2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Icelandic cetraria is one of the plants of the family called Parmeliaceae, in Latin the name of this plant will sound like this: Cetraria islandica. As for the name of the family of Icelandic cetraria itself, it will be like this: Parmeliaceae Juss.
Description of the Icelandic cetraria
Icelandic cetraria is a plant that is also called Icelandic moss. However, in fact, this plant should be counted among the lichens. Such a perennial leafy-bushy thallus will be painted in greenish-brown or greenish-gray tones. This plant will be cut into ribbon-like lobes that are about ten centimeters long and two centimeters wide. The plant is endowed with rather short darkish outgrowths along the edges. The thallus will attach to the soil or to trees through hairs called rhizoids. At the edges of the blades of such a plant, fruiting bodies develop in the form of dark brown thin formations in which microscopic spores will be fixed. In wet weather, such a thallus of the Icelandic cetraria will be soft-skinned, in dry weather it is hard, and in color this thallus will be brown-gray. Reproduction of this plant occurs through spores or vegetatively.
Under natural conditions, this plant is found on the territory of all regions of the former USSR, which will be located north of the steppe zone, as well as in the Caucasus and Crimea. Icelandic cetraria can grow both singly and in large groups along the dunes, in pine forests, in alpine and alpine meadows, on sandy wastelands, in coniferous-deciduous forests, as well as on the soil and bark of old stumps. It is noteworthy that the plant is an indicator of the purity of the air in the atmosphere, which is due to the fact that the plant grows in conditions that will be completely free from any atmospheric pollution.
Description of the medicinal properties of Icelandic cetraria
Icelandic cetraria is endowed with very valuable healing properties, while it is recommended to use the dried thallus of this plant for medicinal purposes. The presence of such valuable healing properties in a plant is due to the content of carbohydrates in the composition, which will be close in chemical nature to cellulose. The content of such carbohydrates will fluctuate between thirty and eighty percent.
The preparations created on the basis of this plant are endowed with antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, choleretic, wound healing and laxative effects. It should be noted that this plant has long been used in folk medicine in various countries, and the plant also served as a food product in especially lean years. The use of Icelandic cetraria will also contribute to the activation of the body's immune system.
A decoction of this plant is a very valuable nutrient, which should be associated with the fact that the carbohydrates of this plant will be well absorbed by the body, and at the same time, there will also be an improvement in appetite and normalization of digestion. For this reason, a decoction of this plant can also be used as a general tonic during the recovery period after severe illnesses. A decoction of this plant, among other things, is also endowed with a calming, enveloping and wound healing effect. Such a decoction is recommended for gastritis with decreased secretion of gastric juice, chronic constipation, diarrhea, indigestion, whooping cough, bronchial asthma, pulmonary tuberculosis and various respiratory diseases. Lotions from the decoction of this plant are effective for burns, boils, ulcers and wounds.
