May is ending. In some places, half-withered lilies of the valley still remained in shady places. Here are some very fresh ones. But we were wrong – often, even up close, this plant can be confused with the queen of May flowers – the lily of the valley.
Grushanka round-leaved is a herbaceous perennial 15-30 cm tall. Its leaves are round or oval, petiolate. Peduncle with two or three membranous leaves that almost cover it. The flowers are white or pink, wide open, with a weak aroma, collected in a multi-flowered tassel, which is why the pear is often mistaken for a lily of the valley. It blooms at the end of May, but individual flowering individuals also occur at the beginning of July. The fruit is a box. It grows in coniferous and mixed forests, sometimes in birch forests. A common plant of non-chernozem belt of Russia. In Ukraine, it grows scattered in the Carpathians, Prykarpattia, Polissia, occasionally in the forest-steppe, pine, mixed, sometimes deciduous forests, on wet meadows, in the mountains.
The above-ground part of the plant collected during flowering is used to prepare medicines. Gyrushanka is used only in folk medicine.
The leaves of the plant contain glycosides arbutin and emulsin, ascorbic acid (up to 60 mg%) and sucrose.
Preparations obtained from round-leaved pear have valuable medicinal properties — they are prescribed as a diuretic, astringent (due to the high content of tannins), antispasmodic, anti-inflammatory and antiseptic. They help with catarrh of the gastrointestinal tract, spastic phenomena in the muscles of the digestive organs (colic), chronic inflammation of the kidneys and bladder (purulent urine), inflammatory diseases of the female genital organs, headaches and rheumatic pains. Plant preparations are effective for postpartum and hemorrhoidal bleeding, their use is useful for diabetes and scurvy.
An infusion of the herb is used to rinse the mouth and throat in case of inflammation, it is also used to wash purulent wounds. In addition, fresh plant juice is used to treat wounds that do not heal for a long time.
Medicinal properties of gooseberry are widely used in Tibetan medicine: its products are used for liver diseases and bone tuberculosis, as well as as an antipyretic.
Herbal infusion. 1 tablespoon of raw material per 200 ml of boiling water. Insist for 2 hours, filter. Take 1-2 tablespoons three times a day.
Herbal tincture. Dried gooseberry grass is infused in 40% alcohol (vodka) in a ratio of 1:10. Take 25 drops three times a day.
Herbal infusion (external). 1 tablespoon of raw material per 200 ml of boiling water. Insist for 2 hours, filter. Rinse the mouth and throat, wash the wounds.
Fresh chopped leaves. Applied to wounds.