FOREST STRAWBERRY (Sunitsі lіsovі)
Perennial herbaceous plant up to 15-20 cm tall. Rhizome oblique, short, with numerous adventitious roots, brownish-brown, thin. Stems of 2 types: one recumbent, thin, rooting (whiskers), others flowering, erect, leafy. The leaves are trifoliate, large, toothed, silky fibrous. The flowers are white on long stalks in few-flowered semi-umbels. The calyx with the subcup remains with the fetus. The fruit is false, incorrectly called a berry, formed by a fleshy receptacle, overhanging, red, with numerous achenes. Blooms from May to July. The fruits ripen in June-July.
A widespread plant in the middle zone of the European part of Russia.
Medicinal raw materials are fruits and leaves in fresh or dried form.
The leaves are harvested during the budding of plants, almost all summer, plucking them with long petioles, hanging them in bundles in a dark place, in attics or in a ventilated place. The berries are dried quickly, placed in a dryer or oven and kept at a temperature of +60…+65°C. Storage period 2 years.
Strawberry fruits contain a lot of vitamin C (up to 92 mg%), carotene, vitamin B6, traces of vitamin B, sugar, citric, malic, salicylic, quinic, tannic acids, pectin, anticyanine compounds, up to 4% fiber, a small amount of mineral substances, phytoncides.
The leaves contain ascorbic acid and traces of alkaloids. The roots contain many tannins.
Strawberries are used in medicine as a dietary remedy for diseases of the heart, liver and kidneys, as well as a source of vitamin C for gout, cholelithiasis, nephrolithiasis. Effective as a diuretic that promotes the release of salts and nitrogenous waste from the body.
It is prescribed not often in large quantities as a general tonic for the regulation of intestinal activity, also in inflammatory diseases of the stomach and biliary tract. It excites appetite, regulates digestion, quenches thirst. In large quantities, strawberries have an antithyroid effect, lowering the absorption of iodine by the thyroid gland.
In folk medicine, strawberries are very popular. Usually make a decoction of the whole plant, collected during flowering, but harvested all summer. They drink a decoction like tea, hot and cold, when they are thirsty, with colds, high fever, with diseases of the heart, liver, kidneys, gallbladder, urinary incontinence, sclerosis, cough, pulmonary tuberculosis, goiter, anemia, leukemia, with stones in kidneys and liver, gout and scurvy. If you eat a lot (up to 3 kg) of fresh strawberries, then adding herring and onions, you can expel the tapeworm.
Wild strawberry grass is used as a decoction for inflammation of the small intestines, gastritis, catarrh of the large intestine, accompanied by constipation and diarrhea. Strawberries are also taken for jaundice, rickets, hemorrhoids.
Outwardly, the fruits of strawberries are used for advanced eczema. In this case, they take ripe berries, pour them on gauze or clean linen, rub and apply to the affected area of the skin 3-4 times for a period of 6-8 hours. The root is used externally for rheumatism. Grass – from freckles, beehives are rubbed with juice of berries so that the bees do not get sick. All berry and leaf products are taken before meals.
Application
A decoction of the leaves: 3-4 g of the leaves are brewed with two cups of boiling water and this tea is taken in sips throughout the day for cholelithiasis, spleen disease, gastritis, bronchial asthma, nervous seizures and insomnia, cancer of the larynx.
Decoction of the whole plant: 20 g per 200 ml; 2-3 tbsp. spoons 3 times every day.
Leaf tea: 1 tbsp. pour a glass of boiling water over a spoonful of crushed leaves; boil for 5-10 minutes, insist 2 hours, take 1 tbsp. spoon 5-6 times every day. This infusion is used for inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, atherosclerosis, for gargling with tonsillitis.
Tea (other): 1 tbsp. a spoonful of crushed leaves and rhizomes with roots is poured into a glass of water, the roots are boiled for 15-20 minutes and crushed leaves are added, insisted until cool, drink with atherosclerosis in 3 divided doses.
Strawberries are advised to be taken by patients with diabetes, who are deprived of the possibility of using ordinary sugar. Strawberry leaves make a pleasant vitamin tea.
Note: it must be borne in mind that strawberries cause allergies in some people, which is expressed in the appearance of urticaria, skin itching, etc. When such symptoms appear, one should stop eating strawberries, take a solution of calcium chloride, ephedrine, or rub the body with onion juice.
And also give respect to the statue of Sunitsa forest