Pine cones: useful properties and contraindications of "pine" jam. Pine cone jam: for what diseases is it useful and how many spoons can you eat

Spruce jam - healthy sweetness with unusual taste. It is rich in vitamins essential oils and micronutrients. It may take more than a day to cook, but as a result you will get a fragrant and sweet medicinal jam, which will come in handy during the period of seasonal colds.

Only young cones are suitable for spruce jam

Ingredients

spruce shoots 1 kg Water 3 stack. Sugar 4 stack

• Servings: 10
• Time for preparing: 26 minutes

Spruce jam, shoot recipe

Shoots for spruce jam should be collected in May, when they have grown no more than 2 cm and have not begun to fluff. You need to cut off from several spruces, so as not to harm the tree, you can not touch the shoots from the top.

How to cook spruce jam:

• Rinse the spruce shoots and pour boiling water over them.
• Boil over low heat for 20 minutes. Leave for a day.
• Boil again and add sugar, cook until tender, removing the foam.
• Pour hot into sterilized jars and seal tightly.

You can store such jam in a cellar or another cool place. If you close the jars nylon lids then store only in the refrigerator.

You can also make jam from pine buds. For him you will need:

• Pine buds - 0.5 kg.
• Sugar - 1 kg.
• Water - 400 ml.

Pour the washed kidneys cold water and cook for half an hour at a low boil. Separately, prepare the syrup by combining water and sugar and boiling until lightly thickened. Transfer the kidneys with a slotted spoon from boiling water to hot syrup. Boil for half an hour. Ready jam Pack into jars and seal with airtight lids.

Spruce cone jam

For this jam, you need to collect more green cones that have not begun to stiffen. Usually these are harvested in late June - early July. You will need:

• Green spruce cones - 0.5 kg
• Water - 1 l.
• Sugar - 0.5 kg.

Sort the cones, clearing debris and needles. Fill with water and leave alone for a day. Make a syrup of water and sugar, dip the buds into it and cook, stirring, until the buds open completely. Ready jam has a dark brown color. Do not forget to remove the resulting scale.

Seal the finished jam hermetically for long-term storage. It is best to keep it in the refrigerator.

This jam has a rich aroma and taste, useful for colds.

Another interesting recipe for cone jam. You will need:

• Sugar - 750 g.
• Young spruce cones - 0.5 kg.
• Water - 1.5 liters.
• Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Cut the washed cones in half lengthwise, fill with water and cook at a low boil for 4 hours, removing the foam. Remove the cones with a slotted spoon, they are no longer needed. Cool the broth, strain through cheesecloth, add sugar. Boil until the consistency liquid honey. Shortly before the end of cooking, pour in the lemon juice.

Pour the finished jam into sterilized jars, close the lids and turn over until completely cooled.

This jam is useful for respiratory diseases, asthma and colds.

The medicinal properties of coniferous trees have long been known. Next to them, even the air becomes cleaner, breathe easily and freely. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to arrange a pine forest near the house in order to have such useful helpers at hand. However, during a walk in the forest, several branches are often brought home. You can put them in a vase, and soon the room will be filled with a fresh coniferous smell. And you can cook incredibly tasty, fragrant and healing jam from pine needles.

Usually, jam preparation is started in the middle of summer or autumn, when fruits, berries and vegetables ripen. But jam from coniferous needles is best cooked in winter - then in them the largest number useful substances.

How to properly prepare pine needles?

Before proceeding with the preparation of jam, freshly picked pine twigs must be boiled. Then cut off the needles and sort them out, removing the dried ones. You will need 2 cups of needles in total.

Now you should grind the needles. To do this, pour them into a blender and add approximately 700 g of water.

What else is needed for medicinal jam?

In addition to pine needles, for delicious medicine need to prepare:

• 1.5 liters of water,
• 0.5 st. rose hips,
• 500 g sugar
• 1 lemon.

Instead of pine needles, you can use spruce needles.

After the needles are crushed into a mushy state, it is necessary to pour the mass into a saucepan and add another 800 g of water. Thus, the total amount of liquid was 1.5 liters. Pour washed rose hips (whole berries) to the needles and leave to infuse for 12 hours. During this time, the fruits will also give up all their useful substances even without heat treatment.

Jam making step by step

The resulting infusion will acquire a yellowish tint. It must be filtered through three layers of gauze or through a fine sieve and poured into a saucepan where jam will be prepared. Further preparation of the dessert is as follows:

1. Pour sugar into a saucepan with infusion.
2. Boil over low heat until the pine-rose hip infusion thickens to a consistency like fresh honey.
3. At the end of cooking, squeeze the juice from one lemon into the pan. It neutralizes the bitterness from the needles.

Pour the finished jam into jars and roll up. You can store both in the refrigerator and in a dark cool place (basement, cellar). In winter, a jar of such a “medicine” will help protect loved ones from colds and strengthen the immune system.

Useful jam from needles of coniferous trees, video

Pine is one of the most common trees in our country. But pine is good not only for this. Firstly, coniferous air is very useful for everyone, without exception, especially for those who have problems with the respiratory tract. Secondly, resin (resin), pine needles and buds are widely used in medicine, and Pine cones, which are also a pantry of many useful substances, are used not only in medicine, but also - along with coniferous needles - in the production of perfume oils.

Pine "products" contain various usefulness: kidneys - essential oil, tannins, resin and bitter substance panipikrin; resin - essential oil and resin acids, needles - essential oil, resin, ascorbic acid, tannins and carotene.

Pine buds are harvested in February-March, before their intensive growth begins. And now is the time to harvest cones and needles, which should be collected in young pine plantations, if possible, away from roads and highways.

Even a child can distinguish pine from other conifers: pine is an evergreen tree and has long soft needles. And how to eat everything that pine "produces", we will tell you. For example, from young cones you can cook delicious and healthy jam, and from pine needles prepare a vitamin decoction or healing infusion.

RECIPES

A decoction of pine buds
Infusions and decoctions from pine buds are used as a disinfectant, expectorant, blood purifier and diuretic; with chronic inflammation of the lungs, rheumatism, dropsy.

To prepare a decoction of pine buds: 10 g of buds are poured into 1 glass hot water, kept in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes, cooled for 10 minutes and filtered. Take 1/3 cup 2-3 times a day after meals.

Cone jam

It is used for bronchitis, asthma, tonsillitis and other diseases. respiratory tract and throat. An excellent prophylactic for cleansing the respiratory tract and strengthening the gums. Especially recommended for exhaustion of the body, chronic diseases gastrointestinal tract and respiratory tract and with low hemoglobin.

Before cooking, young pine cones are sorted out, garbage, needles are removed, washed in clean water fall asleep in enamel pan and pour cold water so that it covers the cones by 1-1.5 cm.

The cones are then boiled by adding granulated sugar(1 kg per liter of infusion). Boil like regular jam for at least one and a half hours, removing the resulting foam. Ready jam is poured into hot jars. It should turn out a beautiful reddish hue, and the smell of pine needles will give it a spicy delicate aroma.

Infusion of pine cones

It is used for good joint mobility.

In the first days of June, pick up cones, cut them into 4 parts and fill a 3-liter bottle halfway with them. Pour 400 g of sugar, pour cold boiled water and close the lid tightly. Shake the bottle periodically. Instruct until the sugar dissolves and the mixture stops fermenting. Drink 1 tbsp. spoon 30 minutes before meals in the morning and evening.

Vitamin drinks from pine needles

They are used for atherosclerosis, to cleanse blood vessels, for kidney diseases

• Rinse 30 g of fresh pine needles in cold boiled water, pour boiling water over a glass and boil for 20 minutes in an enameled bowl, closing it with a lid. After cooling the broth, it is filtered, sugar or honey is added to improve the taste and drunk during the day.
• Grind 50 g of young annual pine tops (they contain less bitter resinous substances) in a porcelain or wooden mortar, pour a glass of boiling water and leave for 2 hours in a dark place. You can add a little to the infusion apple cider vinegar and sugar to taste. Strain the infusion through gauze and drink immediately, as it loses vitamins during storage.

Infusion of cones and needles

Fresh pine needles and cones are placed in a glass, filled with vodka or diluted alcohol to the brim (the ratio of cones and vodka is 50/50). The infusion is kept for 10 days in a warm place tightly closed. Then filter and use 10-20 drops with warm water 3 times a day before meals.

Pine "honey"

It is used as a tonic, vitaminizing agent. Protects against colds and viral diseases in the autumn-spring period, and also effectively promotes recovery if the disease is already "in full swing".

Young pine cones are harvested during the summer solstice - from 21 to 24 June. The cones are placed in a transparent container, tightly sprinkling them with sugar (about 1 kg per 3 liter jar). The neck of the container is covered with gauze and placed under direct sunlight (for example, on a windowsill) until the day of the autumn equinox from September 21 to 24 (according to the June date on which they were going). If mold appears on the surface of the cones that are above the liquid layer, then these cones should be thrown away and those that look out above the surface should be sprinkled with a layer of granulated sugar.

The resulting honey elixir is poured into a bottle, corked and stored in a dark, cool place. The shelf life of this honey is 1 year. For preventive purposes, use 1 tbsp. spoon in the morning for 20 minutes. before the first meal and in the evening before going to bed. Honey can be added to tea.

Pine honey has an excellent taste and smell, usually liked by children.

Spruce shoots are saturated with unique natural vitamins. From young shoots make medicinal decoctions cough, but I must say, they are terribly not tasty. You need to have great willpower to drink at least a spoonful of this decoction. So why mock yourself, if you can from the same spruce shoots cook a wonderful jam, or "spruce honey"?

But, since at this time the active growth of shoots is going on at the Christmas trees, you can lose time, and the “legs” grow into full-fledged branches. This does not mean that you will be left with nothing for the winter, just that you will need to use my recipe to make spruce jam.

Put the spruce "legs" in a pot of cold water. Water should cover the needles by about 1-2 cm.

Put the pan on the stove and cook spruce shoots for 25-30 minutes for low fire.

Remove the pan from the heat, cover it with a lid and leave to infuse for 8-10 hours.

Next, look at the "legs". If the collected shoots do not exceed 2-3 cm, then you can cook jam with them. If there are more shoots, then it is better to remove them. They have already given everything they need to the broth, and it will be very difficult to chew them.

Strain the broth and add sugar to it, at the rate of 1 kg of sugar per 1 liter of broth.

Boil the spruce broth to the state of honey and do not forget to stir. If the sugar burns, then the "honey" will acquire unnecessary bitterness.

Check the readiness of spruce honey by dropping a drop on a chilled plate.

If the jam is thick enough, pour it into small sterilized jars and close tightly with lids.

You can store jam from spruce shoots in a cool, dark place for up to 18 months.

How to make jam from spruce shoots, look at the video:

Pine shoots are often used in medicinal purposes. You can do absolutely everything from them - dry, prepare decoctions, add to tea and even make jam. For jam, still unopened shoots are usually used, at the time of bud growth. During this period, they are cut off and made from them incredibly tasty, but at the same time tasty jam.

Benefits and contraindications

Also in old times Our ancestors used pine cones to prepare various medicinal products. From these components they made decoctions and various healing drinks. In addition to cones, they used needles, resins, shoots, and buds. Currently, pine shoots are also used in cooking.

Pine shoot jam is healthy dessert, which is essential in winter time. The aroma alone is worth something, it only characterizes it a little healthy treat. The most popular quality for which this dessert is valued is the high level of phytoncides.

This component has strong antibacterial and antifungal properties. Thanks to this, jam is actively used to treat various colds.

If you use this product daily, you can easily eliminate:

1. flu and colds;
2. Bronchial asthma;
3. SARS;
4. Pulmonary tuberculosis;
5. pneumonia;
6. Avitaminosis;
7. Gum disease.

Pine shoot jam contains a high level of various useful components:

Thanks to antioxidants, harmful and toxic components are cleansed from the body. Vitamins, minerals provide saturation of the body, and also have a strengthening effect on the immune system. Essential oils are able to protect against various viral, infectious lesions. These ingredients have a calming effect on nervous system, cheer up.

However, jam has contraindications:

• not recommended for people with kidney disease;
• increased consumption of cone jam can have an irritating effect on the mucous membrane;
• should not be used in case of hepatitis;
• sometimes allergic reactions, headaches may appear. Therefore, it is best to try jam in the amount of ½ teaspoon and look at your condition during the day. If everything goes well, then this delicacy can continue to be eaten further, but no more than 4-5 large spoons per day.

simple recipe

What components are required:

• pine shoots - 5 kilograms;
• 5 kilograms of granulated sugar;
• water - 5 liters;
• citric acid - ½ tbsp.

How much to cook - cooking three times for 1 hour. Cooking infusion - 20-30 minutes. Calorie content - 210 kcal.

Let's start cooking:

How to make jam from young pine shoots

What components will be needed:

• 2 kilograms of young pine shoots;
• 3 kilograms of granulated sugar;
• 2 liters of water;
• some lemon juice.

The cooking process will take - 8-10 hours of infusion, cooking three times for 20-30 minutes. Calorie content - 225 kcal.

How to do:

• sugar is better to use more, it will give good taste jam;
• store preferably in a cool place so that the jam does not deteriorate;
• best during the last boil or after full cooking add some lemon juice. This will prevent the jam from sugaring.

Pine shoot jam is primarily a medicine, so it should be used only when absolutely necessary. Do not eat it excessively, it can cause unpleasant conditions. But still, you definitely need to have at least one small jar of this dessert available, because it can cure and prevent various colds.

Spruce jam has a whole bunch of extremely useful properties, but, nevertheless, first of all it is valued as a very effective remedy for the treatment and prevention of various colds. delicious treat will help fight cough, sore throat, bronchitis, flu, tuberculosis and give strength to overcome ailments. There is a recipe for jam in several versions (from cones, shoots or twigs) that will give you the opportunity to prepare an excellent natural cold medicine for adults and children with your own hands.

Young shoots in the spring (until May 15) put in a jar in layers with 1.5 kg of sugar. Mix in the morning, tie up the jar with a cloth and hold it on the windowsill in the sun for 10 days. The needles will rise up, the juice will remain below. On the 11th day, drain. Take 2 tablespoons in the morning.

It is best to collect spruce cones in May and the first half of June - they are still young, green, barely opened. Rinse the collected raw materials and soak in cold water for a day. For jam, you will need spruce cones and granulated sugar in the same proportions.
- Weld sugar syrup by mixing sugar and water. Pour the soaked spruce cones with the hot mixture. Cook this mass over very low heat until the cones bloom and soften. During heat treatment, a foam will form on the surface of the jam - you should not remove it.
- Roll the finished jam into sterilized jars. Keep the product in a cool place.

3. Jam from spruce shoots

For such a jam, you will need 3 cups of shoots, 500 ml of water and one and a half cups of sugar. Mix all the ingredients and place on a very low fire, and even better - on the coals from the fire. Cook the mass, stirring constantly, for about twenty minutes. The cooled jam is immediately ready for use.

4. Jam from spruce twigs and needles

To make such a delicacy, take one kilogram of spruce branches, pour three liters of water and boil until the volume is reduced by three times. Strain the resulting mass, add a liter of honey and a tablespoon of alcohol propolis solution to the liquid. Heat the jam and arrange in jars, which should be stored in a cool place. You shouldn't eat it in large quantities- a small portion will be quite enough for the treatment and prevention of various colds.

Spruce jam, in addition to its healing properties, has a delicious taste and coniferous aroma. This useful medicine adults and children will eat with pleasure all year round, receiving a set of vitamins and strengthening immunity.

Spruce phytotherapy.

Do you like to go to the bath? So take with you not only a birch, but also a coniferous broom. Well "steamed" coniferous broom does not prick, but in the process of its use in the steam room, almost all active points on the human body are severely stimulated. In addition, the air in the steam room, and even in the bath itself, is filled with the smell of pine needles and has a powerful therapeutic and prophylactic effect.

To achieve a home phytotherapeutic effect and treat lung diseases at any time of the year, a mixture of spruce resin and yellow wax is used. They are melted in a water bath and thoroughly mixed in a ratio of 1:1. Then, in the process of cooling, balls are formed from the resulting mixture, the size of a large pea. You can store it on any shelf in the refrigerator. For use, the ball is melted in a hot frying pan (when walking on a hot coal from a fire), a light smoke is formed, it is breathed in the treatment of bronchitis, in addition, it disinfects the room in which the ball was melted well.

Jam from fir cones- a tasty and healthy delicacy that you can cook with your own hands. Even our ancestors made this dish for the treatment and prevention of various diseases. What is the benefit of this dessert? We will talk about this right now.

Spruce cone jam: the benefits of homemade treats

Fir cones - unique product, which combines completely different useful elements. This gift of nature contains resins and a number of tannins.

Spruce cones are rich in phytoncides, various essential oils and ascorbic acid. Also, this vegetable raw material is a source of tannins, iron, manganese and chromium. In addition, it contains aluminum and copper.

Jam from spruce cones, the recipe of which we will consider below, has a choleretic, diuretic and antimicrobial effect. It is impossible not to say that such a delicacy has analgesic, anti-inflammatory and anti-scorbutic properties.

Jam from fir cones is especially often recommended for those who suffer from colds, as well as bacterial and viral ailments. Such a delicacy in a short time eliminates headaches, general malaise and helps to lower body temperature.

The dessert we are considering effectively treats cough and removes toxins from the body that accumulate during ARVI and acute respiratory infections.

Experts believe that eating such a dish will help get rid of diseases. oral cavity. Resins and other elements of spruce cones effectively fight stomatitis, inflammatory lesions of the gums, seizures, etc. When treating such deviations, jam must be chewed for a long time so that its useful elements have a local effect.

It is impossible not to say that eating the mentioned dessert helps patients recover after a stroke or heart attack. Such jam has a positive effect on the activity of the entire human cardiovascular system. It cleanses the blood vessels of cholesterol, prevents thrombosis, helps to normalize pressure and normal functioning of the heart muscle.

Harm to the human body

Before telling you about how to cook jam from spruce cones, it should be told that, along with useful properties, such a delicacy also has contraindications. It is forbidden to use it for people with individual intolerance, which manifests itself in the form allergic reactions. Also, you should not feast on this dessert with hyperacid gastritis and stomach ulcers.

Fir cone jam should not be given to people with diabetes. Also, it is not included in the diet of young children, as this threatens with the appearance of allergic reactions.

Fir cone jam: a recipe with a photo of a homemade treat

Such a dessert should be made only from young spruce shoots. You need to collect cones only from female-type trees, as they are dense and contain more resin. It is also very important that the product used is still green.

Fir cone jam (the benefits and contraindications of this delicacy have been described above) is prepared quickly and easily. The approximate yield of dessert is 3 liters from 1 kg of green fruits.

So, what products do we need to make spruce cone jam? The recipe for this delicacy requires the use of:

• green spruce cones - 1 kg;
• drinking water - at your discretion;
• beet sugar - 2.5 kg.

Preparing the Ingredients

To make spruce cone jam really tasty and healthy, the main product should be collected in young forests located far from highways.

After harvesting the fruits, they are carefully processed. To do this, the shoots are thoroughly washed, and then poured with cool water and left in this form for one hour. After 60 minutes, the cones are discarded in a colander and rinsed. Then they are again filled with water, but this time they are put on the stove.

After boiling the liquid, spruce cones are boiled for about 4 hours. Then they are removed from the fire and cooled completely. It is best to do this in a cold place.

After a few hours, all the liquid is again drained from the shoots. To do this, they are thrown into a colander.

Syrup preparation

As soon as the liquid completely drains from the cones, granulated sugar is added to it and put on the stove. For 1 liter fragrant composition should account for about 1 kg of sugar. Only in this case you will get a thick and tasty jam.

After boiling the syrup, previously boiled and cooled cones are added to it. Dessert should be cooked until thickened.

How to store and use?

After the jam is completely cooked, it is distributed in clean glass jars. Moreover, not only the syrup is laid out in each container, but also the spruce cones themselves.

As soon as the jars are filled, they are closed with plastic lids and cleaned in a cool room. You can use this jam after 1-2 weeks. Cone jam is served at the table along with hot tea.

Another cooking method

Young spruce cones boil quite quickly. Therefore, most culinary specialists use such a dessert recipe, where the green shoots remain whole and quite dense. It should be noted that to implement this method, you will need much more time than in the previous case. But first things first.

To make jam from spruce cones, the photo of which is presented in this article, you must purchase:

• spruce cones green - 2 kg;
• drinking water - 1 l;
• citric acid - ½ small spoon (use as desired);
• beet sugar - 3 kg.

We process the ingredients

Processing cones for such a jam is quite simple. Green shoots are thoroughly washed in a colander, and then poured with cool water and left at room temperature for 2-3 hours. After a while, the cones are rinsed again, put in a saucepan and boiled for about 5 minutes. Next, the resulting composition is drained, and the fruits are cooled.

The process of making homemade treats

First you need to prepare the syrup. Sugar is poured into a large enamel basin and then add drinking water to it. Having thoroughly mixed the components, they are put on a small fire and very slowly brought to a boil.

As soon as the sugar melts, forming a thick syrup, all pre-prepared cones are laid out in it. After mixing the ingredients with a large spoon, they are boiled again. After the syrup begins to boil, the dessert is removed from the stove, covered with a newspaper and left in this state until completely cooled. This may take about 5-8 hours. Some housewives leave spruce cones for one day.

After a while, the dishes with jam are again put on the stove and the contents are brought to a boil. This time, it is recommended to cook the dessert for 3 minutes. After that, the spruce delicacy is removed from the stove and cooled. The described actions should be carried out about 2-3 times. That is, the procedure for preparing spruce jam can take you 2-3 days.

At the exit, you should definitely get a thick and fragrant dessert with whole cones.

If you want to store such a product in the cellar, the whole winter period, then in the process of the last cooking, it is recommended to add citric acid or lemon zest to the jam. Such components will contribute to the long storage of the dessert, as well as give it a special aroma and taste.

Final stage

After spruce cone jam has been heat treated several times, it is laid out in boiling form in sterilized small jars. Next, the containers are rolled up and cooled at room temperature. If you decide to store the treat in the refrigerator, then you can simply close it with plastic lids.

Summing up

Now you know that there is nothing complicated in making jam from spruce cones. Using the described recipes at home, you will get not only a very tasty and thick dessert, but also a surprisingly healthy treat. It can be consumed with strong and hot tea, as well as added to various herbal decoctions. By the way, in the latter case, you will get an excellent prophylactic against colds and flu.

We are accustomed to preparing the usual jam from berries and fruits for the winter, sometimes experimenting and adding exotic fruits to the usual fruits of our area, as well as various additives. There are jam recipes and unusual ones, for example, from tomatoes, nuts, zucchini, spruce shoots. What is spruce shoot jam and how to cook it?

Characteristics and properties of spruce shoots

Based on the raw materials for the preparation of this jam, it becomes clear that this product is used more for medicinal purposes, and not as a treat. Spruce young shoots are spruce buds that have blossomed. They appear in the 2nd or 3rd decade of May. They look like light green tassels of needles. They grow quite quickly, so they need to be harvested for medicinal purposes no later than May-June. Shoots should be cut off on the side branches - “spruce paws”.

Spruce needles have long been used as healing remedy. Most often needles are used as an expectorant, diuretic. It relieves inflammation in the biliary tract. Vitamin C contains the greatest amount in two or three-year-old needles, in winter and. In the needles of spruce there are many mineral salts that take part in the metabolism.

Pine shoot jam is used for colds, tuberculosis, coughs, and to strengthen the immune system. But it is impossible to abuse this product, since there are contraindications when taking needles. It is not recommended to use such jam for pregnant women, with hepatitis, gastritis in the acute stage, glomerulonephritis.

Jam from young spruce shoots

There are several recipes for making this jam. If you use very young shoots, no more than 2 centimeters long, you can cook jam with them. To do this, take 3 cups of raw materials and one and a half cups of sugar, pour the shoots in layers. Pour the composition with 0.5 liters of water and immediately start boiling on a minimum heat. It takes approximately 20 minutes to prepare.

The most common way to prepare this healing jam is the use of a decoction of the shoots. With this method, a certain amount of young spruce growth is recruited. Shoots should be washed, cut and filled with water until completely covered with liquid. Boil for 2 hours, cool, then strain the broth. Next, add sugar to the resulting broth at the rate of a kilogram per liter of liquid. Cook until thickened, about one and a half to two hours. Pour into jars, seal.

After all, it is a natural cure for so many diseases. In the forests, it is one of the most ancient trees. According to scientists, this tree has been growing here since the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era. Spruce needles have truly wonderful healing properties. No pills have yet been invented that in a short time could produce such a powerful and complex effect on the human body. healing effect, which has no side effects. It is such a "pill" that spruce needles are.

Spruce and its extraordinary healing properties

It has antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, diaphoretic, analgesic, choleretic, antiscorbutic and diuretic effects. It is in the spruce needles that most amino acids are contained, including essential ones, minerals, as well as salts of cobalt, manganese, iron, copper, chromium. Carotene in needles 140:320 mg/kg, vitamins E - 350:360 mg/kg, C - 300 mg/kg in winter and 250 mg/kg in summer. If needles are stored at temperatures below +5 °C, then all these substances remain unchanged for the entire storage period.

Needles can be harvested for future use , and do it better in winter(more vitamin C). It is dried and stored tightly closed banks in a dark dry place. One kilogram of dry spruce needles contains the following substances (numbers are shown through the dividing line harvesting in summer / harvesting in winter): vitamins P - 900: 2300 mg / 2180: 3810 mg, K - 12 / 20 mg, PP - 142 / 29 mg, H - 0.06/0.15 mg, B1 - 8/19 mg, B2 - 7/5 mg, B3 - 16/28 mg,
B6 - 1, 1/2 mg, as well as minerals and trace elements.

The use of spruce for medicinal purposes

For medicinal purposes, young tops of branches with buds, resin-rosin, immature seed "female" cones, needles and turpentine are used. Collection times vary. Young tops of branches are harvested after wintering in May, and immature cones and resin in June - September.

How to distinguish "male" (with pollen) spruce cones from "female" (seed)? After all, it is precisely immature "female" ones that need to be collected for use for medicinal purposes. In the spring, both "female" and "male" cones appear on the branches of the spruce. Usually this time falls on the period of flowering bird cherry. "Female" cones are extremely beautiful and very noticeable on the tree: they are bright red in color, the size of a thimble. The usual location of these cones is at the ends of the branches in the upper part of the spruce crown. They "look" up. An adult "female" spruce cone is large and brown.

"Male" bumps are even smaller than women's ones. They are red or greenish-yellow. Pollen ripens in them - a fine powder yellow color. They are not suitable for medicinal purposes. Pollinated "female" cones ripen in the first year. But the cones open at the end of winter, and therefore they must be collected closer to autumn, unripe and unopened.

Needles are a source of biologically active substances. Coniferous greens contain valuable components: chlorophyll, vitamins, macro- and microelements, phytohormones, phytoncides. You are probably thinking: “Why should collect needles in winter ? But because immediately after the first frosts in green needles, the content of vitamin C rises sharply, and decreases in summer. And one more thing: keep the collected needles in a cool place. Storing spruce needles for a month at temperatures above 10 ° leads to a loss of 35% of nutrients.

Folk methods and recipes for treatment

Coniferous baths . They are used to relieve severe fatigue, nervous excitement, improve blood supply. internal organs, relieving inflammation of a different nature, as well as relieving pain syndromes with menopause, peptic ulcer stomach, joint pain. To prepare such a bath, two handfuls of needles are poured with one liter of boiling water and boiled for 10 minutes, the broth is filtered and poured into the prepared bath. The bath is taken for 12:15 minutes. The water temperature is 37:38 degrees Celsius. Full course of treatment 15:20 procedures. After the bath, you should take a shower.

Infusion of spruce cones. It is used for diseases of angina, laryngitis, pharyngitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, sinusitis, rhinitis and chronic tonsillitis. Unripe "female" spruce cones are crushed, poured with boiling water and boiled for 30 minutes with constant stirring. After removing from heat, the mixture is infused for another 15 minutes, then filtered through a three-layer gauze. The result is a brown liquid astringent taste and pleasant smell needles. It is used for mouthwash and inhalation. When carrying out inhalation procedures, at least 20 milliliters of this mixture is used, preheated to 60 degrees Celsius. Inhalation time 10 minutes.

Pine tea. It is extremely useful for beriberi, frequent colds, lingering coughs and how natural remedy to maintain normal metabolism in the human body. It is an excellent expectorant, choleretic, diuretic and diaphoretic. Rinse a tablespoon of needles with boiled water, pour a glass of boiling water and boil for another 20 minutes. Strain the tea through a three-layer gauze, cool and drink throughout the day. You can add sugar, and honey is even better.

A decoction of spruce buds. It is used to improve the processes of hematopoiesis, with joint and muscle pain, with chronic bronchitis, for the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. It is prepared and applied in the same way as coniferous tea.

Infusion of spruce buds on alcohol. Applicable for inflammatory diseases upper respiratory tract in the form of external rubbing and warming compresses. This infusion in pharmacies is quite rare, as it is in high demand among a certain part of our population. It is easy to prepare at home. To do this, you need to place in a dark glass vessel 250 grams of young spruce buds and fill them with half a liter of 40:45 degree vodka. Close the vessel tightly and place in a dark, dry place. Ten days later, the infusion is ready for use. In a dark place, such an infusion can be stored for up to a year or more without loss of medicinal properties.

To improve eyesight drink a decoction of pine needles: pour 5 tablespoons of crushed needles of pine needles into 500 ml of boiling water, soak in a water bath for 20-30 minutes, leave overnight. In the morning, strain and drink a tablespoon 3-4 times a day after meals.

Stroke - drink pine tea.

On a three-liter kettle, take a liter jar of spruce or pine needles with twigs, pour boiling water and boil for 15 minutes. You can add a little different herbs: knotweed, currant leaf, raspberry leaf. Leave the broth until the morning, so that it is infused. You can drink this tea as much as you like: with jam, sweets, honey, sugar, but always with lemon.
Such tea cleanses the cardiovascular system, removes radionuclides, heals the kidneys, restores the entire body. The full course of treatment is 4-5 months.
Juice from young pine needles
medicinal juice can be obtained from the needles of cedar, pine, fir, spruce, cedar dwarf. To do this, young shoots that are harvested no later than May 15 should be washed well in cold water and spread out on a towel to dry. Then the needles are placed in a glass jar: a layer of needles, a layer of sugar, and so on, to the very top. The last layer should be sugar. A 5-liter jar consumes 1.5 kg of sugar. Leave the jar overnight, and in the morning mix the pine needles and sugar in the jar with a wooden spoon and, tying the neck of the jar with a clean cloth, put it in the sun. The contents of the banks insist 10 days. In this case, the needles will gradually begin to rise up, and the juice will be at the bottom. On the 11th day, the juice is poured into bottles, tightly closed with stoppers, and stored at room temperature.
AT folk medicine such coniferous juice is used to treat asthma, tuberculosis, inflammation of the lungs, bronchi, trachea, weakened blood vessels and heart.

Folk recipes describe several methods of preparation healing drinks from needles.

Here are just a few of them.
1. Finely chop 40-50 g of needles (spruce, pine, fir, juniper) with a knife, pour 1 liter of boiling water and insist in an enamel bowl for 15-20 minutes. Then add a liter of chilled boiled water, filter and keep for 5-6 hours in the cold. Drain carefully without shaking the sediment. AT
water can be added citric acid, sugar and drink 0.5 tbsp. 4-5 times a day.
2. Pour 40-50 g of needles into 2 liters of water in an enamel bowl. Add 1 tbsp. crushed onion peel and 1 tsp. chopped licorice root, then boil over low heat for 20 minutes. Add 2 tbsp. mashed rose hips and boil for another half a minute.
The resulting broth insist in a thermos for 10-12 hours. Then strain, bring to a boil again, cool and refrigerate. You can drink up to 1 liter per day. This product will boost your immunity
and make up for the lack of vitamins in the body.

3. Take fresh spruce needles pass through a meat grinder, pack in plastic bags for 1 tbsp. spoon (make sure that the juice does not flow out) and store in freezer.
To prepare a healing potion, take out a briquette with needles, pour a glass of boiled chilled water and leave for 3 hours in a dark place. Then stir, strain, wring out raw materials.
Drink 1/4-1/3 cup infusion 3-4 times a day before or after meals. This coniferous drink is rich in vitamins and microelements, useful for cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, infectious and inflammatory diseases, thrombophlebitis, atherosclerosis, prostate adenoma, prostatitis, diseases of the kidneys, liver, urinary and gall bladders, tinnitus, hernia, urolithiasis and cholelithiasis, helps with weakening of vision, mastopathy and uterine fibroids, treats hemorrhoids, perfectly relieves fatigue.

Recipe for external use : 5 bags of needles pour 0.5-0.7 liters of boiled cooled water, let it brew for at least 3 hours in a dark place. Then stir, strain, wring out the raw material.
Use the resulting infusion for compresses, lotions, washes, rinses for diseases of the oral cavity, larynx and nasopharynx, as well as for rubbing, preparing sitz baths for hemorrhoids, irritation, itching, inflammation and other skin problems, including acne, wounds and abrasions.
For the treatment of paralysis apply recumbent coniferous baths and poultices.
15 frozen bags with needles should be insisted in cool water, stir, strain, squeeze the raw material. Pour the infusion into a bath with warm water. The procedure should be carried out once a week for 15-20 minutes.
To make poultices, take half a glass of coniferous mass (defrost it first), heat it to a hot state, apply it to a sore spot, cover it with polyethylene on top and tie it with a warm scarf.
Keep doing this until you get positive results. Poultices do at night, remove the bandage in the morning and wash the problem area of ​​​​the body with warm water.
Poultices with needles are effective for hernia, gout, varicose veins, osteoarticular and inflammatory diseases.
Hot poultices should not be made on the tumor, in which case only room temperature poultices can be used.
With a non-healing trophic ulcer soak a cotton swab with pine needles juice, apply to a sore spot, cover with compress paper on top and bandage.
Also with the help of juice they treat psoriasis, boils.

Remedy for a hundred ailments . As a preventive measure for many diseases, including oncology , wash the needles in warm, and then in cold water. Finely cut the needles with scissors and cover with sugar in glass jar 4:1. This spruce "jam" can be stored until the summer. From it you can prepare a coniferous drink: 2 tbsp. "Sweet needles" pour 4 tbsp. cold boiled water, insist for three days, strain and drink 0.5 tbsp. twice a day in courses of three to five days.

Vitamin infusion from spruce needles. It is applied as restorative and antiscorbutic. One tenth of a glass of spruce needles, together with a small amount of cold boiled water, grind in a mortar with a pestle. Pour this pounded needles with a glass of boiling water, add lemon juice or citric acid (slightly acidify) and boil for 20:30 minutes. The ratio of needles and water should always be 1:10. After boiling, insist for 3 hours, then strain. Take 1/3 of a glass twice a day after meals.

Spruce decoction with milk . Used to treat scurvy, intermittent body aches, skin rashes and inflammation of the respiratory system. 30 grams of young spruce shoots or immature unopened shoots are taken<женских>fir cones. They are finely crushed and poured with a liter of milk. Milk is brought to a boil and the whole mixture is boiled over low heat for 10 minutes. The broth is filtered, divided into three equal parts and drunk during one day: morning, afternoon and evening.

Spruce ointment. It is applied for rapid healing of ulcers, wounds, pustules. An equal amount of spruce resin, honey, yellow wax and sunflower or hemp oil is taken. All components are thoroughly mixed, heated on fire. In the process of cooling to the temperature of the human body, a viscous mixture is formed. This is spruce ointment. It is applied to the affected areas.

Recipes

Tuberculosis. Porridge from spruce needles (you can take pine and fir) mixed in equal parts with honey (by weight) and leave in a cool dark place for 2 weeks, stirring occasionally. Drain the honey-pine juice, squeeze out the rest, take 2 tablespoons in the morning on an empty stomach. Store juice in the refrigerator.

with prolonged cough make a mixture of spruce resin and yellow wax (one weight part of each component), melt the mixture, cool, put pieces of the mixture on hot coals, inhale the released vapors.

expectorant for children: 1 kg of young spruce cones, 1 liter of water, 1 kg of sugar, simmer for 30-40 minutes. Pour into jars and roll up. Take 1-2 teaspoons 3 times a day.

infusion of spruce cones: the cones are poured with boiled water (at the rate of 1: 5), boiled for 30 minutes, stirring, infused for 15 minutes, filtered through 3 layers of gauze. A brown liquid is obtained, astringent in taste, with the smell of pine needles. For inhalations, an infusion heated to 60-80 ° C is used: 20-30 ml per procedure for adults.