Berries and blackberry leaves: useful properties and contraindications

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

The benefits of blackberries have been known for a long time. This plant grows not only in forests, but is also actively cultivated in household plots. Currently, more than twenty varieties of this crop have been bred. All species have unique beneficial properties.

Blackberry belongs to the Rosaceae family, genus Rubus. The height of its bushes is on average about a meter. There are tall, low varieties, prickly and thornless. Next, we will talk about this plant in more detail.

Description and growth of blackberries

Blackberry is found in nature throughout the European territory of Russia and Siberia. Also, its bushes grow in some countries of Asia, in Ukraine, in North America. You can meet fragrant berries along the edge of ravines, in glades, in forests.

In the wild, its whips reach a meter or more in length, covered with a wax coating and thorns. The leaves are green, consisting of three or five leaf blades, and silvery below. Petioles are long, strong. Blackberry blooms white. After that, green berries are formed, which, when ripe, becomereddish and then black. Ripe berries often have a waxy coating.

Useful properties of blackberries make it possible to use this culture not only in cooking, but also in folk and official medicine. Based on the described plant, various homeopathic preparations with a wide spectrum of action are produced.

Chemical composition of blackberry leaves

The beneficial properties of blackberries are well studied and used to treat a variety of ailments and in cosmetology. So, its leaves contain a large amount of tannins, flavonoids, leukoanthocyanides, inositol, essential oils, organic acids. Also in the composition of the leaves there is ascorbic acid, sucrose, glucose, fructose. They contain many vitamins: the entire group B, as well as C, PP, E, A. Many micro and macro elements: zinc, manganese, potassium, iron, selenium, phosphorus, calcium and more.

Due to the variety of its constituent substances, the beneficial properties of blackberries help fight a variety of ailments. Moreover, from the leaves you can not only prepare various infusions and decoctions, but also add a small amount of raw materials to tea with each brew.

Chemical composition of berries

Useful properties of blackberries are determined by the unique composition. They contain many vitamins:

1. Vitamin C - Helps boost the immune system.
2. A - has an effect on the skin, preventing aging, and also accelerates the regeneration processes in wounds, improves vision.
3. Bberries contain the whole set of B vitamins. They help normalize metabolic processes, strengthen the heart muscle, increase resistance to stress, and also lower cholesterol, improve hair structure, and have a positive effect on kidney pathology.
4. E - has a rejuvenating effect, helps in the treatment of the cardiovascular system, with brain disorders.
5. K - improves blood clotting, strengthens blood vessels.
6. P and PP.

Also, berries contain many useful acids, phenolic compounds, fiber, glucose, fructose, pectin, amino acids, fatty oils, tannins, mineral elements, amino acids.

The use of the plant in medicine

The beneficial properties of blackberries for humans are multifaceted, since this plant can be almost completely used for medicinal purposes. In medicine, its berries, leaves, roots are used. The roots are harvested in autumn, the leaves are harvested throughout the growing season, and the berries are harvested as they ripen.

Infusions, decoctions are prepared from the leaves, used to make tea. The berries are dried, frozen, made into jams, jams, used fresh.

Benefits of berries

Knowing the beneficial properties of blackberries and contraindications to its use, you can fight a variety of ailments, strengthen immunity:

• Berries help fight obesity, as well as metabolic disorders. With regular use of them in food, metabolic processes are normalized. Included in catechinsslow down the absorption of fats, and also speed up the metabolism.
• For diabetics, berries help lower blood sugar levels.
• Berries help with colds, increasing the body's resistance. The substances included in the composition fight pathogenic microorganisms, including viruses.
• Blackberry has beneficial properties for women - it slows down the aging process and prevents the development of cancer. The substances included in the composition protect against the effects of free radicals and are a strong antioxidant.
• The plant helps to cope with hormonal disruptions, with pain during menstruation. Berries normalize hormones and blood pressure.
• Blackberries contain pectin, which helps to remove toxins and s alts from the body, toxins, normalizes metabolic processes, lowers cholesterol.

Berries have different effects on the body, depending on the ripeness. So, ripe berries have a laxative effect, and green ones have a strengthening effect.

Blackberries are a storehouse of vitamins. It increases immune defense, restores the nervous system, improves brain function, and stabilizes blood sugar levels.

Benefits of roots

Not only berries and leaves have healing properties, but also roots. They prepare a medicinal tincture according to the following recipe:

1. One hundred grams of crushed roots are poured with water (0.5 l) and boiled until half the volume is evaporated.
2. The broth is filtered and diluted in a 1:1 ratio with red table wine.

This remedy is accepted uponpathology of the respiratory tract, as a diuretic, with poor appetite, and also as a hemostatic drug.

Benefits of leaves

Useful properties of blackberry leaves help to cope with a variety of he alth problems. The healing elements included in them help fight the following ailments:

• disorders of the gastrointestinal tract;
• skin problems, including eczema;
• menstrual irregularities, painful periods;
• pathologies of the oral cavity - stomatitis, inflammation of the gums;
• sleep disorders, neurosis;
• sore throat;
• anemia.

From the leaves you can squeeze the juice and use it as a wound healing agent, as well as a diuretic, diaphoretic drug. Freshly squeezed juice gives good results in the treatment of infectious diseases, as well as in the treatment of skin rashes, abscesses, and lichen. Young leaves are recommended for chewing by those who are constantly worried about bleeding gums, there are any inflammations of the oral cavity.

In viral infections, the leaves are used as an antipyretic, tonic, tonic. They are used to make vitamin teas. Leaflets are applied to sore spots with varicose veins.

Contraindications

When using the leaves, it is important to know the beneficial properties and contraindications of blackberries for women, men and children. So, infusions can not be used for diseases of the kidneys and bladder, because the leaves and roots have a strong diuretic.action.

Blackberries are not recommended for allergy to them, as well as kidney disease. Blackberries should not be consumed by those who have an increased acidity of the stomach, as berries can lead to heartburn and contribute to the development of ulcers.

Recipes of traditional medicine

To raise immunity, take one tablespoon of leaves and pour them with a glass of boiling water, the remedy is infused for half an hour. After that, the drug is filtered, divided into equal three parts and taken one part three times a day. You need to take it for about a week.

With menopause and nervous disorders, an infusion of two tablespoons, filled with a glass of boiling water and infused for eight hours, helps. After the remedy is filtered and taken in the fourth part of the glass three times a day. The infusion is taken until the symptoms disappear completely.

In inflammatory processes, a tablespoon of leaves is steamed with a glass of boiling water and insisted for three hours. The remedy is taken in half a glass three times a day. Take the composition until complete recovery - usually no more than two weeks.

Blackberries are used for brewing tea, making jams, preserves, fruit drinks, compotes. Not only fresh, but also frozen blackberries are used for food, the beneficial properties of which are practically not lost.

You can make an infusion from dried berries by taking two tablespoons of berries and brewing them with a glass of boiling water. The composition is infused for twenty minutes and taken in a third of a glass every two hours. This infusion has goodsweatshop.

Dried berries can be crushed and used as a remedy for diarrhea in children (given in half a teaspoon).

For more on the benefits of blackberries, see the video provided in the article.

For the treatment of pathologies, only young leaves are harvested. They contain many useful substances. Fresh leaves can be added to tea: they will give it a pleasant aroma. It is best to harvest the leaves in the spring, when they are just blooming, but you can collect raw materials throughout the entire growing season.

The collected leaves are crushed and dried in a well-ventilated area. Ready raw materials are stored in fabric bags for no more than a year.

Berries can not only be used for canning, but also dried in a dryer. The fruits prepared in this way are stored in a glass container in a dark place for up to twelve months.