garden parsley, field parsley, field parsley; Celery family (Ariaceae), or Umbrella family (Umbelliferae); curly parsley
An indispensable seasoning for soups, borsch, salads, meat, fish and other dishes, parsley is known to all housewives and lovers of spicy greens. It has been used as a spice and medicinal plant since the time of Avicenna, and perhaps even earlier.
Parsley is a herbaceous biennial that forms a rosette of basal leaves and a thickened spindle-shaped root in the first year. The following year, the plant sends out an upright, round, branched stem from the middle, 30-100 cm high. Parsley leaves are triple, dark green. Basal and lower stem leaves are long-petiolate, twice-pinnate, with obovate, wedge-shaped at the base, three-cut or serrated leaves. The upper leaves are three-lobed, with linear-lanceolate lobes. The flowers are regular, bisexual, five-petalled, collected in complex umbrellas, yellowish-green or whitish, sometimes reddish. They bloom in June-July. The fruit is a dicot that splits, as in all umbels, into two half-fruits.
The homeland of the plant is the mountainous regions of the Mediterranean. It has long been cultivated throughout Europe, in particular in Russia and Ukraine. Sometimes parsley goes wild.
The fruits, leaves and roots of the plant are used medicinally. The leaves are collected in the first year of vegetation and used fresh, and juice is squeezed out of them. Greens are chopped for various spicy and flavorful seasonings. Parsley leaves are dried on a cloth or paper, spreading in a thin layer, in the shade outdoors or in a room with good ventilation. After drying, the petioles of the leaves are removed. Fruits are harvested in the period of waxy ripeness. The cut umbrellas are tied into bundles, dried and threshed. Roots are dug at the end of the first year of development, in autumn or spring – in the second year. They are used fresh or dried in the open air, cut lengthwise into several parts. The finished raw materials are stored in closed jars in a dry, dark place. The plant is used only in folk medicine.
All parts of parsley contain essential oil (up to 7% in fruits) and flavonoids. The fruits also contain furocoumarin, aromatic substance bergapten and fatty oil (17-22%). The leaves contain ascorbic acid (58-290 mg%), B-carotene (1.7 mg%), tocopherol (vitamin E) (1.8 mg%) and other vitamins, as well as proteins, sugars (glucose, fructose) . The roots contain nicotinic acid (vitamin PP) (1.0 mg%), pyridoxine (vitamin B 6 ) (0.6 mg), ascorbic acid (vitamin C) (20.35 mg), other vitamins and sugars (mostly sucrose).
Parsley preparations increase urination, increase the tone of the smooth muscles of the uterus, intestines, and bladder, stimulate appetite, and improve digestion. Parsley infusions eliminate the processes of intestinal fermentation, dissolve stones in the bladder and urinary tract, regulate the menstrual cycle, promote milk secretion in women during lactation. In addition, they have choleretic, antispasmodic and diaphoretic properties.
The range of therapeutic effects of parsley products is huge. They are used for edema of cardiac origin, dropsy, urolithiasis, inflammatory processes in the bladder and urinary tract, functional indigestion, intestinal colic, hypotonic uterine bleeding in the postpartum period, fever and decompensated heart defects.
Parsley products should not be taken internally for nephritis, acute cystitis and gout. An overdose of plant products can lead to abortion!
Externally, fresh parsley juice is prescribed for dermatitis, insect bites (analgesic). A decoction of rhizomes is used as a remedy for tanning – it is used to wash the skin of the face. The pulp of leaves or roots after straining the infusion is used as local applications for boils. Ointment from crushed fruits on lard is used for pediculosis. Chewing fresh parsley leaves eliminates the smell of garlic.
Infusion of leaves. 1 tablespoon of raw material per 400 ml of boiling water. Insist for 2 hours, filter. Take 1/2 cup 4 times a day before meals.
Root crops. 1 tablespoon of crushed raw materials per 400 ml of boiling water. Insist for 2 hours, filter. Take 1/2 cup 4 times a day before meals.
Fruit infusion. 1 teaspoon of dried fruit per 400 ml of boiling water. Insist for 2 hours, filter. Take 1/2 cup 4 times a day before meals.
Fresh plant juice . 1 tablespoon three times a day before meals.
Fruit powder (seeds). 0.5 g each 2 3
times a day half an hour before meals.
Fruit decoction. A teaspoon of raw materials per 200 ml of boiling water, heated in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes, filtered, squeezed, brought to the original volume with warm boiled water. Take 1 tablespoon 5 times a day. With oligomenorrhea (scanty menstruation).
Ointment based on fruits. Chopped fruits are mixed with lard in a ratio of 1:4. Antiparasitic agent.