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Cherries - Ingredients, effects and applications
contents
- Cherries as a remedy - The most important facts
- ingredients
- effect
- application
- Tea from cherry leaves
- Kirschkerne
- Myth cherry
- Many cherries
- Buy cherries
- Plant cherries
- Cherry fruit flies fool you
Cherries as a remedy - The most important facts
Cherries contain minerals and trace elements, and their high content of vitamins counteracts colds and bronchitis. In addition, they promote digestion. The special thing about cherries is that the leaves, stems and bark are even stronger than the fruits.
Between June and August the cherries are ripe. When buying, you should make sure that they feel firm. (Image: Vera Kuttelvaserova / fotolia.com) ingredients
Cherries contain vitamin A, vitamin C and folic acid. There are also the minerals potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron and zinc.
Anthocyanins color the cherries red. This dye works against free radicals and UV rays. Therefore, cherries prevent cell aging and cancer.
effect
Cherries promote digestion, they have a laxative effect. Excessive consumption of cherries can lead to diarrhea. Cherries also have a diuretic effect. By doing so, they help to eliminate uric acid, thus preventing gout and slowing down an existing gout disease. Cherries help to control the blood sugar.
application
To benefit from the minerals and vitamins contained in cherries, cherries should be eaten raw or a tea made from dried cherries and / or leaves. To stimulate digestion, eat fresh or dried cherries.
Tea from cherry leaves
Tea dehydrated from cherry leaves, helps with inflammation of the urinary tract and dissolves mucus, therefore it is used as a remedy for coughing. For this you pick a handful of cherry leaves, wash them and chop them up. You fill up the leaves with a cup of hot water, let it draw for ten minutes and then remove the liquid. Drink three cups of it daily.
Kirschkerne
Cherry pits contain hydrocyanic acid, which is deadly poisonous. Swallowing a healthy cherry stone has no consequences: The whole kernel passes through the stomach and intestine and leaves the body without revealing the inside of the kernel.
When chewed or crushed cherry seeds that looks different. How many cherry pits give a lethal dose depends on many factors, such as age, constitution or body weight. In 2017, Matthew Creme from Blackpool came to the hospital with a fever and nausea - he had cracked three cherry pits and eaten them for the marzipan flavor. Amygdalin in the cherry tastes of bitter almonds, this cyanogenic glycoside splits to hydrocyanic acid. Hydrocyanic acid causes shortness of breath at first, then the consciousness ceases and respiratory arrest follows.
Cherry pits are available in different shapes, colors and sizes. (Image: L-TH34 / fotolia.com) Kirschkernkissen
On the other hand, cherry stone pillows are harmless - they serve as heat or cold donors. These pillows contain the seeds of sour cherries as a filling. Sour cherries (especially morello cherries) are industrially processed, the resulting kernels are mechanically cleaned and then dried. Cores in the pillows contain only about ten percent moisture and last several years. A warmed up cherry stone cushion helps against tension, especially around the neck and shoulders. The sufferer should sit down so that the body can relax, but at the same time the pillow does not slip. For weaker tensions, such as after a day on the office chair, it is often helpful to apply a heated cherry stone cushion for about 15 minutes. If pain persists, you can apply the pillow three times a day.
Cherry Stone Massage
A massage with cherry stone pillows is also good. To do this, perform circling movements at the corresponding body site with the cushion. They start where the center of the pain is and press here the heated cores selectively on the skin. Then push the pillow further on the skin and draw larger circles to warm and massage the entire region where the pain is spreading.
A cherry stone cushion can relieve mild pain through tension. If, however, the cause is not muscle tension, for example due to unfavorable sitting, but you have pinched a nerve or dislocated a vertebra, you should seek medical help. This also applies if the pain persists for more than three days.
What should you look for in the cherry stone pillow?
A Kirschkernkissen without removable cover clean in the washing machine at 30 degrees Celsius, if possible without detergent. It's best to dry the pillow on a clothes horse. On a heater, the cores, which are still wet, can be overheated and damaged. On the stand you should turn the pillow several times so that it dries evenly.
The heated cores help against mild to moderate tension, caused by unnatural posture, lack of exercise, drafts, stress or overstrained muscles.
How do you warm the pillow??
The pillow can be heated in the oven or microwave. The temperature should not be too high, 100 degrees Celsius is enough for about 15 minutes. Stay close, cherry stone cushions easily catch fire. Tip: Wrap the pillow in aluminum foil to prevent it from turning brown.
Myth cherry
Cherries have been known as foods since the Bronze Age. The Chinese admire the blossoming cherries as a symbol of the beauty of women, while in Japan, cherry blossoms are a symbol of the transience of life.
Hanami, the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival celebrates the beauty of flowering cherry trees. (Image: eyetronic / fotolia.com) The Japanese celebrate the cherry blossom festival "hanami matsun". The Japanese cherry tree produces no fruit and flowers only for a short time. Therefore, for the Japanese, the cherry blossoms are an expression of honorable death at a young age and epitomize the Samurai codex.
In the Middle Ages, the bark of the cherry tree served as a useless aid against the plague. The desperate nailed Kirschrinde to house doors to ward off the plague. Of course, the bark did not help against the bacteria. Cherries (the fruits) stood for fertility, seduction and eroticism, while the blossoms in Europe stood for purity and innocence. The church considered the fruits unclean because they stood for sexual passion.
In popular belief, cherries were considered trees of fairies and elves. They danced under the blossoming trees at full moon, and those who got caught watching them suffered bad luck.
Many cherries
Wild cherries are plum plants. From the real wild sweet cherry alone there are countless cultivars today. The ancestor of the cultivated sweet cherries is the wild cherry of the Caucasus.
Some cherries are almost black, others blood red, others yellow, some big and round, others small with intense aroma. The flesh is pink in some, almost white in others. Some cherries are firm, others soft. Sour cherries such as the morello cherries have a greater proportion of fruit acid. Sour cherries also mature later than sweet cherries. They get along better with a cold climate. These include morello cherries, sour cherries, amarelles or glass cherries.
Buy cherries
Cherries are best bought in season when you have none in the garden. Fresh ripe cherries recognize you through the crisp shape. If the cherries are limp or feel soft, then they are overripe.
Plant cherries
If you are planting cherries, consider the following: Sweet cherries like air and sun, so it offers a southern exposure. Cherries belong to the early bloomers, therefore they should not be exposed to late frost. This damages the flowers as well as the bark. Sour cherries are more resistant to cold - but sun is also important for them, because otherwise the taste does not unfold.
Sour cherries prefer loamy sandy soil with lots of humus, while sweet cherries prefer lofty, airy soil. Although cherries survive in acid soil, they suffer especially from frost. You should plant them in the fall - this applies to sweet and sour cherries. Then the trees can root for winter and cast out in the spring. In order to get fruits, you have to plant two trees so that the flowers are fertilized.
If you want to plant a cherry tree in the garden, you need enough space. (Image: Daniel Berkmann / fotolia.com) This quickly leads to a space problem: Sour cherries grow up to six meters in height and should have about five feet of space. A sweet cherry easily grows ten meters high and forms a spreading crown. Planted side by side, the trees need seven meters distance.
Freshly planted cherries need a lot of water. Even in the first years you should pour generously, especially in the summer months, if the rain stops. The less water the roots get, the less fruit will develop.
Depending on the variety, the cherries bloom from April to May and, depending on the variety, produce fruit between June and August. If the cherries are ripe, you should reap quickly. Starlings, bluebirds and the maggots of the cherry fruit fly love them too.
Cherry fruit flies fool you
The maggots of the cherry fruit fly are not to everyone's taste. They frolic in the pulp of cherries. The flies lay their eggs in the fruit and the larvae live in the pantry. The infested cherries usually rot and fall off.
Fortunately, the flies are not smart and are easily deceived. All you have to do is hang "yellow sheets" around the cherries. These cardboard plates are yellow and provided with adhesive. The flies attack the cherries when they turn yellow and react to the color. That's why they now place their eggs on the plates and leave the cherries alone. Please hang up the boards after the harvest, so that no other animals stick to them. (Dr. Utz von Anhalt)