Popular names: swamp berry, drunken berry, swamp blueberry.
Parts Used: Fruits and leaves.
Pharmacy name: blueberry fruit – Uliginosi fractus (formerly: Fructus Uliginosi), blueberry leaves – Uliginosi folium (formerly: Folia Uliginosi).
Botanical description.A perennial plant with a longish rhizome, from which rounded, gray-brown, bare, lignified stems extend, reaching a height of 50 cm and turning the plant into a splayed shrub. On the stems are short-petiolate, obovate or elongated, entire, hard leaves with pinnate venation clearly visible from below; they are blue-green on the upper side, dull green on the lower side. At the ends of short lateral branches are white or reddish goblet flowers, from which pear-shaped, less often – spherical, blue, with a white bloom berries develop. Blueberries are easily confused with blueberries, although the plants are coarser, larger and less compact. The main thing that distinguishes blueberries from blueberries is fruits with greenish pulp and colorless juice. The taste of blueberries is rather sugary-sweet, unlike blueberries, fragrant and sour in taste. Blooms from May to July. It occurs in moist forests and shrubs, in swamps and coniferous forests with swampy soil.
Collection and preparation. The leaves are removed during flowering and quickly dried in the shade or even with artificial heating. The fruits are harvested when they reach ripeness and dried under artificial heating or in the sun.
Active ingredients: organic acids, minerals, tannins, vitamins (especially vitamin C), glycoside and arbutin. The content of arbutin in the leaves is greater than in the fruits.
Healing action and application. The healing effect of blueberries is in many ways similar to that of blueberries. Their relatives also include lingonberries and bearberries, so it is not surprising that in folk medicine the leaves of blueberries, blueberries, lingonberries and bearberries are almost equally used. There is also no consensus on the possible poisonous effect of blueberries. In some “berry books” it is considered poisonous, in others it is not.
Application in folk medicine. In folk medicine, blueberry leaves and dried berries are used as a tea for diarrhea and bladder diseases. Due to the chemical composition (tannins for diarrhea, and arbutin as a bladder disinfectant), this use is quite justified, but there are more effective remedies for these ailments, so it is difficult to understand why traditional medicine clings so stubbornly to blueberries. Tea from dried berries is prepared, like tea from the leaves.
- Blueberry tea: 2 teaspoons topped with berries or leaves, pour 1/4 liter of cold water, let it brew for 10-12 hours and strain. Drink 1 cup 1-2 times every day, preheated to a drinkable temperature.
Side effects.I have already said that there is no consensus on whether blueberries are poisonous or not. After drinking it in large quantities, conditions similar to intoxication may occur: nausea, vomiting, headaches. And although it was not possible to detect toxic substances in blueberries, we can only talk about subjective observations, but this is a good enough reason to avoid eating blueberries in large quantities (There is an opinion that the indicated negative effect of blueberries is due to the fact that that it often grows together with marsh wild rosemary (Ledum paluslre L., see p. 394) and that the essential oils later, when picking blueberries, fall on the fingers of the picker, and from them to the berries. in the absence of wild rosemary, no symptoms of “intoxication” were observed.)