Rotational – Menyanthaceae.
Popular names: water shamrock, beaver, river lapushnik, three-legged.
Parts Used: Leaves.
Pharmacy name: trifoli leaves – Trifolii fibrini folium (formerly: Folia Trifolii fibrini).
Botanical description. Watch grows on swampy or silty soils and has a creeping rhizome up to 1 m in length. Roots emerging from the nodes of the rhizome, it is fixed in the soil. The end of such a shoot rises up and takes out a bunch of 3 or 4 trifoliate leaves. The inflorescence is a multi-flowered raceme on a long peduncle. Flowers with a funnel-shaped 5-membered corolla of pinkish-white color, pubescent from the inside. A lovely plant that has not yet been destroyed, perhaps because if we want to pick it, we risk getting our feet wet. Blooms from May to July. Occurs in swamps, along ditches along meadows, in peat bogs, along the banks of ponds and lakes.
Collection and preparation. Leaves are harvested, cut together with petioles from May to July and dried in the open air. Previously, we imported it from the USSR, Poland, Yugoslavia and Hungary.
active ingredients. The main active ingredients of the watch are the bitterness of the glycosidic nature. In addition to tannins and flavonoids, all other substances are concomitant (although not without exception).
Healing action and application. If the basis of the composition of the medicinal plant is bitterness, and the accompanying substances are tannins, then it is suitable against gastric and intestinal disorders. Especially well, such a remedy promotes the secretion of gastric juice and stimulates appetite. The three-leafed watch, like gentian, wormwood and centaury, belongs to the group of medicinal bitters. And although she occupies a last place among them, she should not be neglected, she has her own merits. Its tannins, like bitterness, are very effective in diarrhea, accompanied by fermentation processes. In addition, by promoting the secretion of bile, it is useful in gastric and intestinal diseases with insufficient bile secretion.
- Watch tea: 1 teaspoon of leaves is poured into 1/4 liter of cold water, brought to a boil and allowed to boil for 1 minute, filtered and cooled to a warm state. Tea is not sweetened and drunk in small sips, in the absence of appetite – half an hour before meals.
- A mixture against all the above diseases of the stomach, intestines and gallbladder: Three-leaf watch 15.0 Peppermint 10.0 Centaury 5.0 One teaspoon with the top of the mixture is poured with 1/4 liter of boiling water, insisted for 5 minutes, filtered. Tea is not sweetened and drink in small sips.
Use in homeopathy. In homeopathic practice, Menyanthes has been used in the past along with gentian to enhance the function of the stomach. Today, they are also trying to treat headaches, especially accompanied by agitation, facial neuralgia, hearing loss in the elderly and nervous diseases. Suitable for this breeding D; and D1 . Take 3-5 (10) drops several times daily.
Application in folk medicine. Watch is known as an antipyretic, so tea is given for febrile diseases. However, there are no data indicating the content of any substances that reduce the temperature. If this use is stubbornly preserved, it is probably due to the fact that bitterness, by increasing appetite and toning the body after diseases with high temperature, contributes to recovery in general. In addition, the watch in folk medicine is used in all cases described in the “Healing effect and application” section. Diseases of the gallbladder and liver, especially cholelithiasis, are treated today with tea from the watch. Experience shows that bitterness relieves the complaints caused by gallstones. The use of the watch as a remedy for rheumatism is unreasonable.
Side effects are unknown, but the recommended dose should not be substantially exceeded.