Fireweed grows on a huge territory, which allows you to harvest leaves and flowers of this medicinal plant in large quantities during the summer. Decoctions from it are used for diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, genitourinary system, metabolic disorders, headaches. Hot compresses are effective for skin conditions. Having mastered the technology of making tea from the herb of fireweed, you can enjoy a fragrant drink all year round.
The name of fireweed, popularly known as Ivan tea, means a whole group of perennials from the Cyprian family. The most common among them are narrow-leaved fireweed, mountain, marsh, pink, hill, small-flowered, although there are about fifty species in total. Their names are due to external signs or place of growth, and fireweed grows throughout the territory of the former post-Soviet space and is widespread on other continents, in temperate zones.
Despite the fact that the name Ivan-tea is firmly entrenched for fireweed, this is not biologically true. In nature, there is another plant with the same name, belonging to a completely different genus - Chamerion.
In terms of chemical composition, all types of fireweed are similar. The plant is replete with valuable vitamins and mineral compounds, including almost the entire list of group B, a large amount of vitamin C (13 mg), PP, tannins. In terms of ascorbic acid content, fireweed surpasses even oranges. Of the mineral components, calcium, manganese, copper, selenium, iron, zinc prevail. The leaves are rich in carotene, tannin, alkaloids, flavonoids, quercetin, sugars, pectins. The rhizome also contains tannins and mucus, but to a lesser extent.
For medicinal purposes, fireweed leaves and flowers are mainly used, but sometimes rhizome is added to the collection. The preparation of medicinal raw materials of the aboveground part is carried out during the period of active flowering - from mid-June to mid-August. The collection of herbs is dried in the shade without direct sunlight. The roots are harvested in the fall. The seeds have no particular pharmacological value, but they contain 45% fatty oil, which may well serve as a substitute for traditional types of vegetable and used in cooking.
It is noteworthy that the inhabitants of the Caucasian region make useful flour from the leaves and rhizomes of fireweed, and the roots of the plant are eaten raw, as they have a pleasant sweetish taste.
In folk medicine, infusions and decoctions of leaves, flowers and roots of fireweed are used. Due to the abundance of tannins, such a drug has a beneficial anti-inflammatory, hemostatic, enveloping effect on the gastrointestinal tract. Gastritis or stomach ulcers are those cases when you should resort to a fireweed decoction. A useful herb will help get rid of many other ailments: metabolic disorders, gynecological diseases, prostate adenoma, diseases of the mouth and ear, throat, nose.
Anticonvulsant, sedative and analgesic effects of fireweed are known, therefore infusions from it are effective when you need to overcome headache, insomnia, and relieve chronic fatigue syndrome. Medicinal herbs are used not only inside. During the flowering period, the stems, together with leaves and flowers, are used as hot compresses for skin diseases: an ulcer of an infectious nature, non-healing wounds, skin inflammations, edema after a bruise.
Fireweed will also help in the fight against colds, as it has antipyretic and antimicrobial properties. But only treatment should be started immediately, at the first symptoms. Otherwise, there will be no effect.
In the old days, fireweed was brewed as a traditional tea, and outwardly it was no different from the expensive tea leaves supplied from abroad. The inhabitants of the village of Koporye were the first to master the science of preparing and selling tea from fireweed, therefore the product was called “Koporye tea”. The process consisted of several stages: withering, rolling, fermentation and drying. Subject to the technology, such tea is not only healthy, but also fragrant and tasty. There is only one contraindication to its use - intolerance to the components.
