Name: Yarrow (yarrow)
THOUSAND-LEAFED TREE (BLOODWOOD) —
Achillea millefolium L.
The Asteraceae family is Asteraceae, or Compositae
What does it look like? Perennial herb 20-50 cm tall, with a pleasant smell (balsamic). The rhizome is creeping, with shoots. The stem is straight, slightly hairy, like the leaves. The leaves are pubescent. The baskets, collected in many oblong complex shields at the top of the stem and its branches, are small, fragrant, usually white (but pink or with a purple tint are found), and taste bitter. Blooms in May – October.
Where does it grow? All over the territory of Ukraine — on meadows, fields, borders, near roads, on slopes, bushes, forests.
What and when are collected? Leaves, inflorescences and flowers during flowering.
When is it used? With diseases of the liver, kidneys and bladder, with stomach ulcers, gastritis, with severe pains (spasms) in the stomach; as hemostatic (to increase the number of platelets in the blood) with bloody diarrhea, nosebleeds, hemoptysis; with scanty menstruation, hemorrhoids, ulcers, wounds, to improve metabolism; for dizziness, nausea, headache (antiallergic effect), to improve digestion (glycoalkaloid achilein, tannins, flavone glycosides, sesquiterpene achiline, stachydrine, choline, asparagine, apigenin, volatile oil, which contains borneol, cineole, azulene, pinene, camphor, thujone, bitterness, vitamins C and K, phytoncides), as a diaphoretic; with nocturnal incontinence in children and anemia.
Used in the form of tea. Take 1 tablespoon of yarrow per 1 cup of boiling water and infuse for 10 minutes. They drink 2 glasses a day, in sips. Patients who previously had rashes on the body should not take yarrow internally, because the rashes may reappear. For severe stomach pains, yarrow is used in a mixture with chamomile flowers — 1 tablespoon of yarrow and 1 tablespoon of chamomile flowers on 1 cup of boiling water. In case of inflammation of the urinary bladder, phenomena of calculous pyelonephritis and hematuria caused by the presence of stones in the urinary tract, 2 tablespoons of a mixture of yarrow, birch buds, milk thistle leaves, lovage grass and yarrow rhizomes in a ratio of 2:2:2:1:1 are taken in 2.5 glasses of raw water, boiled for 5-7 minutes, infused for half an hour, the decoction is drunk 4 times a day. Powdered leaves have a hemostatic and anti-inflammatory effect on a par with nettle leaves (azulene from yarrow volatile oil).
In case of chronic gastritis and peptic ulcer disease, 2 tablespoons of crushed yarrow herb are boiled in 250 ml of water for 5-10 minutes and half a glass of the decoction is drunk three times a day 10-15 minutes before meals for 25-30 days. Tincture of yarrow baskets with 70% alcohol in a ratio of 1:5 is recommended for angina, spasms of the smooth muscles of the intestines (20 drops before meals). It has an antispasmodic and vasodilating effect.
To treat obesity, take 1 tablespoon of a mixture of yarrow grassyarrow, bearded grass cysts of St. John’s wort in a ratio of 4:2:2 or a mixture of yarrow grass, lovage root, juniper cone berries, bearded cysts, buckthorn bark and shingles bark in a ratio of 50 : 5 : 5 : 10 : 20 : 10 per 1 glass of water, boil for 5-7 minutes and drink hot 1 glass in the morning for a long time. Excessive sweets, fatty and flour dishes should be avoided. Yarrow juice with honey is used to increase appetite and improve metabolism, as well as for liver diseases and women’s diseases (uterine bleeding in parametritis). Increases the amount of milk in breastfeeding mothers. Take 1 teaspoon three times a day. M. A. Nosal recommends adding 24 drops of yarrow juice to 2 glasses of weak grape wine with strong palpitationsand 24 drops of rue juice – drink twice a day.
Juice squeezed from clean yarrow leaves , applied to a fresh wound, stops bleeding and promotes healing. A decoction of yarrow with an admixture of 1/3 of chamomile flowers also works. This steam is good for washing the face, especially when there are rashes on the skin. The skin acquires a pleasant matte color.