Marsh Geranium

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Marsh geranium is one of the plants of the family called geraniums, in Latin the name of this plant will sound like this: Geranium palustre L. As for the name of the family of the marsh geranium, in Latin it will be like this: Geraniaceae Juss.

Description of marsh geranium

Marsh geranium is a perennial herb, the height of which will be about thirty to seventy centimeters. The rhizome of this plant is ascending, and is also covered with the remains of stipules from the basal leaves, in addition, such a rhizome will develop one or three more stems, as well as quite numerous leaves. However, these leaves die off very early. The basal leaves of this plant are on long hairy petioles, the length of which can reach up to twenty centimeters. The stem leaves of the marsh geranium are five-part, and the upper leaves will be practically sessile and three-part. It is noteworthy that the inflorescences of this plant will be much longer than the adjacent leaves, and the length of the peduncles will be about five to ten centimeters. In such peduncles there will be about two flowers, the length of which will be five to seven centimeters, it should be noted that such flowers are large, and their diameter is about three centimeters. The petals of the marsh geranium will be obovate and purple in color, at the top they are solid, and their length is one and a half centimeters, while the petals are twice as long as the sepals themselves.

The flowering of the marsh geranium occurs in the period from June to about the month of July. The ripening of the fruits of this plant occurs in the month of August-September. Under natural conditions, marsh geranium can be found on the territory of Ukraine, Belarus, the Caucasus, as well as in the European part of Russia. For growth, this plant prefers forest edges, valleys, wet meadows, grassy bogs, and marsh geranium can also be found among shrubs up to the upper mountain belt.

Description of the medicinal properties of marsh geranium

Marsh geranium is endowed with quite valuable healing properties, while the roots and grass of this plant are used for medicinal purposes. The concept of grass includes leaves, flowers and stems of marsh geranium. Such raw materials should be harvested even during the flowering of this plant.

Such valuable medicinal properties are explained by the content in the roots of this plant of starch, steroids, triterpenes, catechins, tannins, as well as sucrose, glucose and the following phenols: pyrogallol, resorcinol, pyrocatechol. In addition, the roots of marsh geranium also contain derivatives of phenolcarboxylic acids. At the same time, the herb of this plant will contain flavonoids, tannins and the following carbohydrates: fructose, raffinose, glucose and sucrose. At the same time, the leaves of this plant contain quinones, tannins, vitamin C, as well as flavonoids in the hydrolyzate quercetin and kaempferol. As for the flowers of the marsh geranium, it contains vitamin C.

In the experiment, it was proved that the infusion of the herb of this plant is able to cause a decrease in the heart rate. The infusion, as well as a decoction, prepared on the basis of the herb of marsh geranium, is recommended to be taken orally with a variety of colic, as well as pain in the ears and even with a sharp weakening of hearing. As for traditional medicine, here the infusion of the herb of this plant is used as an astringent and hemostatic agent, as well as for rheumatism, gout, dysentery and kidney stones.

For dysentery, rheumatism, gout and kidney stones, the following remedy is recommended: for its preparation, fifteen grams of marsh geranium herb are taken in one glass of water. The resulting mixture is boiled for three minutes, and then infused and thoroughly filtered. Such a remedy is taken three times a day for half a glass.