2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Although the plant with the appetizing name "hogweed" outwardly resembles a huge dandelion, it is not at all inclined to be submissive and humble, but with great success and enviable speed it conquers living space, displacing old-timers
Homegrown "weed"
Among several dozen varieties of hogweed in Russia, only the especially dangerous "Sosnovsky hogweed" was brought from the Caucasus, and not from America, as some write, confusing it, apparently, with the Colorado potato beetle.
Such types of hogweed, as ordinary or Siberian, have long been familiar to Russians. Moreover, there was a time when they were not considered weeds, but were successfully eaten. We owe it to the hogweed when we enjoy rich borscht. True, today housewives replace hogweed leaves with beets. It is more reasonable to call modern borscht "beetroot", but it so happened that not everything changes as quickly as hogweed grows.
Young shoots of the Siberian hogweed were chewed with pleasure by children (the so-called pipe), including the author of these lines. True, over the years, the taste of the pipe has been forgotten, but it is unambiguous that it was pleasant and juicy to chew on it. Adults pickled shoots for future use, cooked candied fruits from them for the delight of children. The leaves of the hogweed were salted, dried, getting rid of the harmful properties of the plant through preliminary boiling or soaking.
The plant's powerful roots, rich in sugars, were used to make sugar and vodka.
Sosnovsky hogweed
This aggressive representative of hogweed came to the courtyard of livestock farms, because he simply increased the green mass at a fabulous pace, so necessary to feed their wards, constantly chewing.
But the instigators of the breeding of the Sosnovsky hogweed in the northern territories of the Soviet Union did not calculate the possible consequences of the resettlement of the southerner. He turned out to be so resilient and nimble that fifteen years later he turned into an annoying weed, dangerous to human health. Today, in some territories of Russia, an "official war" has been declared against this quickie.
The reason for the danger lies in the sap of the plant. The fact is that all parts of the cow parsnip (roots, stems, leaves, fruits) in the process of life accumulate natural organic compounds called "coumarins" and "furanocoumarins". The latter, being biologically active substances, provoke an increased sensitivity of the skin to ultraviolet rays, leading to its burns. The juice is especially dangerous for delicate baby skin. Therefore, living in the country, taking walks in the forest, it is necessary to acquaint children with plants that threaten their health. After all, large hogweed leaves are simply asking to be used as toilet paper when you are in nature. Explain to the children that for such cases it is better to use leaves, such as plantain.
While for the hogweed the accumulation of coumarins is a protective reaction against diseases, their excessive accumulation in the human body causes the disease "vitiligo", which turned black by birth Michael Jackson into a white-skinned one.
"Bear's paw" - a source of oxygen
But in any "bad" there are good moments. If you suppress the movement of a cow parsnip to the garden areas, leaving him the sides of dusty roads, then he will do a good job with his powerful leaves. Leaves that look like bear paws in size and appearance. gave another common name to the hogweed - "Bear's paw".
The huge leaves are a natural factory for the production of oxygen and the absorption of carbon dioxide, as well as harmful car exhaust. Thus, populating the side of the roads, the cow parsnip provides a useful service to a person.
The use of hogweed in medicine
While official medicine treats cow parsnip with caution, explaining its suspicion by the low level of knowledge of its therapeutic efficacy, traditional medicine widely uses it in the treatment of heterogeneous organs. Decoctions, water-alcohol extracts, poultices from leaves are used to treat kidneys, lungs, liver, skin diseases, rheumatic joint pains and even hysteria.
The biological activity of cow parsnip coumarins is used in sprays and sunburn creams.
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