Cowberry and cranberries: differences and useful properties

With all the similarity of cranberries and cranberries on each other, the differences between them still exist. Let's consider features of each berry. Let's try to figure out what the cranberries and cranberries are similar in than they are.

Titles

In Latin, "cranberry" means "sour ball", Europeans called it a crane-berries for the similarity of peduncles with a crane neck, and in England - a "bear mountain", because cranberries along with forest raspberries are a favorite treat for the toed. The name "cowberry" has a solemn-pompous translation - "the vine from Ida Mountain." In Russia it has long been called the core, bryusen, borzoi.

Characteristics of the taste of berries

Representatives of a single family of heather, cranberry and cowberry - berries are not just delicious, but extremely useful, although they differ in composition. Cranberries are common in northern and temperate latitudes in marshy, mossy areas. Sour taste is given to it by the presence of 3.4% in the pulp of acids and 6% by sugars. Cranberries can survive on bushes under snow, waiting for a long winter, and in the spring to turn into a full crop. However, it is slightly inferior to the autumn collection of ascorbic acid, but the berries are noticeably sweeter.

Cowberry, which has a distribution range is much wider, more neutral to taste, it has less acids (only 2%), and sugars - up to 8.7%. This unpretentious perennial grows in coniferous and mixed forests, is able to bear fruit, growing on one place for nearly three hundred years. The berries ripen in September.

Cranberries and lingonberries: differences from the outside

Berries cranberries slightly larger: dark red, poured, glossy, reaching a diameter of 0.8-1 cm, they let the juice at the slightest compression. Cowberry is noticeably smaller in size - about 0.6 cm. This burgundy-red berry has a slightly flattened shape and a completely different structure of the pulp: dense, from which the fountain of juice can not be obtained.

Cowberry and cranberries, the differences between which we are considering, vary and foliage. In cranberries, the leaves are smaller, their length is no more than 1.5 cm, and the width is 0.3-0.6 cm. The cranberry bush is decorated with larger leaves, their length reaches 2-3 cm, and the width is 1.5 cm. But the shape of the leaves of these plants reveals their family ties and belonging to the same family. In both species, the leaves are oval, fastened to the stem with short petioles.

Chemical composition

The berries of cranberries are unique in their useful properties, they are not without reason considered a most useful berry, in which vitamins B, C, C, nicotinic and folic acids are combined, an amazing set of trace elements - iron, magnesium, boron, potassium, iodine, calcium, silver, phosphorus, Manganese and others.

No less diverse is the chemical composition of berries cranberries, not inferior to cranberries in terms of utility. It contains vitamins B, A, E, C, a number of organic acids, such as nicotinic, tartaric, benzoic, ursolic, salicylic, as well as trace elements, valuable mineral salts, pectins and tannic compounds.

Despite some difference in the composition of berries, it is impossible to judge the level of utility of such plants as cranberries and cranberries. Differences in form and chemical composition are completely unimportant when it comes to the benefits of these berries. These plants are equally appreciated by connoisseurs of folk medicine.

Useful plants: cranberries and cranberries

Differences of berries by external signs and chemical composition do not affect the recognition of these perennials as the strongest natural antiseptics and antibiotics. Cranberries and cowberries have a pronounced anti-inflammatory, antiviral and antipyretic effect. Aromatic teas from these berries have long been used by the northern peoples as medicines for colds, debilitating coughs, headaches, kidney stones.

Kashitsa from berries was treated with wounds, including purulent. Cranberry, due to its antimicrobial properties, neutralizes urinary tract infections. Its use normalizes the pressure, stimulates the work of the digestive tract, lowers the level of cholesterol in the blood and significantly improves the quality of life for diabetes of varying severity.

Cowberry is a known antiscorbutic agent. It, like cranberries, is used in the treatment of bronchitis, colds, angina. In addition to anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial qualities, it has a strong diuretic, antirheumatic and choleretic action, relieving painful conditions in infections of the urinary tract, normalizes the work of the liver and kidneys. Cowberry fruit drinks help to remove hangover syndrome.

It is noticed that during pregnancy, lamb cranberries and cranberries undoubtedly benefit. The differences of these plants are insignificant, they together provide an excellent supply of valuable substances for the mother and the future child, control the functioning of the bladder, preventing the proliferation of pathogenic microorganisms.

Contraindications

Paradoxically, no plant is endowed with absolute benefit. Cowberry and cranberry are no exception. Differences in their effect on the body are the intensity of lowering blood pressure. Cranberries have a more pronounced effect, but both berries are not recommended for use by people with low blood pressure. These plants are not shown for peptic ulcer disease and various degrees of exacerbation of liver and duodenal diseases.

So different unique plants from the same family - cranberries and lingonberries. Differences (photos confirm) between species, of course, exist. But also unites their undoubted benefits and universality of application.