Parsnips

Popular names: thick carrot, lamb carrot, deer fodder, spindle root.

Parts Used: Fruit and root.

Pharmacy name: parsnip fruit – Pastinacae fructus (formerly: Fructus Pastinacae), parsnip root – Pastinacae radix (formerly: Radix Pastinacae).

Botanical description. A biennial umbrella plant that reaches a height of up to 1 m. With a spindle-shaped whitish root, the plant is fixed in the soil. The stem is ribbed-furrowed, branched from the middle. The leaves are most often simple, pinnate, with a three-lobed terminal leaflet; lower – with short petioles, upper – sessile. The flowers, collected in a complex umbrella, are golden yellow in color – unlike other umbrellas, mostly white. The whole plant has a fragrant smell. The greenish-yellow fruits are pressed together, broadly elliptical, with distinct wings. Blooms from July to August. It often occurs along roadsides, borders, clearings, ditches, on stony and gravelly places, grows in abundance in large clumps on dry and moderately moist meadows.

Collection and preparation. Shortly before full maturity, the umbrellas are cut and hung in bunches to dry. After drying, the fruits are threshed.

Active ingredients: essential oil, fatty oil, starch (at the root).

Healing action and application. Scientific medicine does not attach any importance to parsnip, although its essential oil in its action has a certain similarity with cumin essential oil.

Use as a condiment.In later times, when the use of aromatic plants for food expanded, attention was paid to parsnips. In Central Germany, however, parsnips have always been used as a seasoning for vegetable dishes, soups and fresh salads. It promotes health and prevents flatulence. Parsnips are rubbed and added a little (possibly with dill) to the salad mixture, especially from cucumbers and tomatoes. Parsnips are good for making pumpkin, zucchini, and cucumber marinades. Sour vegetables that cause bloating are better absorbed thanks to parsnips. Pasteur root. Naka has a wonderful taste. In some places, a special variety of parsnip is grown for this purpose. Compared to other root crops (beets, carrots, etc.), parsnip is of course not very important, but some gourmets use it as an aromatic spice.

Application in folk medicine. Parsnips have authoritative guarantors among the authors of medieval herbalists, and among them P.A. Mattiolus. They, in turn, refer to the classics – Pliny and Dioscorides. These data correspond to the prescriptions for the use of parsnips in folk medicine: dropsy, body pains, kidney and bladder diseases (especially stones), stomach and lung diseases, fever, also sleep loss and rheumatism. If tea is used, then it must be prepared from mashed fruits. o Parsnip tea: 1 teaspoon with the top of the fruit, pour 1/4 liter of boiling water, leave for 10 minutes, strain. If necessary, drink 2 cups every day.

Side effects. The use of parsnip, as a rule, does not give side effects. However, susceptible people may develop skin rashes that disappear when treatment is stopped.

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