Three-leaf watch: description, useful properties, use, indications and contraindications

Grassy perennial watch three-leaved, popularly known as a water trifol, fever or toad cucumbers, belongs to the family of shift workers. Its medicinal properties are appreciated by folk medicine for a very long time, and the plant is widely used to treat many diseases.

Botanical characteristics

Plant trehlistnaya watch has a long, thick and creeping rhizome. Inside it is permeated with air-borne cavities. From each vertex of the shoot of the rhizome, 3-5 stems are formed, whose height is about 30 cm. Large triple leaves on long petioles have an elongated shape and are broadened at the base. They are quite juicy, bright green in color. On the stems with a length of up to 40 cm, there are no leaves. At its end is a racemose inflorescence, consisting of pale pink flowers with a funnel-shaped corolla of five lobes, each of which is covered from the inside with velvety pubescence. The flowering period lasts from May to June. Then by the end of the summer there are fruits - pointed bivalves with seeds.

Spread

Three-leaved watch, the description of which is given above, prefers to settle on moist peat soils, therefore it is most often found in damp places - in swamps, along the banks of rivers and streams. In the neighborhood with sedge, sabernik, horsetails can form whole thickets.

It grows practically on all territory of Russia, including Siberia and the Far East. Particularly densely populated wetlands in a number of areas, which allows you to harvest this medicinal plant on an industrial scale.

Chemical composition

The leaves of this plant contain such active substances as amorphous glycosides (meniantian, meliatin), gencianin alkaloid, ascorbic acid, flavonoids (rutin and hyper-ooid), tannins. Also in the plant are resin and fatty acids (linoleic, palmitic, etc.), choline, iodine. The roots are especially rich in inulin and pectin substances.

Healing properties

Highly valued in folk medicine is a three-leafed plant. Its therapeutic properties are due to the presence in the composition of biologically active substances that can naturally stimulate the digestive organs, the secretion of gastric juice and improve bile secretion. In addition, this plant has anti-sclerotic, anti-inflammatory and laxative properties. Due to the presence of organic iodine compounds, the level of cholesterol in the body decreases. Known three-leaf watch and its antiseptic properties.

Procurement and storage

In medicine for therapeutic purposes, the leaves of this plant are used. Their preforms are produced usually after flowering, when they are in the full phase of development (apical and young for drying do not fit). Cut the leaves together with the petiole so that the length of the latter does not exceed 3 cm. In order to prepare a three-leaved watch, the collectors are forced to go into the water or use the boat, so it is preferable to do it in warm weather.

The collected leaves are laid out in the open air and kneaded to remove the remaining water. After that, for further drying, they are laid out in a dark, well-blown place. You can use for this purpose a special dryer - in this case the color and shape of the leaf blades are very well preserved. The degree of readiness is determined by the method of bending. If the remainder of the petiole and vein is easily broken, and not bent - the drying process can be considered complete. The yield of the product is 16-18%. The finished raw materials are packaged and stored for two years. Repeated harvesting of plants in the same place is carried out not earlier than in 3 years.

Indications for use

With so many problems related to health, a three-leaf watch is used. Useful properties and application of this plant in the form of infusions and broths are described in various handbooks on traditional medicine.

Preparations based on this plant are used to stimulate appetite, with gastritis with low acidity, constipation, flatulence. This is an excellent cholagogue, used for chronic cholecystitis, cholangitis and cholelithiasis.

In dentistry a three-leaf watch helps to cope with periodontitis, stomatitis and gingivitis. Rinsing the mouth with decoctions cooked from it helps to relieve toothache. Pregnant women use the infusions of this plant for toxicoses as an antiemetic.

The leaves of the watch are part of many herbal collections - laxatives, diuretics, sedatives, etc.

The watch is also used for outdoor use. Broths from it wash difficultly healing wounds and trophic ulcers. A positive effect is observed even if you simply sprinkle the affected area of the skin with powdered leaves or fresh leaves. With various diseases of the skin and mucous membranes, effective action is provided by baths with the addition of infusions of the watch. Decoctions of it will help get rid of acne and acne.

Effective action has a three-leafed watch and with certain heart diseases associated with rhythm disturbance, and also indications for its use are menopause disorders, thyrotoxicosis, migraine, liver disease, malaria, gout, dropsy.

As a remedy you can use powder from dry leaves of the watch, sprinkling them with daily food. It is important only not to overdo it - the maximum amount of it should not exceed 2 g per day.

Recipes

Three-leaved watch is used for medical purposes in a variety of forms:

1. Infusion of leaves. On a water bath heated for 15 minutes, filled with a glass of boiling water leaves the watch in the amount of 10 g. Then cool, filter and squeeze the residue. The resulting infusion is diluted with boiling water to the original volume and taken 3 times a day for half an hour before meals of 70 ml. This helps to stimulate appetite and improve digestion. Infusion is recommended to use in the form of microclysters with constipation. To do this, dilute it with water - one part infused with two parts of water.
2. Decoction. Shredded leaves (1 tablespoon) pour a glass of boiling water and leave in a water bath for a quarter of an hour. The resulting broth is infused for at least two hours and filtered through gauze. Take three meals a day before eating one tablespoon.
3. Tincture. Preparing it is not anything complicated. To do this, 10 g of dry leaves are filled with alcohol in an amount of 50 ml and covered with a lid, put in a dark place. After 3 weeks, the tincture is ready for use. It is pre-filtered and taken as a cholagogue 10 drops 3 times a day.
4. Tincture on vodka. This is an effective remedy for relieving fever and malaria attacks. Prepare a tincture of freshly picked leaves, which are filled with vodka (100 liters of raw material are taken 1 liter of vodka) and left for 2 weeks. If an attack occurs, take 100 ml, after which it is necessary to go to bed and cover the heat.

Contraindications

Three-leaved watch, the use of which helps to cope with a number of diseases, practically has no contraindications. This makes available the preparations made on the basis of this plant, for all comers. It should only be remembered that their overdose will not affect the effectiveness of treatment.