Nightshade bittersweet

Perennial climbing plant with creeping woody rhizome and branched climbing stem. Leaves on petioles, often with two small ears at the base. The flowers are purple, collected in paniculate drooping inflorescences on long pedicels. The fruits are bright red, shiny drooping egg-shaped berries. Blooms all summer.

It occurs in damp shrubs, willows, alder forests, along the banks of rivers and lakes.

All organs of the plant contain alkaloids, solacein, solanine, tannins; in the fruits – the bitter substance dulcamarine, the coloring substance lycopene. For medicinal purposes, young shoots with leaves and fruits are used.

In folk medicine, tincture of berries on vodka is drunk in drops for heart diseases, water decoction – for tangles, they drink decoction and make lotions for erysipelas, for wounds; boil in whey, drink and make lotions for various skin diseases; berries are used as an anthelmintic, grass as a diuretic, diaphoretic, for rheumatism, skin and venereal diseases; steamed grass is applied to aching teeth. A decoction of the stems is used for diarrhea and as an anthelmintic.

It is used for dropsy, jaundice, bronchial catarrh, asthma, whooping cough, chronic skin diseases, ear pain.

Application

Decoction: 1 teaspoon of powdered raw materials (3 g) boiled in 150 ml of water for 10 minutes; drink 2 teaspoons every day (dose for 10 days); for skin diseases, nightshade powder is used – at the tip of a knife (0.1 g) 3 times every day for a week.

Both the leaves and fruits of bittersweet nightshade are poisonous. Do not take high doses for a long time. Use only under medical supervision.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *