2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Cleavers is one of the plants of the family called madder, in Latin the name of this plant will sound as follows: Galium aparine L. As for the name of the family of the bedstraw itself, in Latin it will be: Rubiaceae Juss.
Description of the tenacious bedstraw
The tenacious bedstraw is known under numerous popular names: dereza, hemorrhoid grass, dergun, sticky grass, resinous grass, tar, pinworm, burdock grass, covered the ground, clinging, cat-dogs, biting and stump. The tenacious bedstraw is an annual herb endowed with tenacious, rising stems, the height of which will fluctuate between twenty-five and one hundred and twenty centimeters. The stalk of such a plant in the nodes will be haired, and along its entire length it is seated with small bristles, which will also be bent back. The leaves of the tenacious bedstraw are tenacious, narrow-lanceolate, they are arranged in six to eight pieces in onions, which are located at the very nodes of the stem. The flowers of this plant are rather small in size, they are collected in rare axillary semi-umbrellas and are painted in white tones. The corolla of the tenacious bedstraw is fused at the very base and four-lobed, there are only four stamens of this plant, and the pistil, in turn, will be endowed with two stigmas and a lower ovary. The fruits of this plant are nuts, rounded in shape, which will be dry and open with two valves, such nuts will also be planted with hooked bristles painted in white tones.
The tenacious bedstraw blooms during the period from June to September. Under natural conditions, this plant is found in the Caucasus, Moldova, Central Asia, the European Arctic, Sakhalin, Belarus, Ukraine, the European part of Russia, Western and Eastern Siberia. For growth, this plant prefers gorges, forests, damp meadows, shrubs, shelterbelts, orchards, vegetable gardens, glades, crops, places near springs, garbage places, places near roads and railroad embankments. It should be noted that this plant is a malicious weed that will contribute to lodging of grain supplies.
Description of the medicinal properties of the tenacious bedstraw
The tenacious bedstraw is endowed with very valuable medicinal properties, while for medicinal purposes it is recommended to use the roots, fresh juice and grass of this plant. Grass includes flowers, stems and leaves. The presence of such valuable medicinal properties is recommended to be explained by the content of dye, anthraquinones and iridoid asperuloside in the composition of this plant. The herb contains vitamin C, monotropein, citric acid, glycosides asperulose and monotropein, tannin and the following trace elements: strontium, boron, copper, titanium, iron, manganese, nickel, thallium and molybdenum. The seeds of this plant, in turn, contain protein and fatty oil.
As for traditional medicine, here this plant is quite widespread. Preparations based on tenacious bedstraw are recommended to be used as a very effective diuretic, choleretic, hemostatic, antipyretic, antispasmodic, antitumor and anti-inflammatory agent. It should be noted that such preparations based on this plant were used in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.
The fresh juice of the herb of this plant is used for epilepsy, the grasping bedstraw powder is used for various female diseases, ascites, scarlet fever, rheumatism, intestinal colic, malignant tumors and liver diseases.
