Fresh herbs and bulbs.
Pharmacy name: bear onion herb – Allii ursini herba (formerly: Herba Allii ursini), bear onion bulbs – Allii ursini bulbus (formerly: Bulbus Allii ursini).
Botanical description. From an elongated bulb surrounded by transparent scales, a peduncle grows up to 25 cm in height with white star-shaped flowers collected in an umbrella. Both basal leaves are lanceolate. The whole plant has a very strong garlic odor, especially if you crush a piece between your fingers. Blooms in May-June. Found throughout Europe, mainly in shady, moist forests with humus-rich soil.
Collection and preparation. Bear onions must be consumed fresh, as when dried, its healing properties are lost. Greens are harvested in April-May, and the bulbs are dug in the fall.
Active ingredients: essential oil (garlic), flavonoids, biocatalysts, fructose and a lot of vitamin C.
Healing action and application. Everything that is said about the action and use of garlic applies to bear onions. You just have to choose one or another plant, because they taste different. Scientific medicine, unlike traditional medicine, does not use the healing power of the bear’s bow much.
Use as a condiment. Fresh bear onions are added as a spice to salads, soups, vegetables; it is especially good with soft cheese and cottage cheese. Since this can only be done in spring, I would like to advise every spicy lover to generously season all spring salads and soups with it, since the active substances stimulate digestion and have a good effect on the functioning of the liver, stomach and intestines.
Application in folk medicine.Bear onions are used mainly for disorders of the stomach and intestines, in the absence of appetite, general weakness. Patients are given finely chopped greens or juice is prepared, which should be taken 10-20 drops 10-20 times every day. To hide an unpleasant (for some) taste, juice is added to milk. How highly the bear’s onion was highly valued, will be shown by Künzle’s phrase from an old herbalist: “Perhaps, not a single herb of the Earth cleanses the stomach, intestines and blood so well as the bear’s onion.” When there is no fresh greens, use onions, also finely chopped, or juice squeezed out of them. In folk medicine, bear’s onion also serves as a remedy for atherosclerosis and lowers blood pressure. It is said that it is far superior to garlic in terms of effectiveness, since it has lost a significant part of its original strength over millennia of cultivation.
Side effects. The sharpness and unpleasant taste of the bear’s onion exclude an overdose, and with normal – no side effects were found. Attention! The leaves of the bear’s onion are similar to the poisonous leaves of the lily of the valley and the deadly poisonous leaves of the autumn colchicum. In order not to confuse, it is enough to rub them in your fingers – the garlic smell of a bear’s onion will allow you to identify it.