Wheatgrass: medicinal properties and contraindications

What names did not people come up with for wheatgrass! One other thing is worse: they call it dog grass and rye. In some places they call it “diving”, in others - “dandur”, in the third - even “worm-grass”. If a summer resident or gardener dreams of wheatgrass growing magnificently on his favorite beds or flowerbeds, he will wake up with an alarming heartbeat. And realizing that it was just a dream, he will breathe a sigh of relief. Because wheat grass is the headache of all lovers of delving into the ground. Its rhizomes quickly grow in breadth and inland, and it is difficult for a gardener to cope with it.

Chemical composition

Meanwhile, these very rhizomes contain many useful substances for humans. For example, wheatgrass is rich in vitamins C and E - ascorbic acid and tocopherol, which have the ability to slow down aging and strengthen the immune system. The complex polysaccharide starch also works to strengthen the immune system; it is also necessary for the brain and muscles. The strength of carotene located in the rhizome is in the ability to remove free radicals from cells and reduce the negative effect of an unfavorable ecology.

Among the components of the wheatgrass rhizome, almost 10% is protein, and this is one of the most important "building materials" for the human body. The role of tricin (carbohydrate, which makes up almost 40% of the wheatgrass composition) and fructose monosaccharide is to provide a quick recovery of forces.

A whole set of organic acids helps to maintain the normal acid-base balance of the body, participates in metabolic processes.

The human body trusts mineral salts in wheatgrass to ensure the functioning of the cardiovascular, endocrine, nervous systems and digestive tract, to be responsible for the balance of water-salt metabolism and to participate in the process of hematopoiesis. The salts of silicic acid play a particularly important role, since with a lack of silicon it becomes difficult for the body to absorb more than seven dozen chemical elements.

Oils - fatty and essential oils, also included in the list of useful substances in wheatgrass, are responsible for the condition of the skin, hair and nails.

Amino acid alanine is a constant active participant in all metabolic processes, which provides endurance and positively affects the functioning of the brain and muscle system.

How it looks and where it grows

Wheatgrass refers to cereal crops. Its long, highly branched, with a huge number of processes root can penetrate deep into the soft loose earth - up to 1 m and even more. But usually all of its processes sprawl at a depth of not more than 15 cm. But in width, the processes from the root occupy a minimum "spot" of 3 by 3 m in size, and can extend to an even larger territory.

Wheatgrass grows in height from 50 cm to 120 cm, its color is most often pure green, but there are species in which the aerial part is gray-green. Usually there is a smooth, bare plant, but there are also hairy specimens.

The leaves of wheatgrass have a flat shape, they are very elongated in length. Botanists in this form are classified as linear. They can reach 40 cm in length and 10 cm in width (under favorable growing conditions). Thin veins are perfectly visible along the entire sheet.

Tall stems of the plant end up with spikelets at the top, the length of which can vary from 10 to 15 cm. They have from 4 to 7 flowers with scales of an elongated, lanceolate shape. Wheat grass begins to bloom in the first summer month, and from the end of July seeds begin to ripen.

This weed can propagate both by rhizomes (such a method is called vegetative), and by seeds (another name is sexually transmitted).The plant is very adapted to both methods. Rhizomes can occupy vast areas, and on good soil they can give birth to a huge number of sprouts. So, on one hectare of land overgrown with wheat grass, there is an incredible number of rhizome buds - about 250 million! And each of them can give life to a new plant. Even if the root is cut into many particles, not one will die aimlessly, and a new weed will necessarily grow from it. Moreover, even if one year a small stump lies quietly in the ground without showing signs of life, then the next or even a year, or even two, a new sprout may well develop from it.

Wheatgrass pollination occurs crosswise, that is, pollen from one plant is transferred to the pistil of another. Thanks to this, a plant with a new genotype is formed, preserving even greater stability and vitality. Seeds, as well as particles of roots, can survive adverse conditions in the soil for more than one season and make themselves felt even after 10-12 years. And since one plant can produce about 10 thousand seeds, it is easy to imagine what a huge army planted each wheatgrass plant every year on open fields.

He suffers drought, which is poorly tolerated by wheatgrass, in a state of sleep, but when it rains, it starts growing rapidly and adds centimeters right in front of his eyes.

Home for him almost everywhere on our planet. Its main colonies are located in the Northern Hemisphere, in European countries, in Asia, and it survives in the North African heat, in the Southern Hemisphere. In Russia it is found around.

A temperate climate suits him best. He loves fertile, quite loose, nitrogen-rich lands, grows best on sand, but does not suffer much on swampy soils. Its high thickets are located not only in the fields, but also on the banks of reservoirs, forest glades, along roads, along roadsides, in the steppes. As an uninvited guest, wheat grass breaks into cottages and gardens because he especially likes where there is regular watering. But if the land is not cultivated for a long time and becomes dense, solid, as if nailed, it loses its activity, which resumes after the first plowing.

Wheat-clogged fields dramatically lose productivity because it harms both cultivated plants and soil, which deprives them of nutrients and moisture. As a result, the earth dries up and dramatically depleted.

Kinds

In nature, there are almost 30 species of wheatgrass. They differ from each other in the height and structure of the spikelet, and this difference is explained by the conditions in which they grow.

So, a creeping wheatgrass, which is good everywhere, in any natural zone - even in a meadow or meadow, even on the shore of a reservoir, even in a garden or field, even on the side of the road, grows high - from half a meter to 1 m 20 cm. Accordingly, the stems , and the leaf plates are large enough, long. It is very difficult to eradicate.

And his relative, the wheatgrass is rather short. It does not grow above 30–75 cm. Its habitat is the steppe, it is distributed mainly in the southern regions of Russia, Ukraine, loves sandy or limestone soils, and settles on very dry meadows. It differs in color from creeping wheatgrass: its aerial part is bluish-green in color.

Another of the wheatgrass cohort - intermediate - is also not very tall, grows from 40 to 100 cm. You can not meet it in central Russia, it is distributed south: in the steppes and on dry lands of the Mediterranean and Central Europe. The Caucasus, Asia and the very south of Russia are also places familiar to him.

Another southerner's wheatgrass is elongated. It can grow up to 1.5 m, although the average size is from 40 to 100 cm. Its elements are salt marshes, chalk and limestone soils, roadsides in Asia, the Caucasus, the Mediterranean, and southern Russia.

Collection and storage

Despite the differences in the types of wheat grass, all of them are suitable for medicinal use. Traditional healers know that it is best to dig up rhizomes in the spring or in the fall. The easiest way is to let weeds dug in the garden.Their rhizomes need to be thoroughly shaken off the soil, first washed in a basin or bucket, so that it is more convenient to wipe them from sand grains, and then rinse with water directly from the tap.

In order for the roots to dry well, you can first spread them out in a sunny place for a start, it is better when it is windy on the street. Then you need to shift them to a shaded place, preferably on a veranda or terrace. It is important that there is a draft, and the wind blows around the medicinal raw materials. You can dry it with a dryer. Then the roots need to be cut a little, so that it is more convenient to stack in trays.

Dried rhizomes can be stored for a maximum of 2 years. At the same time, storage rules must be observed - put them in plywood boxes or in canvas bags.

The healing properties of wheatgrass

This harmful and aggressive wheat grass can do good service to a person. Its healing properties have been known to doctors for a long time. They have been used since ancient Greece. So, already the great Avicenna knew about the benefits of applying wheatgrass to wounds, about the ability of its root to have a healing effect.

In pre-revolutionary Russia wheatgrass was prepared for pharmacies. Today in European countries it is used by official medicine - for example, in Germany, where the use of wheatgrass is even dealt with at the level of the public health service. There it is used in cases of inflammation of the urinary tract and in the treatment of colds and acute respiratory infections.

Scientific medicine indicates the ability of weed rhizomes to regulate salt metabolism. It is also appreciated for diuretic, diaphoretic and enveloping effects, expectorant action.

Wheatgrass refers to a means that can restore strength, increase body tone, improve appetite and restore sleep. This is facilitated by the sugars and vitamins in it. His ability to regulate blood coagulation, saturate it with oxygen and purify is also used. Due to the action of the plant, the outflow of water from the body is enhanced, at the same time the capillaries are cleaned, toxins are removed, and this helps to reduce skin rashes.

Inherent in wheatgrass and anthelmintic effect, in nature it is used by cats and dogs, eating grass and thereby being cleared of parasites.

For women

Wheatgrass is interesting for women as a tool that allows the skin to maintain beauty, health and youth, reducing wrinkles due to the control of oxidative processes in the body. In addition, the vitamin E (tocopherol) contained in the rhizomes of the plant helps to get rid of acne, acne, and accelerates the healing of irritations.

Tocopherol also helps to restore the regular menstrual cycle and, by increasing sex drive, improves fertility - the ability to give birth to healthy and strong children.

For men

For men, as well as for women, vitamin E helps restore fertility, provides a normal composition of seminal fluid. According to experts, this particular remedy is necessary for forty-year-old men to regain former masculine strength and natural carnal desires. In addition, by gently relieving inflammation, the plant has a beneficial effect on the prostate, facilitating the course of prostatitis.

Wheatgrass in folk medicine

Traditional medicine uses wheat grass to treat various body systems - from metabolic diseases, gout and rheumatism, and ending with pathologies of digestion, cardiovascular system, genitourinary system and oncology.

A cup of wheatgrass tea will help with fatigue and a feeling of being overwhelmed. It has been established that wheatgrass is effective in eliminating the effects of radiation, and it is even prescribed as an additional remedy for radiation sickness.

Preparations made from rhizomes, along with juice from leaves, are recommended for the treatment of bronchitis, pneumonia and acute respiratory viral infections.Wheat grass has also proven itself in the fight against furunculosis and acne. With these and other skin problems, including diathesis in babies, urticaria, eczema, course bath methods with the use of wheat grass preparations are indicated. Usually prescribed from 10 to 15 such procedures. They help with hair loss and hemorrhoids. In the latter case, wheat grass can also be used in the form of an enema.

Wheatgrass-based products are widely used to get rid of liver diseases, including such serious ones as hepatitis, cirrhosis, and pathologies of adipose tissue of an organ. As part of herbal preparations, this plant treats the gall bladder and ducts, cholelithiasis. Traditional medicine uses its anti-inflammatory properties to invest in the symptoms of gastritis, colitis, enteritis. Traditional medicine knows methods for treating wheat grass hypertension, anemia, rickets. Means based on this weed are used as auxiliary in the complex treatment of malignant tumors.

Types of healing compounds

Traditional healers use wheat grass in the form of tea, juice, broth, infusion, tincture and tablets. Liquids are taken both inside and out - in the form of baths, compresses and lotions.

Tablets are used only inside. Actually, these are not tablets in the sense that everyone is used to. Folk healers prepare them from the juice of the aerial parts of the plant, for which they let the leaves and stems through a meat grinder, or smash them in a blender. Juice is squeezed out of the resulting mass, which is then impregnated with bread and small balls are rolled from it.

Taking such pills within a month restores the body's immune forces, improves well-being, normalizes metabolism and the digestive system. The usual norm of this method is once a day one hour before meals.

Alternative medicine also offers an original way to combat sweating of the feet with the help of a lively, just ripped wheatgrass. In the evening, after the feet are washed, barley straw and wheat grass should be braided around the fingers, just like baskets are woven. Put on your socks and go to bed. In the morning, throw away the grass, put on fresh socks. If you do this daily, excessive sweating, unpleasant odor and related diaper rash, suppuration will go away.

Infusion

1. From gout and cystitis. To get a healing broth, you need to chop dry rhizome. 2 large tablespoons of raw materials pour half a liter of boiling water. Close the saucer or lid and insist 8 hours. Ready to drink 20 minutes before breakfast, lunch and dinner, pre-heated to a warm state. Infusion effectively acts as a diuretic, expectorant and diaphoretic.
2. With infertility. This tool will be useful for both men and women. Dig up the rhizome, wash, chop (or use ready-made dried raw materials), brew 1 tablespoon with a glass of freshly boiled water. When it settles for half an hour, you need to filter and drink three times a day for a large spoon, without tying it to a meal.
3. With cholecystitis. Pour 2 large tablespoons of rhizome into 1.5 cups of freshly boiled water. Insist for about 4-6 hours. Use after straining - a glass three times a day. Drink a course for a month.

Tincture

1. For cough with a cold. Prepare 2 tablespoons of raw materials and 250 ml of water. It should be boiled and cooled to room temperature. Pour wheat grass with water, insist 12 hours, then strain, squeezing the rhizome. Drink 3 times a day in a glass, you can not tie the reception of this drug to a meal.
2. From gastritis. This tincture will help with colitis, enteritis and metabolic disorders. It requires a finished chopped rhizome. Pour it with cooled boiled water in the following proportion: for 250 ml - 5 teaspoons of raw materials. Insist 12 hours, then strain, separating wheatgrass from the infusion, but do not pour the infusion. Pour wheat grass with 250 ml of freshly boiled water and leave it warm for about 50-60 minutes. After filtering, both the first and second infusions should be mixed and drunk. Norm - 1/2 cup 4 times a day before meals.
3. Alcohol tincture. 2 large tablespoons of juice will have to be squeezed into a glass of good vodka: skip fresh leaves and stems in a blender, and then squeeze through 4-6 layers of gauze. If you prepare this tool in the summer, then all winter you can be treated for a cold, since wheatgrass is stored in this form for several months.

Decoction

1. From hemorrhoids. Indications for this decoction are wider - including it is recommended for inflammatory processes in the large intestine, as well as exacerbation of inflammation of the bladder. To prepare the medicinal product, 2 large spoons of the dried medicinal raw material should be filled with 1 cup of freshly boiled water and sent to the stove for further boiling. Boil for 5-10 minutes. After cooling, strain and squeeze thoroughly. The broth can be taken orally in 1/3 cup before meals three times a day. It can be used as a microclyster, for which they take 2-3 large spoons of the product. If you intend to drink a decoction, you can add a piece of blackcurrant to the aroma during the cooking process.
2. From diabetes. The tool prepared according to this recipe tidies up the metabolism. Water in an amount of 1.2 liters pour a handful of wheatgrass root. Bring to a boil, then reduce the flame and simmer on fire until the volume is reduced by about 25%. After straining, drink 1 tablespoon 4 to 5 times a day, regardless of meals.
3. In oncology. When deciding to use folk remedies, one should not forget that the doctor prescribes the main treatment, herbs can only be an addition to the main course. It is necessary to take 2 tablespoons of dried medicine, pour them in two glasses of freshly boiled water and cook over low heat. The product should boil for about 15 minutes, no longer. After you need to cover the dishes in which the grass was boiled, cover and insist for about 3 hours. After straining, take half an hour before meals. The daily norm is 3-4 times a day for 1/3 cup. The course lasts a month.
4. Broth in milk. On a glass of milk you need to take 1 tablespoon of rhizome. Bring the milk to a boil, pour the medicinal raw material in a boil and send it to the stove again. It is necessary that milk with wheatgrass boil for 10 minutes in a low flame. Cool to a warm state, strain and drink. Cook the broth twice a day. Helps women with the inflammatory process in the ovaries and infertility resulting from this inflammation.

Tea

With juvenile acne
With this problem, you need to brew tea from four herbs. First, prepare the herbal collection: two parts of the wheatgrass rhizome and one part of the three-colored violet, horsetail, nettle, mixed in a dry bowl, such as a glass jar. Brew tea of ​​2 with a slide of teaspoons of herbal tea and a quarter liter of boiling water. After 10 minutes, strain, like a regular tea, through a tea strainer and drink. Norm - 3 times a day. If you make such a tea party with a daily, traditional ritual, the skin will cleanse very quickly.

Juice

Freshly squeezed wheatgrass juice alleviates the symptoms of hemorrhoids. To get it, the aerial part of the weed - both the stems and leaves - must be washed and scalded with boiling water. Then scroll in a meat grinder and add as much water as the resulting green herbal gruel. Stir, squeeze with 4-6 layers of gauze and boil for 3 minutes. Drink 1/3 cup before each meal. You cannot store juice for more than two days, even in the refrigerator.

Cooking Application

People adapted to use wheat grass and in cooking. To prepare various dishes, both rhizomes and the aerial part are used. Rhizomes are preferable: they are richer in useful components and at the same time juicy.

You can make full-fledged side dishes from a plant, they will perfectly complement both meat and fish products, and are suitable for dishes from mushrooms and vegetables. Those who love spicy and original food will especially like wheatgrass recipes.

Wheatgrass salad

In the spring, such a salad will become a real vitamin bomb, capable of awakening the body from hibernation and spleen. To prepare it, in addition to 100 g of wheatgrass rhizome, you will need dandelion leaves (about 40 g), nettle (about 50 g), as well as plantain and daisy (30 g each).Add the dill, parsley, green onion feathers to the herbal mixture. Rhizomes must first be boiled a little (10-15 minutes). Cut all the greens, season with salt and season with sour cream or mayonnaise.

Wheatgrass puree with onion

For this dish, which can rightfully be considered a diet, you need 300 g of wheatgrass rhizome. Wash it, boil until soft, remove it from the pan with a slotted spoon and roll through a meat grinder along with 50 g of onion. Salt, pepper and pour sour cream.

Wheaten Pies

For pies, you need to prepare the usual dough with yeast, but replace part of the wheat flour with wheat flour from the rhizome, for which grind the dry root in a coffee grinder. Moreover, flour is made only from young rhizomes, the old ones are not suitable for this.

For one and a half kilograms of wheat flour take a pound of wheatgrass. And then do everything as usual: dilute in a glass of milk 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar, add a bag of dry yeast. Knead the dough until it stops sticking to your hands and begins to lag behind the walls of the dishes. Leave in order to rise.

The filling for such pies can be hard-boiled and chopped eggs, mixed with rice, mashed potatoes with fried onions, minced meat. You can bake pies in the oven or fry in a pan in a large amount of vegetable oil.

Porridge with wheatgrass

To prepare such porridge, you need to crush the young rhizome of wheatgrass and turn it into a grits. When cooking, mix this grits equally with any other, for example buckwheat or pearl barley. Better to cook in a water bath, salt at the end of cooking. Serve with milk or butter.

How to get rid of wheatgrass in the garden

You can get rid of wheatgrass, although it is not easy. Experienced gardeners know that there is nothing more true than the good old shovel or pitchfork. You just need to dig up and manually select the rhizomes, trying not to miss a single piece. It is long, difficult, difficult, but in this way you can bring wheatgrass forever.

It is inhibited by wheat grass by constant cultivation and mulching of the soil. You can mulch as a black plastic wrap or the same color with a covering material, or with the same beveled wheat grass. A dense layer of mulch does not allow the weed to break through. But if you don’t mulch this place next year, it will still rise.

If green manure or so-called green fertilizers (for example, mustard) are planted immediately after digging or plowing, they are also able to repel wheat grass from the site and gradually “squeeze” it out of the garden. But this will not happen quickly, siderata must be sown regularly, for several years.

There are folk secrets with which they also fight with wheatgrass. For example, often the territory of its distribution is watered with a strong solution of ordinary baking soda, when its usual pack is bred in a five-liter bucket of water. But, of course, large areas cannot be handled in this way. It is also watered with brine, diluting 3 kg in a bucket of water.

Helps and 60% alcohol, which is watered the ground early in the spring, when wheat grass is just showing up from the ground. But this method is expensive, so it is not suitable for everyone.

Summer residents are experimenting with citric acid powder. If you prepare a strong solution of 3 tablespoons of acid diluted in a liter of water, and spray wheat grass in good sunny weather, then very soon it will die.

Chemicals, in particular herbicides, act in approximately the same way. These compounds are very effective: they penetrate the weed and kill it pretty soon. But the rhizomes after citric acid and after herbicides still have to be removed manually by digging.

Nevertheless, experienced summer residents are convinced: wheatgrass can be defeated by mowing, and chemical treatments, and manual selection of rhizomes. The main thing is to use an integrated approach.

Contraindications

Wheat grass is a fairly harmless plant, and there are no special prohibitions on its use. But still, you don’t need to get carried away either by eating it, or using drugs based on it. We must remember the main rule - “Do no harm”, and it involves strict adherence to the prescribed doses or courses and adherence to the recommended treatment time.

Especially do not abuse the plant-based formulations for women during pregnancy and breastfeeding. No need to rush to give decoctions and infusions of wheatgrass to drink for small children up to two years. But at the same time, therapeutic baths for diathesis are indicated even for babies up to a year old.

For those who are diagnosed with severe kidney disease, peptic ulcer, wheat grass is also not recommended. It can provoke an exacerbation.

Individual intolerance to drugs and preparations, which include wheatgrass, is also possible. In such cases, it is better to abandon them altogether.

Photo of wheatgrass