Folk name: Smoke grass.
Parts used: All plant (without roots). Pharmacy Name: Smoke herb - Fumariae herba (formerly: Herba Fumariae).
Botanical description. This annual plant with very graceful leaves and flowers usually grows vertically, reaching a height of 20-40 cm, but in some places lies down. The hollow stem of the fog is thin, smooth, gentle, juicy herbaceous, with a bluish patina, strongly branching. The next leaves look grey-green; in the upper part of the plant they are sessile, in the lower part - with petioles, twice or triple-peristolated, with small narrow separate segments. Fine flowers with spurs, collected in loose brushes, from pink to dark red, have a black and red spot on top. Blossoms from June to July. The plant grows rather densely in groups on littered places, in deposits, gardens and cultivated fields.
Harvesting and harvesting. The hazelnut is harvested during flowering. They take the above-ground parts, preferably straight shoots, so that they do not have to be washed off from the stuck particles of the earth. It is better to dry in beams in a shady place.
Active ingredients: a number of alkaloids (e.g. protopin, kryptocavine, corridaline, synactin), bitterness, resin, choline, flavonoids and mucous substances (mucines).
Healing effect and application. For a long time, smoke was used only in folk medicine, but recently the results of scientific research have made this plant interesting for scientific medicine as well. It has been established that smoke (as well as celandine - a representative of the same family of poppy plants) contains active substances that have a positive effect on the freeing of the bile ducts, as they relieve spasms and regulate the outflow of bile. Therefore, it can be recommended for both acute and chronic diseases of the biliary system. Pains in the upper right abdomen, better digestible food, disappear nausea, urge to vomit, headaches. The German Public Health Service states that smoke should be taken in case of spastic biliary system disorders and constipation. There are preparations that contain fume hoods, and the number of tea blends with fume (together with celandine, peppermint, furnace, goldenthousandth, wormwood and other herbs) is constantly increasing. But it is quite consumable and tea only from the smoke.
Smoke tea: 1 teaspoon of smoke, pour 1/4 of water, heat to boil, let stand still for 10 minutes and strain. If necessary, drink up to three cups a day.
My special advice. In addition, for a long time already point to the mild diuretic properties of smoke, as well as some laxative effect in constipation. The mechanism of this action is not yet quite clear. Since urine retention and constipation are often spastic, it is possible that this effect is due to the antispasmodic effect of smoke. White to compare among themselves the above mentioned actions this curative plant should be included in so-called blood-cleaning courses (spring courses of treatment) - both by adding smoke to blood-cleaning teas, and by adding its fresh leaves in spring salads (of course, only in small amounts).
Spring salad with smoke: Seed salad (as a base) 65% Schnitt-lug, young yarrow leaves, dandelion leaves (equal parts) 30% St. John's wort leaves, smoke (equal parts) 5%
Tea blend for spring and autumn treatments: Smoke, birch leaves, nettle leaves, horsetail, tricolor violet, dandelion root and grass, bark crumbs, lemon balm leaves - all in equal parts. Pour 2 teaspoons of the mixture into 1/4 litre of boiling water, allow to infuse for 10 minutes and strain. Take twice a day for 1 cup. Tea removes excess water, slags, stimulates metabolism, helps cleanse the skin.
Application in folk medicine. Dioscoride and Pliny - authorities for the authors of the herbalists of the Middle Ages. Already in the first German-language herbalist "Garden of Health" (Mainz, 1485), and later with Leonart Fuchs (1543) reported about smoke. And what is available in later herbalists mainly coincides with this information: folk medicine uses smoke in chronic constipation, water, liver and biliary system diseases, gout, skin diseases and as a blood-cleaning agent, then to excite appetite and as a toning agent, especially for anaemic girls. IN X. Marcella, who has been involved in human consumption and superstition in this regard, can be read that young girls who carry smoke on their breasts will marry the first person they meet.
Side effects. Overdose should be avoided because of possible abdominal pain. There are no dangerous side effects.