Mordovnik - Honey Plant And Medicine

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

Ball-headed mordovnik (lat. Echinops sphaerocephalus, golovaten (Ukrainian), barnyard, tartar, shoot), many grow it as an ornamental, medicinal, melliferous and vegetable plant. Why is it wonderful and why is it worth starting in the garden?

It is believed that the muzzle is a perennial plant. But most often it is a biennial: in the first year it forms a powerful rosette of leaves, in the second - it blooms and dies off. It happens that single specimens bloom in the third year.

Thorny grass

Mordovnik vulgaris is a herbaceous plant with slightly thorny leaves and erect stems branching at the top. The flowers are single-flowered baskets (blue - in the common scabbard and whitish-blue - in the ball-headed) - collected on a spherical bed of the inflorescence (up to 5 cm in diameter). Mordovnik ordinary - 30-90 cm high, ball-headed - 50-150 cm (sometimes up to 2-2.5 m). The fruit is an achene (resembles rye seeds) in a shell soft, like glass wool, made of microscopic numerous needles (looks like a small lump). Blooms in mid-summer to September. In nature, it usually grows in forests, steppes, both in the Middle Belt and in the southern regions.

Unique composition

For treatment, almost all parts of the muzzle are used. The ball-headed one, like the common one, has the same medicinal properties. The seeds of the plant include saturated oil (about 28%) and a substance such as the alkaloid echinopsin (1.5-2%). In stems and leaves, it is an order of magnitude less than in seeds. Thanks to echinopsin, this herb is able to activate the central nervous system, improve the functioning of the heart. This substance increases blood pressure and vascular muscle tone, reduces headache, fatigue, weakness, restores appetite and sleep.

Benefits and contraindications

Mordovnik ordinary is usually used for partial (paresis) and complete paralysis, for the treatment of sciatica, poliomyelitis and their consequences, as well as for plexitis, hypotension, prostatitis, myopathy, multiple sclerosis, optic nerve atrophy, amyotrophic sclerosis. The mouthpiece is also beneficial in eliminating the effects of radiation exposure along with other official medicines during the treatment of leukemia.

Contraindications to the use of an ordinary scabbard: pregnancy and lactation. The plant is quite toxic, and it should be used carefully - an overdose is unacceptable. With an increase in the dose, it contributes to a sharp decrease in blood pressure and the occurrence of seizures.

The nuances of the workpiece

The herb is harvested at the beginning of its flowering. They dry it under a canopy in the attics and grind it. When the globular inflorescences of the grass turn brown, they are cut off along with a piece of the stem. Then they are hung down with inflorescences to ripen. It is important to do this in a timely manner, otherwise most of the seeds will be blown up by the wind. As a rule, the balls are collected selectively when they only slightly begin to crumble.

After drying, they are easily kneaded into separate cones. But it is quite difficult to separate the seeds of the muzzle from the soft shell - microscopic needles pierce the skin and cause itching. Dry "bumps" are rubbed through a sieve in canvas mittens, thus becoming so that the husk is blown away by the wind from a person (you can also sow unpeeled seeds).

For menus and bouquets

Young balls-inflorescences, when they are 2-3 cm in diameter (long before flowering), can be eaten. They taste like artichokes. It is better to boil or fry them. The plant itself is a good honey plant, the flowering period is long, and its inflorescences are loved by bees and other insects (along the way, pollinating other plants). This property of the herb is used by gardeners or florists.

Mordovnik is an original ornamental plant. At the time of flowering, its balls-inflorescences are cut off with shoots, dried in the shade, hanging with inflorescences from top to bottom, and used for dry winter bouquets. If desired, they can be painted in any color.

When fed daily to a cow, the muzzle significantly increases the fat content of milk (the rosettes of leaves are gradually mowed, which grow back). You can feed it to goats and rabbits.

The common mordovnik is propagated by simple sowing of seeds in the fall (before winter) or in the spring; the plant gives excellent self-seeding. Prefers open, sunny places. He can meet in the most unexpected place of the site - seeds not collected in a timely manner are carried by the wind. However, he is not a weed: he cut it down at the root - and it is not there, and you will not cut it down - a powerful, beautiful and useful plant will grow.