Centaury Medicinal properties and features of the plant

Often, walking in the meadow, we do not think at all which plants we step on. Perhaps there is something valuable under our feet. This story is just about the centaury. This plant is biennial. It is herbaceous, usually it can be found in meadows, in the forest, in various meadows. The plant is very popular with folk medicine people. It is not easy to buy ready-made dried leaves in pharmacies, the plant is quite rare for retail sale. And you can grow a centaury in your area.

Herb Centaury: description

The most valuable in centaury is its herbaceous part, when the plant has not yet begun to actively bloom. Take a flower so that a leg 15 cm high remains from the ground. In order to dry a plant correctly, you need to know a few secrets.

• The plant must be dried exclusively in a shaded place. The attic of the house is ideal for this.
• In the sun, centaury burns quickly, becomes pale and lethargic.
• If you decide to prepare a small amount of centaury, then the option of drying in bunches is suitable for this. It is important that the bundles are small. In large bundles, the middle usually does not have the opportunity to dry well. If the front leaves in the bunch are dry, but the middle is not, it is necessary to disassemble the bunch.

Herb Centaury: photo of a medicinal plant

After our plant has dried, we will store it in a bag or bag, which is made of paper. The shelf life of such raw materials should not exceed two years.

The centaury's taste is not very pleasant. Its grass is bitter, so any tinctures and decoctions will be bitter, even in large dilution. But this herb has amazing medicinal properties.

Centaury: medicinal properties and uses

There is a legend in which a centaur, after a battle with Hercules, healed his wound. Since ancient times, centaury in Greece has been used as a means of promoting the early healing of wounds.

Nowadays, tinctures and decoctions of centaury are used to stabilize the work of the gastrointestinal tract, increase appetite, and improve the functioning of the endocrine glands. In phototherapy, the centaury herb is included in the fees for gastritis, pancreatitis, hepatitis, hypokinetic DGVP, as well as a means to raise immunity and vitality. Also, centaury has an antiparasitic effect (anthelmintic).

Herb Centaury: photo of a medicinal plant

If you have gastritis with high acidity, then this is the remedy for you. If you suffer from heartburn, then you need to make a collection of St. John's wort and centaury. To do this, pour three tablespoons of the collection with 500 ml of water and let it brew. Drink throughout the day.

In case of problems with the gallbladder, namely with inflammation or the formation of stones in the gallbladder, a special collection is prepared based on centaury, calamus root and sandy immortelle flowers. One spoon is poured with 500 ml of cold water and allowed to stand for 12 hours. Then, the infusion should be boiled and drunk on an empty stomach, one glass at a time.

In order to take centaury for the purpose of correcting appetite, you can use either a freshly prepared infusion, or vice versa, an alcoholic infusion.

Proper cultivation and rules for caring for Centaury

It is better to collect seeds for planting centaury in the meadow. Then, we need to carefully prepare the soil for sowing our flower.The main thing is to completely clear the soil of weeds, wheatgrass and others. There are no basic requirements for the soil, it is unpretentious and not capricious. For better growth, you can mix our soil with sand in a ratio of one to five.

You must first make a groove, then pour water on it, then sprinkle it with seeds. Sprinkle the seeds on top with earth and cover with polyethylene. This will protect our seeds from weathering and the first young leaves will appear faster. As soon as the first shoots are visible, remove the protective film.

Herb Centaury: photo of a medicinal plant

The first leaves of the centaury are very small, it is difficult to see them. The growth of the plant is also very slow, so it is important to remove the weeds in time so that our flowers do not die in the shade. If there is no rain, it is necessary to establish adequate watering. The first year will be devoted to caring for the plant, and only next year it will be possible to collect our flowers.

For ease of care, you can plant centaury plants on seedlings from February in a pot on a windowsill, and then plant seedlings in the ground in May. The distance between plants should be 10-15 cm.

After a year, when harvesting, it is important not to forget that you need to leave the seeds of the plants. And yet, in order to harvest every year, you need to have two beds in the garden. On one of them there will be a centaury grass in the first year of life, and on the second in the second.