A half-bush is 1-2 (sometimes up to 3) m tall. Stems with thin spines; green, red or purple. The leaves are odd-pinnate, with 3-5 ovate leaflets. The flowers are white or greenish-white, forming tassel-like or shield-like inflorescences. The plant blooms in June, fruiting in July-August. The fruit is a red or yellow juicy drupe, or rather a set of drupes. Raspberries grow in forests, on forest fires and clearings, forest edges and slopes of ravines, stony screes and banks of rivers, streams, in wet places of the middle strip of Russia. In the mountains, it is widespread up to the subalpine belt. In Ukraine, it grows wild in all forest areas, in the north of the forest-steppe zone in forests, among shrubs, on forest floodplains. Wild raspberry is the progenitor of all cultivated varieties.
Medicinal, food and honey plant. Dried fruits are used in scientific medicine, and leaves and flowers are used by folk healers.
For medical purposes, the fruits are collected as they ripen, picked and freed from the peduncles, dried in the air, and then dried at a temperature of 35-40 °C. Dried fruits are stored for two years. They are released in specialized pharmacies. Leaves and flowers are collected in May-June, dried under shelter in the open air.
Fresh raspberry fruits contain up to 5.7% (according to other data – up to 9.5%) sugars (glucose, sucrose, fructose), organic acids (malic, tartaric, citric, salicylic, formic), pectin substances, B 2 vitamins , C, nicotinic and folic acids, flavonoids, tannins, micro- and macroelements. Leaves and flowers contain tannins, flavonoids, sugars, organic acids, vitamin C and various mineral salts. The seeds (stones) are rich in fatty oil (up to 22%).
Fresh and dried raspberry fruits are used in scientific medicine. Fresh raspberry berries are a dietary product, especially useful for atherosclerosis, anemia, hypertension and diabetes. They improve digestion, stimulate appetite, alleviate the condition of patients with eczema of various origins. Syrup is made from fresh fruits, which is used to improve the taste of medicines. Dried raspberry tea has diaphoretic and anti-inflammatory properties, its use is useful for colds. Dried berries are part of many antiperspirant teas.
Raspberry fruits are contraindicated in gout and nephritis.
Folk medicine uses the plant much more widely. It is believed that raspberry leaves have astringent, anti-inflammatory, anti-toxic, hemostatic and blood-purifying properties. People drink an infusion of leaves for diseases of the respiratory system, cough and febrile conditions, diarrhea, enterocolitis, gastric bleeding, hemorrhoids, and excessive menstruation. Externally, infusions of leaves are used for rinsing with stomatitis, pharyngitis, and sore throats, as well as for lotions and irrigations of the body surface for skin diseases.
Infusion of flowers is taken internally for fever and hemorrhoids, and used externally to wash the eyes for conjunctivitis and blepharitis.
Fresh berries have been eaten since ancient times. They are aromatic and have high nutritional qualities. Raspberries are eaten fresh, with milk and cream, jams, jellies, syrups, marmalade and pastila are prepared.
Bees, collecting raspberry nectar, process it into high-quality light honey. The honey productivity of wild raspberry thickets is up to 150 kg per hectare.
Infusion of dried leaves. 2 tablespoons of raw material per 200 ml of boiling water, infuse for 15-20 minutes, filter. Take 2 cups at a time as a diaphoretic.
Infusion of leaves. 2 tablespoons of dry leaves per 500 ml of boiling water, infuse for 2 hours, filter. Take 1/2 cup 4 times a day before meals.
Infusion of flowers. 20 g of raw material per 200 ml of boiling water. Take 1 tablespoon 3-4 times a day.