Popular names: hare coat, dew grass.
Parts Used: Above ground (without root).
Pharmacy name: herb cuff – Alchemillae herba (formerly: Herba Alchemillae).
Botanical description. The plant consists of a perennial rhizome, from which flower-bearing shoots 10-50 cm long, glabrous or pubescent, branching depart. Leaves remain somewhat folded when mature. In general outline, they are rounded, 3-8 cm in size, sometimes naked, but more often pubescent (shaggy), with serrated edges. Small, inconspicuous, yellowish-green flowers, only a few millimeters in size, are collected at the ends of the branches in clusters. Blooms from May to August (September). Found in shrubs, light forests, meadows, dry ditches and roadsides, often forming flat sods.
Collection and preparation. The leaves are harvested from spring to July and air-dried in the shade. They should be collected when the morning dew or drops of water that are actively secreted by the plant (guttation) dry on wet nights.
Active ingredients: tannins, bitterness, a little essential oil, flavonoids.
Healing action and application. Although there are some herbal products – such as cuffed tea blends for metabolic disorders and menopausal ailments in women – they are considered ineffective by scientific medicine. These products have been studied little, serious tests have not been conducted. The German Public Health Service indicates the use as an additional remedy in the treatment of acute non-specific diarrhea and other gastrointestinal diseases in adults and children as areas of application and recommends that you consult a doctor no later than 3-4 days later, if the diarrhea does not go away.
Application in folk medicine. In folk medicine, contrary to scientific opinion, cuff tea is highly valued. It is used against menopause ailments and too heavy menstruation, with gastrointestinal diseases, sometimes for coughing. Tea from the cuff is often used in the so-called cleansing course of treatment, and the elimination of skin rashes in young girls is especially noted. In this case, a tea mixture of equal parts of violet tricolor and cuff is best suited. As an external use, this tea is used for washing and rinsing the vagina with leucorrhoea in young girls, for washing festering wounds, inflamed eyes and weeping eczema; they also rinse the mouth and throat with inflammation of the mucosa.
- Cuff tea: 1 not very full tablespoon of cuff herb is poured into 1/4 liter of water and heated to a boil. Then stand in a warm place for about 10-15 minutes and filter. Or 2 teaspoons of cuff herb is poured into 1/4 L of boiling water and allowed to stand for 10 minutes. If necessary, take 1-3 cups inside every day. This tea can also be used externally for the above purposes.
Side effects are unknown.