Plant crow's eyes has a variety of peoplenames: rannik, bear berries, crow's grass, crow's berries, crow, cross-grass. It attracts attention with its brilliant black berries, which can cause severe poisoning and at the same time have healing properties. Where does the crow eye grow and how is it used in medicine?
Habitat
Voroniy eye occurs in such regions asthe middle band of Russia, Siberia, the Caucasus, Ukraine, and Belarus. This plant loves moist soil and is found in shady deciduous, coniferous or mixed forests, on the slopes of ravines, in thickets of bushes. On the stem 30 cm high, there is a scaly leaf split in two. Above - 4 more leaves ovoid-rounded with a pointed tip. Because of this, in science, the crow is called the four-leaved eye. True, there are plants with three or even five leaves.
The rhizome of the plant is long and creeping; it canquickly expand into sides. The plant is a perennial, and can reproduce as seeds, and shoots, which grow from the rhizome. Every year, one croup is added to the crow's eye shoot. Counting them, you can determine how old the plant is.
The crow's eye begins to bloom in May.True, it is very difficult to notice its flowers: they, though not small, but because of the greenish color do not attract attention to themselves. In their appearance it is even difficult to say how long the flower bloomed. He always looks the same both at the beginning and at the end of flowering. Stamens and perianth leaves just dry up as the pestle turns into fruit. Much more remarkable are the large berries: in July and August they reach full maturity and are clearly visible against the background of the leaves. Looking at these shiny fruits (because of their similarity to the raven's eye plant and got its name), somehow one does not want to believe that the crow's eye is a poisonous plant. But nevertheless, this is so: both berries and leaves, having got into an organism, can cause the strongest poisoning. It is accompanied by vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness, severe abdominal pain, seizures and violation of cardiac activity until the heart is stopped.
What cures the crow's eye?
In the Middle Ages, crow's eyes were considereda plant-amulet. People believed that it could disenchant the enchanted, and also protect them from plague and other such diseases. For this purpose, the berries of the plant were harvested and sewed into clothing. But in general, the plants were afraid and used not very often.
In our time, the plant is used only infolk medicine and homeopathy. Both leaves and berries are used. Leaves harvested throughout the summer, and berries harvested in July or August. Dry them quickly in the room, which is well ventilated.
In homeopathy fresh plant juice treats bronchitis,Rheumatism, eye diseases, headache and dizziness. In folk medicine use the grass collected during flowering, which has anesthetic and anti-inflammatory properties.
Infusion of dry crushed leaves canused for insomnia, convulsions and migraines. Spirituous tincture of fresh leaves and crushed berries (in equal proportion) helps with such diseases as migraine, concussions and bruises of the brain, arachnoiditis, protracted bronchitis, pulmonary tuberculosis. If you decide to harvest this plant for medicinal purposes, make sure that raw materials and medicines are stored under lock and separate from food. Because of the virulence of fruits and leaves, crow is not recommended to use the eye without consulting with specialists. For the same reason, the plant has no great popularity even in folk medicine, and it is possible to treat preparations on its basis only in small doses.
