2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Celandine (lat. Chelidonium) Is a herbaceous shrub belonging to the Poppy family.
Description
Celandine is a herbaceous and rather tall upright perennial shrub, endowed with powerful brownish rhizomes and rounded stems, from which milky sap is released in the event of an incision. This juice contains toxic substances that can provoke a burn on human skin. And the height of celandine often reaches one meter.
Ovate and slightly pointed leaves can be both basal and stem. Basal leaves are collected in small rosettes, and their shape varies from lanceolate to obovate-oblong. And the stem leaves are always arranged in sequence.
Numerous four-petal flowers gather in bizarre umbrella-shaped inflorescences and boast a rich yellow color. And the fruits look like naked narrow-cylindrical boxes, containing a truly incredible amount of shiny tiny seeds.
At the moment, the genus includes two varieties of celandine: celandine large and Asian celandine.
Where grows
Celandine grows in almost all temperate regions, from Japan to Europe.
Application
Celandine has a lot of useful properties, which is why it is highly valued as a medicinal plant. It has proven itself especially well in the treatment of all kinds of skin ailments. It contains a huge amount of alkaloids, while their volume in the roots is twice as high as in the leaves. In addition, this plant is very rich in citric, malic and useful succinic acids, various valuable microelements, carotene, vitamins, tannins, all kinds of essential oils and alcohols.
The main healing properties of celandine are concentrated in its juice, endowed with powerful wound healing, as well as excellent anti-inflammatory and pronounced analgesic properties. In addition, it is an excellent anticonvulsant and diuretic and has the ability to expel bile from the body and relieve spasms.
Just like a great many other poisonous plants, celandine is endowed with the ability to restrain tumor processes developing in the body - this ability makes it an indispensable assistant in the treatment of both benign neoplasms and malignant tumors.
For treatment, mainly the aboveground parts of the celandine are used, usually harvested during the flowering period. And they can be used in various forms - it can be both infusions and decoctions, and oils or vodka, as well as alcoholic tinctures. A decoction of this medicinal plant is usually used externally for dermatitis, psoriasis and eczema, and for internal use, an infusion is almost always prepared, which helps to cope with oncology, neuroses, cholecystitis and paralysis, as well as epilepsy, fungal lesions and polyps of various internal organs, gynecological diseases, colitis, gastritis, tuberculosis, diseases of the pancreas, inflammation of the gallbladder and hepatitis.
Since celandine is poisonous, its dosage must be strictly observed, and solid dosages of this plant can be taken exclusively under the supervision of a doctor.
In its pure form, the juice of the plant is used for an early cure for dry corns or warts, as well as for psoriasis, various fungal skin lesions, extremely unpleasant herpetic eruptions and papillomas.
Contraindications
Absolute contraindications are childhood, individual intolerance, breastfeeding and pregnancy.
