DYAGEL LIKARSKY —
Archangelica officinalis (Moench.) Hoffm.
Celery family – Ariaceae, or Umbelliferae – Umbelliferae
What does it look like? Biennial plant 1-2 m tall. The rhizome is shortened, cylindrical, brown on top, white inside, with a peculiar pleasant smell, sharp-bitter to the taste, up to 5 cm thick, when broken, it releases milky juice. The leaves are large with large inflated sheaths, their lobes are large, two- and three-porous, serrated at the edges. The umbrella is large, multi-beam. The flowers are greenish-white. The fruit is a flat dicot with wings on the sides. Blooms in June – July.
Where does it grow? In Polissia, in the forest-steppe, in the steppe (along the banks of the Oskol, Dinets, Krasnaya rivers)—all over the territory of Ukraine, except Crimea, in the oolots, near the banks of rivers, in wet places, its relative Angelica silvestris L.—the wood piper—reveals the same action like a healing angel.
What and when are collected? Rhizomes and roots, in autumn after the leaves have withered. They are washed, cut into pieces crosswise, strung on a thread and dried in the shade or near the stove.
When is it used? Angelica rhizome contains: volatile oil, terpenes, phellandrene and cymol, pectins, sucrose, sitosterol, tannins, angelic resin, angelic, valerian and acetic acids, starch, sugar, bitterness, furocoumarin. It is drunk as a diuretic and carminative, which relieves pain and has an antispasmodic effect, stimulates peristalsis of the intestines and improves digestion. Fresh angelica roots cooked in sugar are used to prepare a delicious candied fruit, which reduces the processes of fermentation and putrefaction in the intestines, and has a carminative effect. Diagel quickly removes sticky and viscous sputum from the bronchi, tones the cardiovascular and central nervous systems (with hypochondria and hysteria, paralysis, urinary incontinence), expels bile.
Add 1 tablespoon of crushed root to 1 glass of water, boil for 10 minutes and drink spoonfuls up to 5 times a day. For bloating and colic, take 1 tablespoon of a mixture (in equal measure) of crushed angelica root, yarrow, and oak bark in 1 glass of water .
In case of insufficient activity of the kidneys, to increase urination, boil 1 tablespoon of a mixture (equally) of crushed angelica root and horsetail grass in 1 glass of water for 10 minutes, drink 3 glasses a day. With persistent diarrhea, add 2-4 to 1 glass of boiling water spoons of a decoction of a mixture of bitter wormwood, horsetail, angelica root, St. John’s wort, St. John’s wort, or centuria (5 g each), 0.5 l of red wine, to which, after it had steamed for half an hour in a covered vessel, another 2 g of cold mint and valerian root. They drink 3 glasses of such tea a day. In the form of a powder, it is used three times a day for flatulence at the tip of a knife.
20-30 drops of alcohol tincture on the roots of angelica or wood piper are taken inside three times a day; the body is rubbed with the same tincture for rheumatic and gouty pains, as well as for lower back pain.
The juice squeezed from the raw rhizomes of angelica (or piper) and inserted into the cavity of the tooth (also by chewing the rhizomes of angelica ) calms the pain. For earaches and twitching, a few drops of this juice are injected into the ear canal. A decoction of angelica seeds and root heals persistent and long-standing rashes on the body.
Against bed lice, an ointment is used, which is made as follows. Mix 1 tablespoon of finely chopped yarrow root with 1 teaspoon of angelica (or piper) seeds, rub them well, and mix with unsalted lard. This ointment is smeared with a thin layer, rubbing a little, all over the body. The body is rubbed with an alcohol tincture of angelica (or bagpiper) rhizomes for rheumatism, gout, and muscle pain (see above). In case of hysteria and mild forms of nervous excitement, crushed angelica and piper roots are added in the form of a decoction or steam to baths (pine, spruce, rosemary).