Tree or shrub with alternate, petiolate, entire leaves, with a serrated blade along the edge. The flowers are white, fragrant, collected in drooping brushes. Calyx and corolla five-membered, many stamens, one pistil. The fruit is a black drupe. Blossoms in May-June, fruits ripen in August-early September.
Distributed in all areas, found in the undergrowth of deciduous moist forests, along shrubs, ravines and floodplains of small rivers.
Medicinal raw materials are fruits, in folk medicine – fruits, flowers and bark.
Bird cherry fruits contain tannins and other organic acids (malic, citric), as well as bitter almond essential oil, amygdalin glycoside, etc. It should be remembered that the flowers, leaves and bark of bird cherry contain amygdalin glycoside, the decay of which releases a substance that is highly toxic to humans – hydrocyanic acid. Bird cherry fruits have a pronounced astringent property. In medicine, a decoction or infusion of the fruit is used internally as an astringent, antidiarrheal agent. With trichomonas colpitis – in the form of douching.
In folk medicine, an infusion of bird cherry fruits is used as an antidiarrheal agent. Infusion of flowers – as a lotion for inflammatory diseases of the mucous membrane of the eyes (brewed like tea). Flowers insist on denatured alcohol or kerosene and are used as a rub for rheumatism. The bark from young branches in the form of a decoction is a diaphoretic, anti-febrile and anti-diarrheal agent; bark infused with vodka – rubbing with sciatica; a decoction of the bark is washed with sore eyes and drunk for rheumatism. A decoction of the leaves is used for stomach problems. In diseases of the lungs, the leaves and flowers are brewed and consumed as a tea. Flowers, leaves and fruits are used for trichomonas colpitis in the form of douches.
Application
Decoction of berries: 15 g per 200 ml; 2 tbsp. spoons 3-4 times every day.
Infusion of flowers: 1 teaspoon per glass of cold boiled water, insist 8 hours – with inflammation of the eyes in the form of lotions, etc.
A mixture of products for the stomach: 3 parts of bird cherry and 2 parts of blueberries, all this is crushed and mixed; 1 st. a spoonful of the mixture is brewed in 1 cup of boiling water; use 2 tbsp. spoons 3-4 times every day.
Bird cherry leaf tea is recommended for bronchitis and as a rinse for inflammation of the oral mucosa.