Name: Summer oak
SUMMER OAK (Pedunculate)( Wild Oak )
A tree up to 40 m tall with a powerful branched root, with a trunk up to 7 m in diameter, with a widely spreading crown, with cracked dark brown bark (op-corky on top). The leaves are alternate, with early falling stipules, short-petiolate, obovate, pinnately lobed. Flowers bisexual. Male – in dangling brushes (earrings), within the flower bed yellow-green of 5-9 leaves with 5-10 stamens; female (their number is 2-7), dressed with numerous scaly wrappers. Blooms in May. The fruits ripen in September.
Medicinal raw material is a young smooth bark without a cork layer on the outside and without wood residues on the inside, sometimes in folk medicine – acorns. The bark is torn off from young branches (in early spring during the period of sap flow before the leaves bloom) up to 6 mm thick and thin trunks up to 10 cm in diameter. The smell is weak, the taste is strongly astringent. Dry in the shade or ventilated area. The period of storage of raw materials is 5 years.
The main active ingredient is tannins, which are contained in amounts up to 20% in various parts of the plant and mainly determine the practical use of medicinal raw materials. In addition, oak bark contains protein substances, starch, quartzite and levulin, pectin substances, sugar. In acorns – up to 40% starch, 5-8% tannins, sugar, fatty oil. The sheets contain tannins, dyes and other chemically active substances.
Oak bark is used as an astringent and anti-inflammatory agent based on the ability of tannins to thicken cell membranes.
A decoction of oak bark is used as an anti-inflammatory agent in the form of rinses for stomatitis, gingivitis, chronic tonsillitis, pharyngitis, orally – for gastric bleeding, as an antidiarrheal, for gastritis, as an appetite enhancer, antiseptic and hemostatic agent for ulcerative colitis, enterocolitis, dysentery in a mixture with other plants. Outwardly, a decoction of the bark of a young oak is also used in the complex treatment of burns, skin diseases accompanied by profuse exudation, with excessive sweating of the legs, also with inflammatory diseases of the urogenital environment (in the form of douching), with trichomonas colpitis.
In folk medicine, oak bark is used to stop bleeding from wounds (lotion), for hemorrhoids with bleeding, burns.
Inside, the decoction is used for stomach ulcers, gastric bleeding (tarry feces), the presence of blood in the urine, diarrhea and frequent urge to urinate.
In the form of rinses – with gingivitis, bad breath, stomatitis, tonsillitis, inflammation of the mucous membrane of the pharynx and larynx, to strengthen the gums.
Previously, oak bark was very widely used in the treatment of all types of malaria and pulmonary tuberculosis (oak bark was part of the very popular anti-tuberculosis so-called “Jewish extract”). Inside, a decoction of the bark is used for rickets.
A warm infusion of leaves, acorns and bark in red wine as a compress is used to treat hernia.
Application
Decoction 1: for rinsing the mouth, prepare in a ratio of 1:10. The bark is crushed to particles no larger than 3 mm, doused with water at room temperature (water is taken taking into account losses for boiling), closed, heated in a water bath with frequent stirring for half an hour, cooled for 10 minutes, filtered, squeezed and add water to volume 1:10. The drug perfectly strengthens the gums of the teeth.
Decoction 2: 40 g or 1 teaspoon of bark in 1 liter of water for internal use.
And also pay attention to the article Common oak