2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Calendula is not only a very beautiful, but also an incredibly useful plant, and many of us do not even know about some of the beneficial properties of these amazing and extremely unpretentious flowers. This plant has a lot of medicinal properties, is an excellent honey plant and has proven itself ideally in landscape design. And this is far from all the useful properties of calendula! Planted near various horticultural crops, it will help repel pests such as nematodes, Colorado potato beetle, mosquitoes, butterfly caterpillars, bears and ants. So you should definitely allocate at least a little space for these bright flowers, even in the tiniest summer cottage
Calendula healer
Calendula has not only a lot of medicinal properties, but a lot: it is an excellent assistant for a wide variety of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract (constipation, heartburn, diarrhea, inflammation of the rectum, etc.), respiratory tract (bronchitis, flu), heart and blood vessels (atherosclerosis, tachycardia), as well as the genitourinary system (cystitis, etc.). It is also an excellent sedative and helps to cope with both high and low blood pressure. Calendula will also be an irreplaceable helper for healing all kinds of eye ailments (pustular diseases, as well as conjunctivitis, etc.).
At the same time, it is important not to forget that calendula also has contraindications - although there are not many of them, they are still there. This is breastfeeding or pregnancy, children under ten years of age, simultaneous use with various sedatives and excessively low blood pressure.
Calendula-cosmetologist
The beautiful calendula is also widely used in cosmetology - its powerful antibacterial and pronounced antiseptic properties help to quickly put the skin in order. Cosmetics made on the basis of magic "marigolds" are endowed with the ability to make the skin more elastic, heal, deeply cleanse and tone it, normalize the activity of the sebaceous glands, and also lighten age spots with freckles. On the basis of calendula, compresses, masks, alcoholic infusions, ointments or decoctions can be prepared, and all of them can boast a truly impressive effect! A tincture of calendula, combined with fresh celandine juice, perfectly helps to get rid of such a nuisance as warts!
Calendula will also be a good helper in hair care - it will help stop hair loss, strengthen it, and also contribute to the health of the scalp.
Calendula culinary
Anyone who believes that there is no place for calendula in the kitchen is greatly mistaken - bright yellow flowers have found their application in cooking! And it is used by chefs from all over the world! Most often, calendula serves as a seasoning for a wide variety of dishes - soups with its addition are especially tasty. In addition, many hostesses use dried calendula to color dough, sauces, cheeses, cottage cheese desserts and butter. And since the calenduline contained in it is capable of dissolving exclusively in fats, in order to extract a juicy color from beautiful plants, it is recommended to boil the flowers a little (you can do this in milk, for example). The flowers of this plant are also suitable for decorating all kinds of sweets, salads and stews.
When and how to collect calendula?
It is recommended to collect calendula flowers exclusively in sunny dry weather, and this should be done in July or August. Flowers are harvested from young plants immediately after they begin to bloom (that is, bloom) - if they are harvested at another time, they can either lose their color or begin to crumble strongly during the drying process, which will make them completely unusable …
The inflorescences should be cut with sharpened scissors near the bases of the stems. Then all the collected inflorescences are laid out to dry in a well-ventilated, but warm enough place. You can also use special dryers, setting the temperature on them at fifty-sixty degrees. The dried raw materials are carefully collected, transferred to cloth or paper bags and sent to storage in a cool place (while the calendula in bags should in no case coexist with any other plants!). Especially carefully you need to protect the dried inflorescences from moisture. And do not make too large stocks - the maximum shelf life of such blanks is one and a half years! It is better to collect a new "harvest" of bright flowers with the onset of the new season!
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