They have known about the benefits of blackberries since ancient times. This plant grows not only in forests, but is also actively cultivated in personal plots. Currently, more than twenty varieties of this crop have been bred. All species have unique beneficial properties.
The blackberry belongs to the family Rosaceae, the genus Rubus. The height of its bushes is on average about a meter. There are tall, low grades, prickly and springless. Next, we will talk about this plant in more detail.
Blackberry Description and Growth
Blackberries are found in nature throughout the European territory of Russia and in Siberia. Also, its bushes grow in some countries of Asia, in Ukraine, in North America. You can meet fragrant berries along the edge of ravines, in clearings, in forests.
In the wild, its lashes reach a meter and longer, covered with a wax coating and spikes. Leaves are green, consisting of three or five leaf blades, and silver bottom. Petioles are long, durable. The blackberry blooms in white. After that, green berries are formed, which upon reaching ripeness become reddish and then black. Often, ripe berries have a waxy coating.
The beneficial properties of blackberries allow the use of this culture not only in cooking, but also in folk and official medicine. On the basis of the described plant, various homeopathic preparations with a wide spectrum of action are produced.
The chemical composition of blackberry leaves
The beneficial properties of blackberries are well studied and are used to treat a variety of ailments and in cosmetology. So, its leaves contain a large number of tannins, flavonoids, leukoanthocyanides, inositol, essential oil, organic acids. Also in the composition of the leaves there is ascorbic acid, sucrose, glucose, fructose. They contain many vitamins: the whole group B, as well as C, PP, E, A. Many micro and macro elements: zinc, manganese, potassium, iron, selenium, phosphorus, calcium and not only.
Due to the variety of substances included in its composition, the beneficial properties of blackberries help to combat a variety of ailments. Moreover, from the leaves you can not only prepare various infusions and decoctions, but also add a small amount of raw materials to tea with each brewing.
The chemical composition of berries
The beneficial properties of blackberries are determined by their unique composition. They contain many vitamins:
- Vitamin C - helps strengthen the immune system.
- A - has an effect on the skin, preventing aging, and also accelerates the regeneration processes in wounds, improves vision.
- The berries contain the entire set of B vitamins. They help normalize metabolic processes, strengthen the heart muscle, increase resistance to stress, and also lower cholesterol, improve hair structure, and have a positive effect on kidney pathology.
- E - has a rejuvenating effect, helps in the treatment of the cardiovascular system, with impaired brain function.
- K - improves blood coagulation, strengthens blood vessels.
- P and PP.
The berries also have many useful acids, phenolic compounds, fiber, glucose, fructose, pectin, amino acids, fatty oils, tannins, mineral elements, amino acids.
The use of plants in medicine
The beneficial properties of blackberries for humans are multifaceted, since this plant can be almost completely used for medicinal purposes. In medicine, its berries, leaves, roots are used. Roots are harvested in autumn, leaves throughout the growing season, and berries as they ripen.
Infusions, decoctions are prepared from leaves, used for making tea. Berries are dried, frozen, jam is made from them, jams are used fresh.
The benefits of berries
Knowing the useful properties of blackberries and contraindications for its use, you can fight a variety of ailments, strengthen the immune system:
- Berries help fight obesity, as well as metabolic disorders. With regular use of them, metabolic processes normalize. The catechins that are part of slow down the absorption of fats, and also accelerate the metabolism.
- With diabetes, berries help lower blood sugar.
- Berries help with colds, increasing the body's resistance. The constituent substances fight pathogenic microorganisms, including viruses.
- Blackberry has beneficial properties for women - it slows down the aging process and prevents the development of cancer. The constituents protect against free radicals and are a powerful antioxidant.
- The plant helps to cope with hormonal disruptions, with pain during menstruation. Berries normalize hormones and blood pressure.
- In blackberry there is pectin, which helps to eliminate toxins and salts from the body, toxins, normalizes metabolic processes, lowers cholesterol.
Berries affect the body in different ways, depending on ripeness. So, ripe berries have a laxative effect, and green - strengthening.
Blackberry is a storehouse of vitamins. It boosts immune defense, restores the nervous system, improves brain function, and stabilizes blood sugar.
Root benefits
Healing properties are possessed not only by berries and leaves, but also by roots. From them prepare medical tincture according to the following recipe:
- One hundred grams of crushed roots is poured with water (0.5 L) and boiled until half of the volume is evaporated.
- The broth is filtered and diluted in a 1: 1 ratio with red table wine.
This drug is taken for pathology of the respiratory tract, as a diuretic, with poor appetite, and also as a hemostatic drug.
Leaf benefits
The beneficial properties of blackberry leaves help to cope with a variety of health problems. The healing elements included in them help fight the following ailments:
- disorders of the gastrointestinal tract;
- skin problems, including eczema;
- menstrual irregularities, painful periods;
- pathologies of the oral cavity - stomatitis, gum inflammation;
- sleep disturbances, neurosis;
- sore throat;
- anemia.
You can squeeze juice from the leaves and use it as a wound healing agent, as well as a diuretic, diaphoretic. Freshly squeezed juice gives good results in the treatment of infectious ailments, as well as in the treatment of skin rashes, abscesses, depriving. Young leaves are recommended to be chewed by those who are constantly worried about bleeding gums, there are any inflammation of the oral cavity.
With viral infections, the leaves are used as an antipyretic, firming, tonic. They are used to make vitamin teas. Leaflets are applied to sore spots with varicose veins.
Contraindications
When using leaves, it is important to know the beneficial properties and contraindications of blackberries for women, men and children. So, infusions can not be used for diseases of the kidneys and bladder, because the leaves and roots have a strong diuretic effect.
Blackberries are not recommended for allergies to them, as well as for kidney diseases. Blackberries should not be for those who have an increased acidity of the stomach, since berries can lead to heartburn and contribute to the development of ulcers.
Traditional medicine recipes
To raise immunity, take one tablespoon of leaves and pour them with a glass of boiling water, the agent is infused for half an hour. After this, the drug is filtered, divided into equal three parts and taken one part three times a day. You need to take it for about a week.
With menopause and nervous disorders, an infusion of two tablespoons, poured in a glass of boiling water and infused for eight hours, helps. After the product is filtered and taken in the fourth part of the glass three times a day. An infusion is taken until the symptoms disappear completely.
In inflammatory processes, a tablespoon of leaves is steamed with a glass of boiling water and insisted for three hours. The drug is taken in half a glass three times a day. Take the composition until complete recovery - usually no more than two weeks.
Blackberries are used for making tea, making jams, preserves, fruit drinks, and fruit drinks. Not only fresh, but also frozen blackberries are used in food, the useful properties of which are practically not lost.
From dried berries, you can prepare an infusion by taking two tablespoons of berries and brewing them with a glass of boiling water. The composition is infused for twenty minutes and is taken in a third of a glass every two hours. This infusion has a good diaphoretic effect.
Dried berries can be chopped and used as a remedy for diarrhea in children (given half a teaspoon).
You can learn more about the benefits of blackberries from the video suggested in the article.
For the treatment of pathologies, only young leaflets are collected. They contain many useful substances. Fresh leaves can be added to tea: they will give it a pleasant aroma. It is best to harvest the leaves in the spring, when they just bloom, but you can collect raw materials throughout the growing season.
The collected leaves are crushed and dried in a well-ventilated area. Finished raw materials are stored in fabric bags for no more than a year.
Berries can not only be used for canning, but also dried in a dryer. Thus prepared fruits are stored in a glass container in a dark place for up to twelve months.