beetroot, cucumber herb; Boraginaceae family; medicinal cucumber
Cucumber is a rough-haired annual. It is often grown in gardens as a food plant. Cucumber leaves are used to prepare salads, to which it gives a cucumber aroma. Cucumber grass is good because it grows much earlier than cucumbers ripen. The stem of the plant is straight, thick, hollow inside, up to 80 cm tall. The leaves are large, juicy, oval, with a strong cucumber smell. The flowers are usually blue, regular, in few-flowered inflorescences — cilia, which, in turn, form a thin shield-like inflorescence. The plant blooms from June to August. It grows like a weed in the south of Russia. In Ukraine, it grows scattered throughout almost the entire territory in gardens and weedy wastelands.
Cucumber is used not only as a food, but also as a medicinal plant. For the preparation of medicines, grass and flowers are harvested during flowering. The raw material is spread out in a thin layer and dried in a ventilated room.
Cucumber is used only in folk medicine and homeopathy. The plant contains vitamin C (up to 17 mg%), provitamin A (carotene) (up to 3.5 mg%) and other complex organic substances.
Folk medicine uses diaphoretic, diuretic, anti-inflammatory, emollient and mild laxative properties of cucumber. In addition, it is known that herbal infusions stimulate metabolism, normalize heart activity and improve appetite. Traditional healers recommend taking them for inflammation of the urinary tract, fever, respiratory diseases, rheumatism, various neuroses, gout and skin diseases. Cucumber herb salad has long been known as a blood purifier and at the same time prevents the development of various inflammatory processes in internal organs.
Cucumber is one of the plants most visited by bees in the middle zone. When sown in pasture areas, cucumber grass is a good honey bearer. One flower of the plant releases 1.4-2 mg of sugar (in nectar) per day, and the honey productivity of a cucumber plant exceeds 400 kg from 1 hectare. Honey is light, pleasant to the taste.
Herbal infusion. 1 tablespoon of grass or 1 teaspoon of flowers per 200 ml of boiling water, insist until cool, filter. 1/4 cup 4 times a day. Drink slightly chilled.
Salad with cucumber herb. Boiled potatoes are sprinkled with finely chopped cucumber leaves and chopped onions, seasoned with sour cream; salt and spices are added to taste.