BAGNO BOLOTYANE (BREDULETS) —
Ledum palustre L.
The heather family is Ericaceae
What does it look like? A dense evergreen bush 50-120 cm tall with a strong heady smell that resembles the smell of camphor. The leaves are leathery, linear-oblong with curved edges, pointed, alternating, green on top, shiny, wrinkled, with thick reddish-felt pubescence on the bottom. The flowers are collected in multi-flowered (15-25) bunches, white, rarely reddish, on long, thin peduncles. Blooms in May – June.
Where does it grow? In the north of Polissia – in swamps, in wet pine forests, on tufted meadows, in its southern part – in small islands, it is occasionally found in the Carpathians and the Carpathians.
What and when are collected? The whole plant – during flowering, leaves and young shoots – in August – September.
When is it used? For bronchial asthma, as an expectorant (for acute and chronic bronchitis in a mixture with the leaves of small nettle — Urtica urens L., — in a ratio of 2:1), also for whooping cough, jaundice, gout, rheumatism, for spastic enterocolitis, urinary incontinence, flu (as a preventive measure for epidemics), for eczema. It acts as a diaphoretic and narcotic agent due to the content of volatile oil (ledol, palustrol), arbutin glycoside (ericoline), flavonoids (quercitrin), tannins, phytoncides.
In the form of tea, it is prepared like this. Add 1 tablespoon of leaves or young shoots to 1 cup of boiling water and infuse for 10 minutes. They drink half a glass 5-6 times a day. Children with severe bouts of whooping cough are given 1 teaspoon several times a day. As an expectorant, a decoction of a mixture of the grass of the marsh swamp, fennel and althea root is used in a ratio of 1:2:2, pour 2 teaspoons of the mixture with 1 cup of boiling water, boil for 1 minute, infuse for 20 minutes, strain and drink half a glass 3–4 times a day Externally, a decoction of fresh flowers or shoots is used in olive oil (1:9), which is infused. 12 hours in the oven, and in the form of drops let into the nose for acute rhinitis, flu. For rheumatism, aches, as well as scabies, head lice, an ointment made as follows is used. 1 part of the finely chopped flowering plant and 1 part of the finely chopped root of the white hellebore are mixed with 3 parts of melted pork lard and infused for 12 hours (without boiling) in a warm oven. Then strain into a jar, cover and, if necessary, rub into the skin. Leaf powdermarsh wort and its leaves act as an insecticidal agent against moths and bedbugs (also mixed with motherwort). The house is fumigated with it to fight against flies.