Fireweed, whose healing properties are known to most people, is a herbaceous plant with a thick creeping root. Its popular name is "Ivan-tea". It has a completely bare long stem. Pink (sometimes white) flowers are collected in a long beautiful brush. The leaves have slightly convex veins, attached alternately to the stem. The fruit is in the form of a box, seeds are placed in it. It is necessary to collect fireweed at a certain time, its healing properties in this case will be maximum. This happens during the period of mass flowering. Ivan-tea grows on almost all continents with a temperate climate, in well-lit places - these are clearings, burnt areas, meadows, and the shores of lowland reservoirs.
Chemical composition
Fireweed exhibits healing properties due to the substances contained in it. In particular, these are tannins, mucus, alkaloids, vitamin C, gallic and ascorbic acids, coumarins. It contains tannin and pectin. The microelement set strikes: copper, boron, iron, manganese, titanium and even molybdenum.
Pharmacological properties
This herb has a mild laxative, wound healing,hemostatic, astringent, emollient, mild hypnotic and anti-inflammatory effect. For medicinal purposes, the whole fireweed is used, the leaves, root system, stems, flowers have healing properties.
Application
Preparations from Ivan tea help with gastrointestinal ailments: colitis, gastritis, ulcers. Fireweed is used externally for washing bruises, wounds, and joint pain. It is believed that Ivan tea has medicinal properties that help in the fight against male prostate ailments, including adenoma. It is used for insomnia, headaches, for washing ulcers on the skin. Not only fireweed itself is useful, Ivan-tea transfers healing properties even to honey collected from it. Remedies based on this plant help in case of anemia, internal outflows of this fluid, ailments of the throat, kidneys, and bladder.
Kopor tea
This is the most common way to consume this medicinal herb. According to the classic recipe of Koporye peasants, Ivan-tea is prepared by tearing off the brushes of flowers by 30-40 cm. Then they are scattered on a flat surface with a layer of 4-5 cm and the resulting mass is twisted into a roll. At the same time, it must be compressed with a certain effort so that the juice partially stands out from the grass. Then the twisted mass should be left overnight, covered with a damp burlap. During this period, the raw materials will rot, and fermentation will take place. At the end of the process, the grass is again scattered in an even layer and it is partially dried. The final operations are drying in a hot oven (oven) and grinding. Main featurethe correct preparation of Koporye tea is the color, it should be green. It should be stored in tight bags or paper bags for no longer than two years.
Other dosage forms
Soups and salads are prepared from young leaves and shoots of fireweed. The roots, fresh or cooked, are used in a similar way to cabbage or asparagus. They make flour out of them. By roasting them, you can get the so-called "fireweed coffee". Juice, decoctions, infusions and oil are made from fresh flowers.
