Popular names: pepper grass, water pepper.
Parts used: grass.
Pharmacy name: water pepper herb -Polygoni hydropiperis herba (formerly: Heiba Polygoni hydropiperis).
Botanical description. An annual plant, reaching a height of 30-80 cm and having a branched, often reddening stem. The leaves are alternate, oblong-lanceolate, smooth, with transparent dots. The flowers are small (only a few millimeters), inconspicuous, most often with a reddish, but not often with a greenish corolla. Blooms in July-August. It is traditionally found in damp places in the forest, along ditches and streams.
Collection and preparation. The grass is harvested during flowering and dried in the shade.
Active ingredients: primarily tannins and one unexplored substance with a burning and spicy taste, also essential oil, bitterness, flavonoids (rutin).
Healing action and application. Knotweed pepper has a diuretic, hemostatic, astringent and anti-inflammatory effect. It is believed that with painful menstruation, it gives quick relief.
Application in folk medicine. In contrast to scientific medicine, folk uses it very widely. But I would like to warn against its use, since pungent substances, which are very irritating even to the skin, often do more damage to the mucous membranes than they do good. Despite this, folk medicine uses knotweed for diseases of the bladder, to stop bleeding, and also for poorly healing wounds. It is also used for heavy and painful menstruation.
- Tea from the mountaineer pepper: 1 teaspoon with the top of the herb is poured into 1/4 liter of boiling water, insisted for 10 minutes and filtered. Dosage: 1-2 cups of tea every day. With dislocations and bruises, sometimes with rheumatism and gout, traditional medicine recommends applying crushed grass of the mountaineer pepper.
Side effects. Fresh herb Knotweed is very irritating to the skin and mucous membranes, so I would not recommend using it. Dry raw materials largely lose their irritating properties.