeated 3-5 times, but every other day.
7. An effective tool is that cleanses the blood and helps get rid of boils, constipation and little urine. Nettles and blackberries, dandelion and thorns are taken in equal proportions. All is poured into 0.5 liters of water and sent to languish in the oven for 2 to 3 hours. You need to use the mixture every day for a teaspoon for two weeks.
8. Sex drive in people's lives is important, and if these functions disappear, it is urgent to restore them. And again, they use the invaluable help of nettles that can do this. Plant seeds are able to act as a stimulant of sexual desire. They should be taken together with wine made from natural grapes; port can also be used. It will take 5 tablespoons of seeds and 0.5 liters of wine. Norm - 50 ml every day before bedtime.

But there is another remedy.From nettle seeds, make powder and mix it with black pepper. The proportions are equal. Break the raw egg in the container, beat slightly and add the prepared mixture to it, but only at the very tip of the knife. Stir and use in the morning, half an hour before breakfast. The course lasts no more than 5 days.

Lighter leaves have a unique property: when they are harvested during the flowering period, they can stimulate the tissues of the prostate gland. And along the way they stimulate sex drive, help the formation of motile sperm. Because nettle is used if it is necessary to get rid of impotence.

The use of nettle in cosmetology

1. To quickly improve the condition of the hair, nettles are also actively used. It strengthens hair and eliminates dandruff and makes hair grow better. The best recipe in this case is this: one tablespoon of dry leaves or 2 handfuls of raw need to be insisted in a liter of boiling water for an hour. After the head is washed, part of the infusion is rubbed into the hair of the head, and the head is washed with the rest. It is important to remember that after such washing, it is not recommended to wipe the hair. Such procedures should become permanent, but with short breaks.
2. If the hair falls out strongly, dandruff constantly appears, such a tool helps. Nettle leaves - 80 gr., Its root - 20 gr., And also calamus root - 10 gr. Put everything in a container and add 50 ml of water and 130 ml of 95% alcohol. Insist means should be at least a week. As soon as this time is up, you need to strain and squeeze the infusion. Use by rubbing into the head with massage movements.
3. If baldness is a threat, nettle will help to cope with this problem. For this purpose, fresh or canned leaves are needed. They are placed in a glass container and poured with vodka. The drug should be infused for three weeks. At this time, it should be in a dark and cool place. The product is rubbed into problem areas of the head.
4. If there are problems with the scalp, it will be useful to use such a tool. Prepare 100 gr. crushed leaves, you can take the root as a basis, boil 30 minutes in the following mixture - 0.5 l of water and 0.5 l of wine vinegar. Filter the finished product and wash your hair, but with the following conditions:

• Do not use shampoo or soap;
• several times in a row, preferably before bedtime.

Nettle treats asthma and tumors!

In patients with asthmatic bronchitis and bronchial asthma in a mild form, the condition improves significantly if you take a special infusion:

• on 15 gr. nettle leaves measure 25 gr. Ledum herbs. Boil plants in a liter of boiling water;
• the course of treatment - two weeks of 0.5 cup;
• the norm is 5-6 times a day.

This infusion is given to children in a reduced dose - a teaspoon several times a day.

There is a recipe that allows you to stop the development of a tumor in the spleen. It is necessary to make a powder from equal doses of nettle leaves, plantain lanceolate, sage. Take three times a day. The dose should not exceed the amount that fits on the edge of the knife.

Are there any contraindications

Nettle can harm pregnant women, as well as those people who have poor blood clotting, have thrombophlebitis, or the slightest risk of a heart attack.

Video: the healing properties of nettle