(Caltha palustris); frog grass; the Zhovtets family (Ranunculaceae); marsh cloister
One of the earliest flowering plants. You need to look for it in wet meadows, in lowlands, along the banks of rivers, streams and ponds with slow-flowing water. Sometimes wet meadows are completely covered with bright, golden-yellow flowers that resemble buttercups, but are much larger. Kalyuzhnytsia is really the closest relative of October, it is popularly called frog grass. The main name comes from the Old Russian word “kalyuzha”, which means “swampy, wet place”.
Marsh sedge is a herbaceous perennial. Its height is 15-70 cm. The stem of the plant is fleshy, erect or ascending, sometimes branched at the top. The leaves of the basal rosette are petiolate, dark green, shiny, serrated at the edges, and those located above are sessile. Flowers with a diameter of up to 5 cm, bloom in late April – early May. The fruit is a leaf. A common puddle throughout the middle strip of Russia, there is in Siberia, where it enters the polar-arctic zone and high mountain regions. In Ukraine, it occurs throughout the territory of swamps and wet places.
The plant is used only in folk medicine. For medicinal purposes, the grass of a puddle is harvested during flowering. The aerial part of the plant contains saponins, alkaloids, flavonoids, ascorbic acid (vitamin C) (up to 37 mg%), carotene (provitamin A), tannins and some other substances.
The plant is used externally as an anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving agent for the treatment of bruises, wounds, rheumatism, and neurodermatitis. The raw material of a puddle has an irritating effect and can cause blisters on the skin, so poultices and compresses from the dry herb of the plant should be used with caution.
Much less often and in very small quantities (the plant has toxic properties), decoctions and infusions are taken internally for bronchitis, whooping cough, anemia, scurvy, and painful menstruation. There is evidence that a puddle helps with some malignant neoplasms.
An overdose of plant products causes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and skin rash. After the flowering of a puddle, its toxicity decreases sharply, so they begin to harvest raw materials after the first flowers bloom.
In some countries (in Russia – in Siberia), the buds of the plant are scalded with boiling water, marinated in vinegar and eaten as a seasoning for meat and fish dishes. In Western Europe, the finished product is called “German capers”. In the Caucasus, the tops of the stems are dried, and in winter they are added to meat soups and seasoned roasts. For consumption, parts of the plant are collected only after the flowering of the plant, when they lose their toxic properties.
Poultices from grass. 2-3 tablespoons of dry grass are wrapped in gauze, dipped in boiling water, cooled slightly and applied to wounds, bruises and affected areas of the body.