Meadow chin

What does the plant look like and what does it look like?

Meadow chin (Lathyrus pratensis) is a herbaceous perennial plant from the Legume family. It has a thin creeping rhizome and highly branched weak stems, slightly flattened and hollow from the inside. The shoots of the plant are usually of a climbing type.

Meadow rank rises up to 120 cm

The leaves of the meadow rank are lanceolate, narrow, with tendrils at the ends. In the second half of June, the plant produces bright yellow butterfly flowers in sparse clusters at the tops of the stems. By autumn it bears fruit - oblong sessile beans up to 3.5 cm long with several dark round seeds inside.

In addition to the meadow rank, several more types of plants are distinguished:

1. Tuberous (Lathyrus tuberosus) - a perennial with stems up to 80 cm long, blooms in loose clusters of 3-7 purple-red buds. Distributed in Europe, Siberia and the Far East, China and the Caucasus.

   
   The tuberous chin prefers steppe meadows and chernozem soils

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2. Forest (Lathyrus sylvestris) is a plant with a stem up to 2 m long and pointed leaves. It bears pink buds in small clusters of up to eight pieces; the pedicels can be straight or deflected.

   
   Forest chin grows in Europe and in the regions of the Caucasus in the thick of bushes and on forest edges

3. Pea-shaped (Lathyrus pisiformis) - reaches 80 cm in height, has bare stems and oblong-oval, sometimes narrowed, leaves. The brushes of this variety are dense and consist of 6-20 reddish-purple buds.

   
   Pisiform is widespread in Central Asia, China, Altai and Siberia

4. Japanese (Lathyrus japonicus) is a fairly rare species that grows in coastal areas in the North Pacific Ocean. You can meet the culture in meadows, pebbles, and sand. The chin rises to only 30 cm, its leaves are elliptical, the inflorescences are loose purple clusters, consisting of an average of five buds.

   
   Japanese china is also called sea peas

All varieties have medicinal properties. But the most popular in folk medicine is the meadow tree, since it is most widely represented in the temperate climate of the Northern Hemisphere.

Where does the meadow chin grow?

Meadow chin can be found everywhere in European countries, in central Russia, in Siberia and the Far East. The grass grows in most regions of Asia and the Caucasus, feels good in North America and even Africa, Japan and Korea.

For life, the china chooses sparse forests with fertile soils and steppe meadows. Prefers well-lit areas, although it tolerates light shade.

Chin plant meadow, forest, black and tuberous: photo and description, methods of use in cooking

The chin plant has been known to people for a long time as a source of high-quality protein. It belongs to legumes and is distributed in large quantities throughout almost the entire territory of our country. This grass in the garden is mainly used for decorative purposes. And completely in vain.

The use of chin in cooking implies many ways to add legumes to different dishes. The forest and meadow ranks are most common. The tuberous and black ranks can compete with them in popularity. And quite rare in the wild you can find the Gmelin rank.

The description of the crop offered on this page will allow you to form an initial impression and decide whether it is worth cultivating the plant in your garden.

What does the rank look like: description

Chin - annual and perennial herbaceous plants, which are both bushy, up to 40 cm in height, and rising up to two meters in length, which, when flowering, produce a stem on which up to four large ones are located, with a pleasant aroma, depending on the species, white, yellow, blue or pink flowers. You can find out in detail what the chin looks like from the description of the plant offered on this page. Look at the photo of the chin plant from different angles, allowing you to appreciate its visual attractiveness:

It’s worth starting the description of the rank by pointing out the following fact: all types of plants love good lighting, loose, nutrient-rich, moist soil, which can be enriched with a large amount of humus. You should be very careful when using chemical fertilizers, because if they are overdosed, the plant's buds may fall off.

Reproduction occurs only in early spring, preferably at the end of March, by sowing seeds in boxes with sandy or loamy soil.

Flowers of the tuberiferous chin (with photo)

Lathyrus tuberosus – tuber-bearing rank (tuberous rank). There is one interesting type of china, in which they eat not seeds and fruits, but greens and roots.

It is sometimes bred in gardens for its beautiful fragrant, purple-red flowers. Due to their strong pleasant smell, these flowers were used in perfumery in ancient times as raw materials for making perfumes. The flower brushes are one-sided, they are about one and a half centimeters in diameter. This rank blooms from late July to early August.

The stem is weak, the tuberous rank climbs onto the supports, clinging to the branched tendrils of its leaves. Leaves with only two leaflets and long stipules. The leaves are almost round, often with a sharp nose at the end.

It has a creeping rhizome on which small, up to 2.5 cm in diameter, mealy nodules are formed, black on the outside and white on the inside.

North of the border of chernozems this species is rare, but nevertheless it can be found in the Leningrad region, occasionally in the Moscow region, mainly along the Oka, and in other areas. But it grows throughout Siberia, except the Far North, in the mountains of Turkmenistan, the Tien Shan, the Caucasus and throughout the Black Earth Region. Chine tuberiferous is a meadow plant that often grows as a weed in moist soils.

The young leaves are eaten, used to make salad or used as spinach; they contain vitamin E, which is usually rare in plants. The root tubers of the tuber genus are also edible. For this reason, in German this plant is called groundnuts.

Fresh nodules have a smell slightly reminiscent of a rose, and you can even distill them into essential oil. They taste sweet, but when raw they have a rather unpleasant aftertaste, which completely disappears if they are cleaned and boiled in salt water.

Boiled, they are sweetish and mealy, they are eaten with butter or mashed, like potatoes. You can get a coffee surrogate from dry roasted tubers.

Look at the flowers of the chin in the photo, which shows the features of agricultural technology in the conditions of a personal plot:

Landing place. Open area or meadow. Sunny places with moist soil. The plant is unpretentious. It often grows among wheat without competing with it for nutrients.

Harvesting. The underground shoots form small edible tubers with a diameter of 3 to 8 cm, which are harvested in the fall. Tubers located directly under the plant should be left.

Eating. The tubers contain sugar and starch and can be eaten fresh, boiled or fried. Fresh tubers taste good, but after cooking they become sweeter and have a slight pink smell. The tubers taste slightly like chestnuts.

Reproduction. Propagation by seeds or dividing tubers in spring and autumn. Tubers take 3–4 years to develop.

Peculiarities. In Germany, chin was called groundnut, ground almond and pork bread. Previously, china was grown in the fields, but now it is a rare plant and is protected in Switzerland. In the 16th century China flowers were used to distill perfume.

Look at the tuberous rank in the photo, which illustrates all the features of the species:

Meadow chin plant: description and photo

The yellow, rather inconspicuous meadow tree (Lathyrus pratensis) is one of the most common plants of any meadow, not only in the middle zone, but throughout Russia, except for the Far East, it is also found in all other republics of the former USSR.

Let's begin the description of the meadow chin with the fact that it is a perennial with long thin horizontal rhizomes, from which adventitious roots and above-ground shoots extend. The rhizomes lie shallow, usually no deeper than 15 cm, and the main root of the thicket reaches a depth of 150 cm.

The leaves of this rank have large stipules and a single pair of lobed leaflets. Instead of other leaves, the china has tendrils forked at the ends, with the help of which it “climbs” other plants. Leaf segments are 2–4 cm long and 0.5–1 cm wide. Its stems have four unclear edges, up to 1 m long.

The flowers are collected in clusters in the axils of the leaves. There are from three to twelve of them on the hand, they are medium-sized, 1–1.5 cm, yellow, typically moth-like, with slightly notched sails at the top. The pods are oblong-linear, flattened, about 3.5 cm long and 5–6 mm wide. They contain eight to ten seeds, and the beans turn black when ripe.

The seeds are yellow, brown or even black, with a marbled surface, they are small, 2.5–3.5 mm in diameter, and 1000 of them weigh only 26 g. The seeds often do not germinate in the first year and remain in the soil for a long time. In some meadows this reserve is quite large.

In the Oka floodplain, every square meter of meadow contains about twenty seeds in the soil.

The meadow plant is considered an excellent forage plant; most of its green mass - up to 66% - is made up of leaves. It contains up to 20% protein, 5% fat, a lot of carotene and vitamin C.

In Spain, china seeds are used as an anti-inflammatory agent. The seeds of this plant are edible. They can be used in the same way as regular peas, only due to their small size they boil faster. A large number of china seeds accumulate during the purification of cereal grains from impurities.

And if you wish, you can assemble it yourself. Although this is labor-intensive work, especially since the chin is often damaged by caryopsis beetles, which eat its seeds directly from the beans.

For a plant that reproduces mainly vegetatively, this is not scary, but for seed procurers it is very, very unpleasant.

Ripe beans are picked by hand and dried in bags, after which they crack, releasing the seeds. You can immediately peel the seeds from the shells if the beans are dry enough.

Meadow china is pollinated by bees. There are brushes on the columns of the pistils, which, when insects visit the flowers, sweep pollen onto the undersides of their bodies. When insects fly to another flower, this pollen is cleaned off on the stigma of its pistil. This is how cross-pollination occurs, after which the ovary turns into a fruit - a bean.

In addition to the meadow chin, other types of chin grow throughout the European part of Russia: forest chin, pea-shaped chin. In the southern regions - pink chin and Hungarian chin. The seaweed grows on the sandy shores of the Baltic and northern seas and along the Pacific coast.

Look at the meadow rank in the photo, which shows its distinctive features and characteristic features:

Black chin grass

Another type of china, black, is also a perennial. It is found in the Baltic states, in the upper reaches of the Volga, along the Dnieper, Volga, Don, in the Black Sea region, in the Crimea and in the Caucasus. This is a forest plant 30–80 cm tall. Found in deciduous forests on the edges, among bushes. The stem of chin grass is erect, branched, 30–90 cm long.

The lower part is almost leafless, the upper part is densely leafy. Stipules are semi-sagittal, shorter than the petiole, narrow and long. This species has no antennae; the petiole ends in a seta. The leaves are paired-pinnately compound with small narrow elliptical leaflets, there are three to five pairs of them.

The leaves are rounded at both ends, but have a point at the top.

Flowers in sparse, one-sided racemes of four to six. The corolla of the flower is 11–13 mm lilac-violet, the flag is slightly longer than the wings, almost oval, the flag plate is shorter than a wide marigold.

The wings are also on long, slightly curved nails, narrowed at the apex, with ears at the base. The boat along the lower edge is bent almost at a right angle, with a beak at the top.

Sometimes the color of the corolla is dirty purple, even brown: the beans are 4–6 cm long, elongated, smooth, black.

Black chin grass blooms from mid-June to mid-August. This is a rather heat-loving species; it prefers deciduous forests with calcareous soil. In such places, she chooses lighter areas - clearings, edges, bushes at the edge of the forest.

Application of black rank

Black china is quite decorative; it is sometimes planted in shady places. It is named black because it turns black when dried.

This is noticeable in the hay, but it doesn’t bother anyone, but botanists really don’t like black herbariums.

Normal plants turn black only when dried improperly, which is considered evidence of a botanist’s lack of qualifications or ordinary laziness. Therefore, botanists do not have much love for the black rank.

The use of black china is due to the fact that the seeds of this species are also edible, but it does not produce large quantities of seeds, although somewhat more than the previous species. It is more difficult to collect beans of this rank; it does not form such large thickets as the meadow one.

Ripe beans are harvested when they have already darkened. You can immediately select seeds from them, or you can wrap them in newspaper or put them in a paper bag and leave them to dry, in which case the beans will crack and the seeds will fly out of them.

When dry, the fruit valves curl longitudinally into a spiral, forcefully throwing out the seeds. If you do not hide them in a bag or wrap them, you will not find the seeds - the flight range is 1.5–2 m. You can also collect green beans with unripe seeds.

In this case, they are used as a substitute for green peas. Of course, it is a little small, but quite edible.

Flower of the syringa or Gmelina (with photo)

In the semi-dark forests of Siberia, the Urals and the Tien Shan, a very large and beautiful China Gmelina : it settles there in light-coniferous (pine and deciduous) forests, in birch forests, and in the mountains it climbs into subalpine and alpine meadows.

Compared to our smaller ranks, this is a real giant - it reaches a height of more than one and a half meters. The leaves of its paired-pinnate leaves are up to 10 cm long and up to 5 cm wide. They are soft and thin. The leaf ends with a point and has no tendril. In dense herbs, the flower of the Gmelin rank simply stands among other herbs; it has a rather thick stem, often several of them.

Like other ranks, the rank of Gmelin is a perennial and has a short thick rhizome. Her flowers are collected in clusters on long peduncles. They are very large, 2.5–3 cm in diameter, at first yellow, then darkening to orange. The beans are much larger than those of the middle zone species, reaching a length of 8 cm and a width of 8–9 mm, ripe brown with a sharp curved nose.

I tried unripe seeds of Gmelin's chin in the Alma-Ata Nature Reserve. They are similar to green peas, sweetish and tasty. The local population eats them during haymaking, not considering them serious food, but simply as a delicacy. In times of famine, the seeds were collected and eaten like ordinary peas. That's what they called it there - wild peas. The Gmelin genus does not reproduce vegetatively and produces seeds normally.

They are round, about 4 mm in diameter, and brown. You can also eat young beans of this rank.

Look at the forest rank in the photo, which shows the typical features of this plant:

Source: https://kvetok.ru/travy/china-trava-na-sadovom-uchastke

Composition of the ranks

Photos of meadow chin and its use in folk medicine are of interest due to the composition of the plant. The leaves, stems and roots of the perennial contain:

• protein compounds and fats;
• bitterness and saponins;
• zinc, copper and sodium;
• carotene and retinol;
• vitamin C;
• potassium, magnesium and sulfur;
• caffeic and ferulic acids;
• leucine and alanine;
• kaempferol and quercetin;
• tryptophan;
• cobalt, phosphorus and nickel;
• histamine;
• cellulose.

The rich chemical composition gives meadow grass numerous beneficial properties. The plant is not used in official medicine, but it can often be found in home health recipes.

China

China - in cooking, small (up to 5 mm in diameter) spherical seeds of the herbaceous plant of the same name. Of its 150 varieties, only a few of them are agricultural crops, the most common of which is considered to be meadow chin. The seeds of this plant are eaten cooked.

Calorie content

100 grams of china contains about 286 kcal.

Compound

The chemical composition of china is characterized by a high content of carbohydrates, proteins, starch, ash, fiber, vitamins (A, B1, B2, B3, B4, B6, B7, B9, C), amino acids, minerals (sulfur, chlorine, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, sodium, magnesium, titanium, nickel, cobalt, silicon, boron, molybdenum, selenium, manganese, copper, zinc, iodine, iron).

How to cook and serve

Chin seeds are eaten in cooked form. Like most other members of the Legume family, they are pre-soaked and then boiled, after which they are used in the preparation of various vegetable and meat dishes. In addition, chyna is often used in the production of baking flour, as well as porridge mixtures.

How to choose

Chin seeds can most often be found on sale in shelled, dried form. The highest quality ones are distinguished by their white color, dryness, and the absence of any surface defects.

Storage

When shelled and dried, china seeds should be stored in a hermetically sealed container, which should be located in a dark, ventilated, cool room away from sources of moisture and heat. In this case, they can retain all their properties for 10-12 months.

Beneficial features

Chin seeds have a very high calorie content and protein content, which makes them an excellent help for those whose lives involve significant physical activity. In addition, the chemical composition, extremely rich in vitamins and minerals, determines the presence of other beneficial properties in this representative legume mass. In particular, regular consumption of chin has an immunostimulating, tonic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory effect, and also improves the functioning of the cardiovascular system and gastrointestinal tract.

Restrictions on use

Consumption of fresh china seeds (without heat treatment) in excessive quantities can cause lathyrism, a neurological disease accompanied by suffocation and paralysis of the limbs.

Medicinal properties of chyna

When used correctly according to prescriptions, medicinal meadow tea improves the condition of the body. In particular, the plant:

• normalizes liver function and speeds up digestion;
• helps with dysentery;
• promotes recovery from colds, coughs, bronchitis and pneumonia;
• relieves eye inflammation and accelerates the healing of mucous membranes;
• strengthens the immune system;
• normalizes intestinal motility and helps fight constipation;
• improves blood circulation and is beneficial for varicose veins and a tendency to thrombosis;
• reduces blood sugar levels;
• improves the condition of the nervous system and helps fight insomnia;
• normalizes blood pressure and strengthens blood vessels;
• has a tonic effect.

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Meadow chin is used for heart diseases, including for recovery after heart attacks and strokes.

Meadow chin helps relieve pain from wounds and burns, promotes rapid tissue restoration

Methods of preparation and use

Traditional medicine recommends several medicines based on meadow rank. They can be used internally and externally.

Root decoction

For acute digestive disorders and pain in the heart, a decoction of chin roots helps. It is prepared according to this recipe:

• dry raw materials are crushed in the volume of two small spoons;
• pour a glass of boiling water;
• simmer in a water bath for 15 minutes, and then leave for another two hours.

The strained medicine is taken two large spoons up to four times a day.

Chin decoction has a good effect on insomnia and anxiety

Leaf infusion

One of the options for using tuberous chin and other types of plants is to prepare an infusion from the leaves and stems. Traditional medicine gives the following recipe:

• dried raw materials are measured in the volume of a small spoon;
• pour 250 ml of boiling water;
• cover the container with a lid and leave for two hours;
• filter through cheesecloth.

The finished infusion is consumed 15 ml three times a day on an empty stomach. The product is beneficial for colds and bronchitis, relieves cough and promotes mucus discharge.

Warm infusion of meadow or tuberous chin is used to rinse the mouth and throat.

Fresh leaves

For purulent wounds, skin inflammations and burns in the healing stage, you can use fresh leaves for lotions and compresses. They contain organic acids and vitamins that reliably disinfect damage and accelerate the process of tissue repair.

Young plates are washed in cool water after collection, slightly dried, and then kneaded using a masher. The green pulp is applied to a clean cloth or gauze and applied to the sore spot for 30-40 minutes.

Chin leaves compresses can be applied to the lesions several times a day.

Use for diseases

The herb has an expectorant and mild hypnotic effect, the roots are astringent.

An infusion of the herb is used as a mild expectorant and for insomnia. An infusion of roots is used internally as an antidiarrheal and cardiac remedy.

In Siberian folk medicine, the herb is widely used as an expectorant for diseases of the lungs and respiratory tract.

As a medicine, meadow grass is used mainly among the people, although recently scientific medicine has not denied it.

It has been clinically proven that an aqueous infusion of meadow grass is an effective expectorant, pleasant to the taste and does not cause side effects.

To prepare the infusion, the herbs are infused for 3 hours in a glass of boiling water, filtered and taken a tablespoon 3 times a day (Makhlayuk, 1992).

According to Tomsk scientists, chin should be used for coughs, chronic bronchitis, pneumonia, and tuberculosis.

This plant is valuable as a pleasant-tasting and quite effective expectorant. A decoction of the herb is used for acute and chronic bronchitis, abscess (abscess) and pneumonia.

In folk medicine, it is used for diseases of the liver, gastrointestinal tract, insomnia, diarrhea, and heart disease (Minaeva, 1991).

In Bulgaria it is used as a sedative, in Spain - as an anti-inflammatory.

In Mongolia - for anthrax, erysipelas and as an antipyretic

In Western Siberia - for thrombophlebitis, liver diseases (Surina, 1974).

There are no harmful side effects when using drugs from this plant.

The use of meadow rank in folk medicine

Traditional medicine offers several recipes using meadow chin. Each of them requires careful adherence to proportions and dosages.

For heart diseases

For tachycardia, arrhythmia and other myocardial diseases, a decoction of the leaves and stems of the tree is used for medicinal purposes. It is prepared like this:

• a small spoon of dry herb is poured into a glass of liquid;
• bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for another ten minutes;
• remove from the stove and leave covered for an hour.

You need to take 15 ml of the decoction up to four times a day. It should be consumed on an empty stomach shortly before meals.

For diarrhea

The use of forest and meadow grass is in demand for diarrhea. The plant has strengthening properties and helps restore healthy peristalsis. The medicine is made as follows:

• grind the roots of meadow chin in a volume of 15 g;
• pour the raw material with a glass of hot water;
• keep on low heat for 15 minutes;
• leave covered for half an hour and strain.

The decoction should be drunk four times a day with a large spoon. Usually, already on the first day of use, meadow tea gives the desired effect.

For bronchitis

A decoction of the stems of meadow chin helps to get rid of a lingering cough and speed up recovery from bronchitis. The recipe looks like this:

• dry grass is crushed in a volume of 5 g;
• steam the raw materials with a glass of boiling water;
• stir and leave covered in a warm place for half an hour.

The finished product must be strained. Drink the infusion three times a day, a large spoonful, and continue treatment until the condition improves.

For insomnia

If you have poor sleep, you can prepare an infusion of meadow tea. Traditional medicine recommends this recipe:

• a small spoon of dry herb is poured with 250 ml of hot water;
• cover the vessel with a lid and leave for an hour at room temperature;
• the cooled product is passed through gauze.

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You need to take a large spoonful of the infusion throughout the day at intervals of 3-4 hours.

Meadow chin has a calming effect and evens out the emotional background

For hypertension

The benefit of chyna is that the healing plant equalizes blood pressure, relieves migraines and rapid heartbeat due to hypertension. For medicinal purposes the following remedy is prepared:

• measure 10 g of dry leaves and stems;
• pour 250 ml of hot liquid into the raw material;
• leave to infuse covered for four hours;
• filter through cheesecloth.

You need to take a small spoon of the infusion every 2-3 hours. Treatment is continued until the pressure normalizes. You can also drink an infusion of meadow chin to strengthen the immune system and at the first symptoms of a cold.

For thrombophlebitis

Meadow tea thins the blood well and improves the condition of varicose veins and thrombophlebitis. This infusion helps with bulging veins, spider veins and heaviness in the legs:

• 10 g of dried plant roots are brewed with a glass of boiling water;
• cover the container with a lid and leave for six hours;
• passed through folded gauze.

You need to take the medicine up to six times a day, using a small spoon.

Meadow chin

Hello dear reader!

Meadow chin (or yellow chin) is a common plant of meadows and forest edges, open clearings among forests and thickets of bushes. This is an excellent fodder plant for pets, a honey plant, and a proven cough remedy.

Meadow chin - description

Beginning in mid-June, with its sunny blooms, the meadow chinets attract not only the human eye, unaccustomed to summer forbs, but also bees and bumblebees. For them, apparently, the yellow sunny color of flowers is preferable at this time. It’s not for nothing that there are especially many yellow flowers at the turn of spring and summer.

Like all legumes, the meadow flower is irregular - the petals are different in shape. The two lower petals represent a “boat” - a bee or bumblebee sits on it. The two side ones are “oars”, and the upper, unpaired and largest one is the “sail”.

Usually the stamens with pollen are hidden deep in the flower. But when an insect sits on the “boat”, it sinks. The stamens come out and pour a portion of pollen onto the head and chest of the guest.

Meadow chin blooms in June – July. The flowers are collected in a brush at the top of the peduncle. Their number in an inflorescence can be from two to three to ten.

Sometimes meadow peas are called yellow peas. But peas are still another genus of the legume family. What distinguishes china from peas is primarily the leaves.

The leaves of the meadow tree are complex, paired-pinnate. Two stipules grow at the base of the leaf. These are lanceolate-ovate leaves covering the stem with their base. On the leaf axis there are two narrow-lanceolate leaflets growing oppositely. And at the top of the leaf there are two or three tendrils.

Apart from the tendrils, the structure of the leaf resembles the leaves of the spring tree. Only there are not one pair of leaves, but two or three. And these leaves are much larger and wider. After all, the spring chin still grows in the forest, and not in the open space, like the meadow chin.

This is a perennial. In the soil, the meadow tree has a long, thin, branched rhizome. These are usually incorrectly called "roots". Numerous thin roots emerge from the rhizome - true roots, and several above-ground shoots. Meadow china usually grows in clusters because they are shoots from one rhizome.

The stem is highly branched, hollow inside, slightly flattened at the edges, and can grow several tens of centimeters. However, it is thin and weak to support its own weight in a more or less vertical position.

This is what the tendrils on the leaves are for. They embrace the stems of neighboring grasses, cling to them, and to each other. And they allow the plant to rise up towards the sun.

Beginning in July, the fruits of the meadow tree ripen. As expected, these are beans. They are narrow and quite long, 2–3 centimeters. At first the beans are brown, then they turn black. Inside there are 8 – 10 large red-brown seeds. When ripe, it twists its valves, scattering the seeds with force.

Meadow chin is widespread in Europe and Asia. It grows in forest, forest-steppe and steppe zones, and climbs into the mountains. With human participation, it penetrated into North America and took root there.

The benefits of meadow chin

Like other legumes, meadow chin, in collaboration with nodule bacteria that live in nodules on the roots of the plant, is capable of assimilating atmospheric nitrogen. Thus, it contributes to increasing soil fertility.

As a fodder grass, meadow china in its fresh form is completely suitable for sheep and horses. But the cows somewhat neglect it. Apparently, animals are repelled by the slightly bitter taste. However, this grass is also completely eaten in the form of hay.

The medicinal properties of the meadow tree are recognized only by traditional medicine in different countries of the world. But scientific medicine also pays attention to the plant.

Meadow grass contains a lot of ascorbic acid (vitamin C), carotene, vitamin P, flavonoids querticin and kaempferon, anthocyanins, caffeic and ferulic acids, a small amount of bitterness and alkaloids, trace elements: manganese, chromium, copper, iron.

Infusions of the meadow grass have a mild expectorant and soothing effect. They do not cause side effects and have virtually no contraindications, and are pleasant to the taste. These drugs are used for acute and chronic diseases of the upper respiratory tract and lungs - cough, bronchitis, even tuberculosis.

They note the ability of meadow grass infusions to cure a long, persistent cough, the causes of which even doctors sometimes cannot explain.

A strong infusion has an antimicrobial and antiseptic effect and can be used externally to treat wounds and skin ulcers.

To obtain an infusion, take 1 teaspoon of dry crushed meadow grass, pour a glass of boiling water, leave in a warm place for 2 - 3 hours, strain. Take one tablespoon 3 times a day.

Another recipe for the infusion is this.

Take 5 grams of dry crushed herb (about 1 tablespoon) per glass of boiling water, boil for 10 minutes and leave for 45 minutes. Then strain and take 1 teaspoon every 3 to 4 hours.

Infusions of the meadow grass also have a calming (sedative) effect. They help with insomnia and pain in the heart area.

Meadow chin is also included in complex herbal mixtures for the treatment of cough, bronchitis, and pulmonary diseases - with coltsfoot leaves, anise seeds, and elecampane rhizome.

Decoctions of the meadow rhizome have an astringent and soothing effect and are used for diarrhea and pain in the heart area.

To obtain a decoction, pour 2 teaspoons of dry crushed rhizomes into a glass of boiling water, boil for 15 minutes, then infuse for two hours. Reception: 1 tablespoon 3 times a day.

The recipes provided are for informational purposes only. No need to self-medicate! You should be treated by a specialist.

Meadow chin grass should be collected during its flowering period, in June – July. The grass is laid out in a thin layer under a canopy or hung in bunches, always in the shade. Dry herbs should be stored in linen or paper bags in a dry, ventilated area for no more than a year.

The collection of rhizomes is carried out in the fall, when the above-ground part of the plant dies, or in the spring. The rhizome is also dried under a canopy or in dryers.

As a farewell, I suggest you watch an interesting video. It turns out that meadow china can cure even an old smoker’s cough!

Best regards, Alexander Silivanov

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Source: https://lesnoy-dar.ru/lesnye-travy/china-lugovaya.html

Use in cooking

The beneficial properties of chin are used not only in folk medicine. The fruits of the plant contain a large amount of protein and are slightly inferior in nutritional quality to lentils, beans and peas.

Boiled chin beans are consumed in the Caucasus, and in Asia they are crushed and made into nutritious flour. Fresh leaves and shoots of the plant are added to soups and salads. China is a good honey plant, although bees extract little pollen from its flowers, only about 20 kg per hectare.

Important! Only plants collected in environmentally friendly areas are suitable for use as food. Chin growing near roads and factories does not have any beneficial properties.

Benefit for health

Chinaceae, like all legumes, has medicinal properties. Regular consumption of cinnamon strengthens the immune system, tones the body, increases resistance to colds, supplies the body with necessary vitamins and minerals, slows down the aging process, improves the functioning of the cardiovascular and nervous systems, and normalizes digestive processes.

In folk medicine, an aqueous solution of china sativa is used as an expectorant for pneumonia and bronchitis. Homeopaths use an alcohol tincture from the seeds.

Contraindications

Meadow chin is considered a fairly safe plant and rarely causes harm to the body. It is recommended to stop using it:

• in case of individual intolerance to the plant;
• with a tendency to flatulence and gas formation;
• with chronically low blood pressure;
• with increased nervous excitability;
• with frequent bleeding.

Pregnant women should use meadow chin only with the permission of a doctor. Nursing mothers are not recommended to take the plant for food or medicinal purposes to avoid allergies in the baby.

Preparation of meadow rank

The time for harvesting china depends on which parts of the plant are to be used for medicinal or culinary purposes. It is better to harvest leaves and stems for preparing medicinal infusions and decoctions during the flowering period, when they contain a maximum of useful substances. The collected raw materials are laid out in an even layer on a tray and dried in a shaded but warm place with good ventilation. It is also allowed to use an oven or electric dryer, but the temperature should be set to no more than 50 °C.

Advice! For food use, the leaves and shoots of the plant can be plucked in early spring, almost immediately after emergence.

Dried leaves and stems of meadow chin remain useful throughout the year, roots - up to two years

As for the roots of the tree, they are dug up immediately after the snow melts or in late autumn, shortly before frost. The plant must be at rest; during this period, all useful substances are concentrated in its underground part. After collection, the roots are thoroughly washed from the soil and dried in air or in a warm oven.

It is necessary to store medicinal raw materials in sealed glass containers or paper bags. China is kept at room temperature with low humidity and away from sunlight.