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Meadow queen - meadowsweet active ingredients, application and own cultivation
contents
- plant aspirin
- Queen of the meadows
- Popular and medical names
- Meadowsweet in mythology
- Chemical ingredients
- Application of the meadow queen in folk medicine
- What does Meadowsweet really do??
- The queen loves it wet
- Bienenweide
- Collecting for the medicine cabinet
- Application and preparation of meadowsweet
- Bathing with the queen
- Meadowsweet in the food
- risks
- Plant meadowsweet yourself
- Winter hardy swamp dweller
- Grass clippings and horse apples
- cut
plant aspirin
Salicylic acid was even isolated from meadowsweet and white willow, resulting in artificially synthesized aspirin. Salicylic acid relieves pain, lowers fever, relieves spasms and stimulates urine flow. It stimulates the heartbeat, drives sweat, heals external scars and contains high levels of vitamin C and flavonoids.
The medicinal plant meadowsweet belongs to the family of the rose family and is also known as "meadow queen" or "marmoset". (Image: multik79 / fotolia.com) The British spice beer and wine today with the meadow queen. Beekeepers rubbed their beehives with the flowers and believed that the bees would remain in the stick. They rubbed themselves with meadowsweet to keep the bees from stinging.
Queen of the meadows
The British call them "queen of the meadows", the Italians Olmaria, the Danes Engdronning, the Poles Tawula and the Russians Tawolga. It used to be called mjödurt, the metkraut, in Scandinavia. The ancient Greek name Spiraea means thread and probably refers to the custom of weaving plants into garlands. In the early modern period, she was called Geiß- or Bocksbart (goatee) in Germany - probably the creamy-white flowers reminded the contemporaries of goat hair. Or the name came from the fact that goats ate the leaves and flowers.
Another name, Waldbart, suggests, however, that the flowers, which look almost like cotton candy, are reminiscent of a beard, and that of Immenkraut is an excellent bee pasture. The less romantic term Stopparsch emphasizes the effect against diarrhea.
Popular and medical names
Some folk names show that the healing effect of the plant was known. Her name was Gotha Frauenkraut, Elsass Krampfkrut, and Böhmerwald in the Böhmerwald. However, there were also misconceptions about the healing effects: For example, the Russians used the root against the bite of rabid dogs - an idea that was as useless as it was pointless.
In the early modern period, the "goatee" was used as a means to cleanse the bile, the herb should act against ulcers, thorns drift out of the skin, and the leaves should drive the urine.
In Bremen she was called Brannwiensblome, evidently the smell of the flowers reminded of brandy; in Westphalian spring flower, in the Giant Mountains honey blossom, in Switzerland Geißleitere.
Meadowsweet in mythology
Meadowsweet was considered a love plant and served to hold evil spirits. It was collected on the night of the solstice, and hung in the beams of houses and stables, or scattered on the floor of the house to create a pleasant smell. Brides wore them in the dress to protect the Virgin Mary.
Among the Celts, Gwydyon and Math made of oak, broom and meadowsweet Blodeuwedd, the flower face, a girl who married Gwydyon's nephew, Llew Llaw Gyffes.
Perhaps the name meadow queen refers to the flower elves, mythical creatures that were to live in and around the flowers in the meadows, and played an important role in religion, especially among the island Celts. However, this relationship is not proven. These fairies should play with the flowers at night and provide them. The flowers are their beds.
Meadowsweet contains, among other salicylic acid and is therefore also referred to as "meadow aspirin". (Image: Heike Rau / fotolia.com) Chemical ingredients
The flowers contain essential oil with salicylaldehyde, the most important herbal of the plant, the plant also contains free salicylic acid, tannins, and the dye Spiraein. The rhizome contains essential oil with methyl salicylate.
Added to this are heliotropin and citric acid.
Application of the meadow queen in folk medicine
Meadowsweet has been used for various ailments since antiquity: gout such as rheumatism, heart disease, irregular heart rate, bladder and kidney disorders, fever, cold and flu.
It has been used against bile colic such as gallstones and in the treatment of wounds.
The British scientist John Gerard recommended in the 16th century a wine with meadowsweet against the four-day fever.
What does Meadowsweet really do??
The medicinal plant is proven against digestive problems and hyperacidity, it relieves nausea, nausea, heartburn and gastritis. The effect of salicylic acid against fever, joint and muscle pain is undisputed. Meadowsweet generally combats bacterial and other inflammations.
The widespread idea that the plant prevents cancer could not be confirmed scientifically.
The queen loves it wet
The meadow queen grows on wet meadows, along river banks and moats, in alder forests and at the foot of ash trees. There we find them together with willowherb, purple loosestrife, valerian and Wasserdost.
She bears her name for no reason: She reveals itself at a distance by their sweet smell, and the cream-white flowers of the rose plant stand out from the plant competition. From the strong rhizome grows an edged stalk in reddish color, the leaves are finely sawn, their underside silvery. The leaves are unpaired feathered and split into several lobes at the upper end.
The flowers smell a little like vanilla and strong almond. The calyx consists of five triangular leaves and about five petals.
The medicinal plant provides plenty of pollen and is therefore a paradise for bees and other insects. (Image: Didi Lavchieva / fotolia.com) Bienenweide
We are currently experiencing a bumble bee and bee death. This can be prevented with meadowsweet. The meadow queen is an excellent bee pasture. Although it gives no nectar, but pollen abound, and insects are downright "addicted" afterwards.
The caterpillars of the Meadowsweet nacre moth even live exclusively on and from the meadow queen.
The meadow queen shows from June to October in her flowers, and this reaches its peak in July and August. The leaves are already sprouting in late February.
Collecting for the medicine cabinet
We collect the flowers and shoot tips from June to August, digging out the roots in November.
Application and preparation of meadowsweet
The meadow queen is perfect for teas, which then need no extra sweetness. We use either the flowers or the leaves with, fresh or dried. For a tea we leave a teaspoon of meadowsweet in 250 ml of hot water for five minutes.
For a headache, we mix a handful of meadowsweet blossoms with a handful of lady's mantle, a handful of goose finger herb and half a handful of cowslip flowers. This is poured over with a liter of hot water, let it drain for 10 minutes and peel off the tea.
For example, tea with meadowsweet can help with colds and fever. (Image: Heike Rau / fotolia.com) Bathing with the queen
We can also arrange a spa with the queen. You can also give some handfuls of flowers in the hot bath. It is better, however, to briefly boil about two large handfuls of flowers in one liter of water, then remove from the plate, let stand 10 minutes and add this broth to the bath water.
Alternatively, they can put wraps into them, put them around wounds or fresh scars, or on painful joints, temples in case of headaches, or around shoulders when strained.
Meadowsweet in the food
Meadowsweet refreshes in the summer when they put some flowers and lemon slices in a jug of cold water. Both allow to pull for 15 minutes. They can vary this simple drink by adding ginger and / or mint leaves instead of lemon slices. The medicinal plant is also compatible with elderflower.
The flowers fit well in a fruit salad with apple and pear slices, raspberries and elderberries. You can spice up a jam or sprinkle over dessert.
The roots are not only suitable for diarrhea, they also cause constipation when eaten in large quantities. A porridge cooked from the "soft parts" of the plant, which our ancestors consumed as a dessert, is handed down.
Most parts of the meadow queen are edible, but the woody structure makes them unsuitable as fully cooked vegetables. Also, the taste of the red root reminiscent of drugs, more specifically to mouthwash. This is not for everyone. The medically active substances also limit their use as food.
For Survivalfreaks, however, a meadowsweet stew is excellently suited to first of all to satisfy hunger and secondly to prevent infections.
risks
Meadow Queen contains the raw material of aspirin. It works diluting blood. The same applies as with aspirin tablets: bleeding should avoid meadowsweet; if you have a recent surgery, the same applies, as well as when internal bleeding is just healing.
Plant meadowsweet yourself
Dried meadowsweet, meadowsweet tea, meadowsweet powder and meadowsweet flowers are available in health food stores, as well as meadowsweet capsules or meadowsweet incense. The latter consists of the dried whole herb with flowers and seeds.
Meadowsweet seeds are found at nurseries, especially those that specialize in natural gardens. Developed plants are found in aquatic plant nurseries and grow well in the swamp area of the garden pond or in a swamp bed. We sow from January to March and plant the meadow queen outdoors from mid-May.
Meadowsweet is ideal for a cottage garden and the wet zone of a herbal spiral.
The meadow queen is well planted in a cottage garden. (Image: hochfeld / fotolia.com) As a marsh bed is also a filled with water mortar tub, a wooden barrel or even a bucket, if you do not have your own garden, but only a balcony. The creamy-white blossoms stand out particularly well in addition to water plants such as the red loosestrife, the yellow swamp sword lily and iris. Meadowsweet is a typical ragwort and thrives neither in open water nor in the dry plain. Visit a riparian forest and see where the white beauty thrives.
Winter hardy swamp dweller
Genuine meadowsweet is tough and absolutely hardy. Unlike many other medicinal herbs, however, it loves nutrient-rich humus, and it does not like it when it is too dense. As a marsh plant it likes a slightly acidic PH value, but it can also be neutral. The location should be sunny to shady, the ground wet or wet without waterlogging.
If you do not plant the meadow queen in a swamp bed or the background of a garden pond, then note the following: Do not let the plant dry, a well-grown plant can compensate for this imbalance in the water balance, but a newly planted not. Keep the meadowsweet so always wet.
Grass clippings and horse apples
In pots, please water daily in the morning or in the evening. Suitable fertilizer is garden compost. As meadowsweet naturally settles in the bank area, where the humus consists mainly of dead plant parts, the compost has become almost ideal. This also applies to horse apples or cow dung as fertilizer.
For the balcony you prefer a ceramic pot. The advantage of clay pots that they are so porous that the earth can breathe and excess water evaporates is fatal to this bank plant. Even a warm summer's day can dry out the root ball and cause the death of the plant in an emergency.
We can increase the humidity both in the garden and in the tub by inserting grass clippings as the lowest layer.
cut
The cut depends on what you want. Do you want to harvest the meadow queen as a medicinal herb? Then cut right after flowering. Do you want to enjoy an ornamental plant? Then cut in October / November until near the ground. Do you want the seeds to spread? Then cut in March. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)
Swell:
Bernhard Meier: Dictionary of Celtic religion and culture. Stuttgart 1994
http://dieseifensiederin.blogspot.de/2011/06/das-madesu-das-pflanzliche-aspirin.html
http://www.natur-lexikon.com/Texte/km/001/00008-maedesuess/km00008-maedesuess.html
http://www.gartendialog.de/gartenpflanzen/stauden/maedesuess-pflege.html
http://www.gartenlexikon.de/pflanzen/echtes-maedesuess.html
http://www.nicolai-apotheke-altenbruch.de/leistungen/heilpflanzenlexikon/?hpid=7985&cHash=c8695cb0dac7166f540e33bbd658bca4
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