NETTLE DOUBLE (Stinging nettle)
Perennial dioecious herbaceous ubiquitous plant up to 1 m tall. Rhizome creeping, at the nodes covered with bundles of adventitious roots. The stem is straight, furrowed, slightly tetrahedral, branching at the top. The leaves are opposite, with stipules, simple, petiolate, heart-shaped, coarsely serrated along the edge, like the stem, covered with burning hairs. Flowers small, unisexual, green, in axillary racemes. Male flowers with a four-parted flower bed and 4 stamens. Female – with a four-lobed within the flower bed, with one pistil and one-celled ovary. The fruit is a nut. Blooms from mid-June to autumn.
Medicinal raw materials are leaves collected during flowering, and in folk medicine, leaves, roots and flowers.
Stinging nettle should not be confused with stinging nettle, which is common, but not used in scientific medicine. Stinging nettle is a shorter monoecious plant, has great pungency, its leaves are large-toothed.
Stinging nettle grows on weedy bridges, bushes, within dwellings and in forests along river banks.
Nettle leaves contain: vitamins C, K, B|, pantothenic acid, glycoside urticin, chlorophyll, tannins and proteins, formic acid, protoporphyrin and coproporphyrin, phytosterone, histaline, also carotenoids: carotene, xanthophyll, xanthophyllate oxide, violaxanthin, salts iron, calcium, etc. The cell sap of nettle hairs contains formic acid, which causes its pungency.
In scientific medicine, nettle is used mainly as a hemostatic agent for uterine, renal, intestinal, and pulmonary bleeding, since the plant contains vitamins K, C, carotene and chlorophyll. The latter has the ability to enhance metabolism, increase the tone of the uterus and intestines, accelerate the regeneration of damaged tissues, excite the cardiovascular system and the respiratory center. Nettle is prescribed as a multivitamin for hypovitaminosis, hemostatic – for pulmonary, intestinal, renal and uterine bleeding, as well as bleeding of the gastrointestinal tract; externally – for the treatment of poorly healing wounds, with bleeding. At the same time, not only blood clotting increases, but hemoglobin and the number of red blood cells increase. Nettle has a good anti-inflammatory effect.
In folk medicine, it has long been successfully used as a hemostatic agent for hemoptysis, severe nosebleeds, uterine and hemorrhoidal bleeding; in the form of fresh juice – with bleeding of the lungs, kidneys, gastrointestinal, with anemia; as a blood purifier – for anemia, atherosclerosis, muscular and joint rheumatism, sugar disease, pulmonary tuberculosis, diseases of the liver, gallbladder, gastrointestinal tract (stomach cramps, vomiting, dyspepsia and diarrhea), headaches, colds, fever and even malaria ; water decoction is drunk after childbirth, from whooping cough (more effective decoction of the roots), hemorrhoids, skin diseases accompanied by itching, with thrush, diseases of the spleen. The section of fresh nettle replaces the blister patch and is useful for articular rheumatism, sciatica.
Application
Tincture in combination with garlic: mix 2 parts of nettle root with 1 part of garlic and pour 20 parts of vodka (i.e. 1 tablespoon of nettle root and 1/2 tablespoon of garlic per 0.5 l of vodka); insist 6-8 days and drink 1 tbsp. spoon 3 times every day with the addition of water for fever. malaria. The body is rubbed with the same tincture. Preparations from the root are more often effective than products from the leaves.
Water decoction of the whole plant (15 g per 200 ml) drink 1-2 tbsp. spoons before meals 3 times every day to regulate the functional activity of the stomach, with headaches.
With a persistent cough, candied roots (cooked in sugar syrup) help well. As an expectorant, they drink tea from nettle flowers – 1 pinch per 4 cups, the same with sugar disease.
A decoction of herbs with honey or sugar (preferably with root) is drunk with “old” stones, to improve the functioning of the heart, liver, kidneys, with anemia, as a blood purifier for gastritis, pulmonary tuberculosis, liver disease, colds, after childbirth, from whooping cough.
With severe hemorrhoidal pain, a mixture is prepared from nettle leaves and the year before last, buckthorn bark; take both 8 g per 1 liter of boiling water, keep on low heat for 10-15 minutes; take 1 glass 4 times every day.
In the presence of boils, it is recommended to use a decoction of leaves or an extract inside. If, with all this, urination is reduced and constipation occurs, dandelion leaves and sloe flowers should be added to the decoction or extract in equal amounts; 2 tbsp. brew spoons of this mixture in 2 cups of boiling water, soar in the oven for 2-3 hours and drink half a cup 3 times every day.
In case of hair loss, boil 100 g of finely chopped and sifted leaves for half an hour in 500 ml of water mixed in half with vinegar. Wash your hair before bed.
From worms – a decoction of roots and fruits (15 g per 200 ml), 2-3 tbsp. reception spoons.
Stomach tea. Brew 1 tbsp. a spoonful of herbs in 2 cups of boiling water, boil for 10 minutes. Strain and drink 0.5-1 glass at night.
Liquid extract: 30% or decoction, condensed to half; extract – 25-30 drops, decoction – 1 teaspoon 3 times every day.
Fresh juice, replacing the extract, is taken 1 teaspoon 3 times every day. For tumors of the spleen, take 3 times every day at the end of a knife a powder from a mixture (in equal parts) of sage leaves, lanceolate plantain leaves and stinging nettle leaves, washed down with water.
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