The effectiveness of treatment plantain affects not only the correct use of infusions and decoctions, but also the quality of plant raw materials. Its preparation must be dealt with at a time when a high concentration of biologically active substances accumulated in the leaves and seeds. From such raw materials it is possible to prepare phyto-drugs, which have the maximum therapeutic effect. Ingredients that are part of the recipes of traditional medicine will prompt when to harvest a plantain for medicinal purposes. If the leaves are suitable for therapy throughout the summer, the seeds must be collected before shedding on the soil.
. Basic rules for collecting
. When carrying out an independent preparation, it is necessary to avoid motorways and courtyards of multi-storey buildings. The plantain grown in such places absorbed all toxic compounds from the exhaust gases of cars and is not a medicinal raw material, but a complete table of Mendeleyev. You can not collect plants around large and small industrial plants, incineration plants and landfills. Quality infusions and decoctions are obtained from plantain growing:
- near ponds, lakes, rivers;
- on meadows and forest edges;
- in parks and squares located far from major roads.
Traditional healers do not recommend the use of plantain from their own household plots for treatment if they are periodically treated with insecticides and fungicides.
It is interesting: Many pharmacological preparations have been synthesized on the basis of plantain, for example Plantaglucid, which increases the secretion of gastric juice. To produce medicines, a perennial plant is sown on an industrial scale, and enterprise specialists strictly monitor the quality of plant raw materials.
Leaves and fruits of plantain can not be harvested in wet rainy weather and early in the morning, when plants accumulate dew. This will cause damage to the leaves and seeds due to decay. The best time for collection comes in the afternoon and lasts until the sun sets.
How to harvest plant raw materials
From the calendar collection time depends on how to collect the plantain and the effectiveness of the forthcoming therapy. The maximum concentration of nutrients accumulates in the leaves of the plant after their size exceeds 7-8 cm and before budding. During this period the plantain squanders the stock of bioactive compounds to lay the flower arrows and loses some therapeutic properties. Full ripening of the fruit becomes a signal for the collection of these multi-seeded boxes. It is worth a little late and their self-seeding will occur.
Recommendation: In some recipes of traditional medicine, the roots of plantain are also used. This type of medicinal raw material should be harvested in early autumn, when it contains a lot of nutrients and biologically active substances necessary for a perennial plant for a long harsh winter.
Leaves
This kind of medicinal raw material is harvested before the beginning of flowering plantain. In northern latitudes buds are formed in late July-early August. And in southern regions, the plant throws out a flower arrow in May or June. Large leaves are cut with a pruner or garden shears. Small delicate leaves simply pinch, leaving part of the petiole.
Medicinal raw materials contain a lot of moisture, so it should not be stacked in plastic bags - it can quickly develop putrefactive processes. It is best to collect the leaves in linen bags or wicker baskets. During harvesting, you must immediately discard leaves with wormholes or stains. They often contain larvae or eggs of garden pests, spores of pathogenic fungi.
Seeds
Boxes with seeds ripen on arrow-spikelets in the middle or late summer. The time of harvesting plantain in the northern regions comes only in September. On the place of growth, not many-seeded boxes are prepared, but directly the inflorescence. They are cut with a secateter for a maximum length, above the rosette with leaves and folded into wide baskets.
If the fruits are not yet ripe, they do not break off, but dry together with arrows. When the seeds have acquired the necessary hardness, then the boxes are neatly separated and lightly wiped between the palms of the hand over the fine sieve. In the resulting plant raw materials, small inclusions from the capsule can be present. It is not necessary to extract them carefully from seeds, as they also have medicinal properties.
Advice: The crushed shell of psyllium capsules is used in folk medicine to treat pathologies of the gastrointestinal tract. From it prepare broths and infusions, take in the dried up form, washing down with pure still water.
Drying and storage of
When the plantain harvest is finished, it is necessary to immediately start its further processing. The place for drying leaves and seeds should be equipped with a canopy to protect plant material from direct sunlight and rain drops. For this purpose lofts or open verandas are suitable. Parts of the plant are scattered thinly on thick paper or cotton cloth. Drying takes a few days, during which the plantain is constantly mixed, getting rid of the parts that have changed their color.
The resulting plant raw materials should be uniformly colored and easily breakable. It is laid out on cardboard boxes, wooden boxes, paper bags. Keep psyllium in dark, sheltered from the sun, no longer than 2-3 years. Over time, seeds and leaves lose most of the biologically active substances and become unsuitable for treatment.