2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
For a long time people have been striving for distant lands in search of miracles. And they found them, bringing home fine silks, fragrant spices, outlandish animals, medicinal plants. Today, when travel has become available to many, people bring unknown miracles, and then wonder whether it is worth taking the risk of using them or it is more reliable to be treated with long-proven home-grown herbs
Hargal - Bedouin medicinal herb
Those who have visited the "Egyptian safari" know how difficult it is to resist buying Bedouin medicinal herbs, colorfully advertised by the guide.
Among the ten offered herbs, packed in transparent bags, there are dried leaves of Hargal - a shrub that is not afraid of drought, and therefore chose a place of residence in a number of countries in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
People living in the desert have used aerial parts of the bush for healing purposes since ancient times, the name of which in Arabic sounds like "Hargal".
Salinostemma
The healing shrub was first described in the first quarter of the 19th century by the German botanist, Friedrich Gottlob Hein. Since all plants are traditionally given Latin names, "Hargal" has become "Solenostemma Argel".
Under this name, you can find much more information about the plant itself, about its healing abilities. After all, the study of the properties of plant healers are scientists who use official terms. And for the Bedouins, the bush has remained a familiar "Hargal", steadfastly enduring the hot rays of the sun over the sandy expanses. It is no coincidence that the first syllable of the name is "har", which means "heat" in Arabic.
Description of the plant
Hargal is a shrub that grows from 60 cm to 1 meter in height. On its numerous fleshy stems, velvety from the short hairs covering them, a transparent and very bitter sap runs.
Sharp-nosed petiolate lanceolate leaves are located on the stem in opposite order. A peduncle emerges from the leaf axils with fragrant white bisexual flowers, forming an inflorescence - a complex umbrella.
The fruit is a hard pear-shaped "pouch" up to 5 cm long with a pointed tip, dark purple in color with stripes of different shades of purple or green. Inside the fruit are brown seeds, equipped with a tuft of whitish hairs. The seeds require moisture and warmth to germinate. The most favorable temperature for the beginning of life is 35 degrees Celsius.
Hargal's healing abilities
For medicinal purposes, aerial parts of the plant are used, including bitter juice.
In Sudan, for example, Hargal is cultivated to collect leaves for sale. The leaves are harvested during the flowering period, which lasts from March to July. During the season, you can collect 3 times.
A decoction of the leaves is used for problems with the digestive system (colic, flatulence, constipation); with pain in the kidneys; urinary tract infections; pain during the menstrual period; to combat syphilis; treatment of jaundice, bronchitis, sciatica.
An infusion of flowers and leaves cleanses the blood from pathogens, strengthens naughty nerves.
The juice of the leaves soothes coughs, is used as eye drops for vision problems.
Modern studies of the healing abilities of Hargal have shown that it contains 50 active compounds that can fight many human diseases. In particular, it is able to influence the work of the pancreas by regulating the amount of insulin in the body, as well as stop the growth of cancer cells.
Warning
Scientists in Sudan, where Hargal is widely used in traditional folk medicine, conducted experiments on white rats, showing that exceeding the dose of leaf extract by more than 600 mg per 1 kg of body weight can have an adverse effect on the kidneys and liver.
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