Collection And Preparation Of Herbs

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

The collection and procurement of medicinal herbs was once a mysterious business. Knowledge was passed on by inheritance, and when there was no one to pass it on, they left for another world together with the bearer of this knowledge. Today there is a lot of literature on this topic, sometimes very contradictory. Let's try to understand the basic techniques of this useful business

Today, due to some circumstances, many people have turned their eyes to the collection of medicinal herbs, faced with the fact that they do not know much about the nature around them. Before you start collecting and harvesting medicinal herbs, you need to learn how to distinguish them from poisonous counterparts. For this, today there is literature in which an accurate description of the grass is given, color photographs are attached.

What parts of plants are collected

In the literature, plant organs are divided into underground and aboveground.

Underground parts

The underground part of plants includes roots, rhizomes, rhizomes together with roots, bulbs, tubers.

Root systems are classified into three types:

• Taproot - the main root that goes deep into the soil, from which lateral, not so powerful, roots can extend. Such a system is possessed, for example, by peas, dandelions, roses, burdock (its powerful root grows up to 1.5 meters).

• Root vegetable - roots capable of storing nutrients. (The word "fruit" is artificially added to the name). Vegetable crops grown by us have such roots, as well as medicinal plants such as chicory, parsley, parsnip.

• Fibrous root - no main root, but many adventitious roots. Such a root is possessed, for example, by plantain, marigolds, creeping clover, strawberries.

The bulbs, although they belong to the underground part of the plant, are not roots. They represent a modified and thickened shoot.

The rhizome, like the bulb, is a modified shoot in which the plant stores nutrients. In addition, the rhizome has a reproductive function. On it are the axillary or apical buds that give life to new plants.

Aboveground parts

The aboveground part of plants includes grass, shoots, leaves, flowers, fruits, bark.

Grass is understood as the stem of a plant with leaves, leaves, a stem with leaves and flowers.

Collection time

For each plant and type of plant part, there are certain collection times. Even the time of day is important. This is due to the fact that the maximum accumulation of valuable active substances in the plant occurs purely individually.

Collecting roots

For medicinal purposes, developed and powerful roots are needed. They are in this state in autumn, when the aboveground part of the plant dies off, or in early spring, when the plant has not yet started to grow.

Roots can be dug in any weather. The best time to dig is the first half of the day.

Having thoroughly shaken off the roots from the ground, they are cleaned of corky growths, from rotten parts, and then thoroughly washed in cold water. If necessary, after washing, they are cleaned again, and then cut into pieces ranging in size from 0.5 to 2 centimeters.

Collecting herbs

The grass is harvested at the beginning of flowering in the morning, when the dew has already melted. Foggy and rainy days are not suitable for harvesting.

The grass is cut into small pieces with a maximum size of 3 centimeters, or tied into loose small bunches for further drying.

Bark harvest

The bark has the most valuable medicinal properties in the spring, when the sap begins to actively move along the tree trunk.

Collection of seeds and fruits

Here, I think, it is clear to everyone that seeds and fruits are harvested when they are fully ripe, rejecting low-quality and spoiled pests.

Drying plants

Having prepared the plants, you need to immediately start their "conservation", that is, quickly and correctly carry out their drying.

The correctness and completeness of drying is checked as follows:

- the roots break with a bang;

- it is easy to rub the grass and leaves with your hands;

- flowers should not be wet to the touch;

- the fruits do not stain hands and do not stick together into a lump.