SNAKE BITTER (CANCER CERVICS) —
Polygonum bistorta L
Buckwheat family — Polygonaceae
What does it look like? Perennial, herbaceous plant, 30-100 cm tall. Its stem is simple, with few linear sessile leaves. Inflorescences are single, on a long leafless peduncle, dense, spike-like, oblong, cylindrical, pink or white flowers. Its rhizome is thick, slightly flattened, similar to crab necks, bent in the form of a snake, brown on the outside, pink on the inside. Blooms in May – July.
Where does it grow? It grows on peat soil – in the Carpathians, in Polissia, less often – in the forest-steppe, rarely found in the steppe.
What and when are collected? In autumn, rhizomes are dug up. Dry in the oven at a temperature of 70°.
When is it used? As a means that regulates the functional activity of the gastrointestinal tract, as an astringent and hemostatic agent. It is used for diarrhea, diseases of the urinary bladder, gallstones and gallstones (boil 20 g of root in 1 liter of water, drink 1-1.5 glasses a day, following a diet without meat, salt, alcohol, fish, eggs).
In case of internal bleeding (stomach ulcer, intestinal ulcer), a decoction of a mixture of 5 g of snake mustard root powder and 1 teaspoon of flax seed in 200 ml of water is used – every 2 hours, 1 tablespoon (content of tannins, pectins, bistor-tov rind, mucus) , carotene, vitamin C). From a decoction of 15 g of mustard root powder in 500 ml of water, lotions are made for old wounds, boils; douching with warm water for baldness in women, gargled with inflammation of the mucous membrane.