From mother-and-stepmother ordinary get its name?This plant belongs to one of the oldest healers.Hippocrates (the ancient Greek physician) used it with abscesses as a poultice.And Dioscorides (physician of ancient Rome) administered it to patients as a decoction for diseases of the upper respiratory tract and advise when you cough to inhale smoke from its leaves.And it leaves mother and stepmother are relevant to its name.The fact that the upper leaf blade at her almost naked, and so cold, as if opinion stepmother.And at the bottom of list - a whitish-felt, warm, like his mother hands.
mother and stepmother common refers to perennials.She has a long creeping rhizome, due to which the plant reproduces very quickly and forms a real thicket.The plant is widespread, prefers clay and sandy soils.Therefore, usually lives on the clay cliffs, ravines, on the banks of streams, rivers and ditches.It is very sensitive to the first spring sunbeams, Yet not all the snow melted, and only here and there you can see the mother and stepmother.Flowers in her bright, golden yellow, they look like dandelions.As the evening the flowers begin to close.They can also act as a barometer.In cloudy weather, if the expected rain, they will be closed.
mother and stepmother common refers to those plants that bloom before the first leaves.And there are very few of these.After flowering in her long petioles develop basal leaves, which have a rounded-angular shape and sertsevidnuyu initially covered with soft white hairs.But by the end of May, they fully develop and become the top "stepmother" and below - the "mother."
mother and stepmother common in their leaves contain polysaccharides, carotene, glycosides, ascorbic, tartaric, malic and gallic acid.And its blossoms are rich in essential oils, steroid compounds, coloring and tannins.The plant has anti-inflammatory, emollient, expectorant and disinfectant action.It has been successfully used in the treatment of angina, asthma, laryngitis, pneumonia and many other diseases.For the treatment of small ulcers and boils apply lotions, wet compresses and bandages of infusions and decoctions of the leaves of the plant.If the hair fall out or have seborrhea, then they would do well decoction of mother and stepmother and nettle.
addition to drug use, this plant is used as a food raw material.Its leaves are cut into strips and add to salads or served with traditional side dishes.And if the infusion of the leaves add honey, you get a wonderful refreshing and healthy beverage.Also crushed leaves of the plant are mixed with jelly or jam.
If you want to prepare yourself for the leaves mother and stepmother, then it should be done early in the summer when they are not as big.The sheet is cut with a part of the stem.Very young leaves begin to turn yellow and can not take.Drying they need in attics, spreading in a single layer on the plywood.In the early days, it is desirable to turn over every piece of paper that they are uniformly dried up.For these, you can use a dryer, a good result is obtained at a temperature of 50-60 ºC.The finished raw materials are best kept in fabric bags.
