I like to make my own herbal drinks in the winter. Rosehip, hawthorn berries, various leaves and flowers dry myself, fortunately I have an assistant-an electric dryer for vegetables.
I buy some things at the drugstore. So I came across a box of echinacea. Such herbal tea drinks are recommended to be consumed before a cold, it strengthens the immune system. And then I decided to read what she is still good at. It turned out that it is recommended as a source of hydroxycinnamic acids.
Hydroxycinnamic-what a terrible and incomprehensible, it is necessary to clarify. I started looking for information on the Internet. And here’s what I found out. It turned out that hydroxycinnamic acids are a collective concept, like a vegetable mixture for soup. It includes esters of different acids: I was interested in coffee. Which, it turns out, is to some extent present in all plants: it produces lignin (in Latin — wood, wood), without which there will be no lignin of the cell wall of the plant.
Coffee beans have coffee-tannic acid, and there is quite a lot of it, here compare:
- fiber-20%;
- caffeine-up to 2,7% (it is similar to a drug, is addictive and excites the nervous and cardiovascular systems);
- coffee-tannic acid – up to 9%.
In the human body, coffee destroys vitamin B1, which is necessary for digestion. Tannic acids have a very noticeable effect on the quality of leather, as they are used in the manufacture of raw materials for the production of shoes and sheepskin coats.
“Zircon” in the fight against slugs
If any gardeners have not used “zircon” before, raise your hands! There are not many of them, because the tool is available, it is claimed as a growth regulator, it helps plants to create a good root system, not to suffer from stress, to resist diseases.
But where the drug came from, few people wanted to know. I found out. It turned out that “Zircon” is also a mixture of hydroxycinnamic acids. It’s got caffeic acid in it! It is extracted from the echinacea! Oh, and the influence of these acids is strong, if you need to add just one drop of the drug to a glass of water to soak cucumber seeds!
Manufacturers assure gardeners of the low toxicity of the product for people, cats and dogs, that is, warm-blooded animals. For useful insects, it is also not dangerous. Safety precautions must be observed. Well, this is understandable: do not add it to the tea. If at least a drop of the solution accidentally got on the skin (remember the concentration for soaking the seeds), then you need to stir half a spoonful of soda in a glass of water and remove this drop with a swab, the eyes also need to be washed with a solution of soda.
Use only in work clothes. If, God forbid, it spills-smear it with clay and throw it in the trash!
Acids in other plants
It turns out that tomatoes contain coffee and other hydroxycinnamic acids. Therefore, with ulcers and gastritis, it is not recommended to eat tomatoes — organic acids irritate the inflamed mucous membrane of the stomach and add pain nightmares. Hydroxycinnamic acids are found in dandelion roots, currant and raspberry leaves, and echinacea leaves and flowers.
And let’s try to create your own method of fighting slugs!
How acid will help in the fight against slugs
Slugs are covered with a protective shell-mucus. If an animal has started to go wrong with a chemical reaction, for example, the process of tanning (remember the mechanism of action of coffee-tannic acid) – Yes, he knows how to shake it off once. But to form it (mucus) constantly and in large quantities, the slug can not. This is what the destructive technology of this acid is designed for.
Let’s conduct our own research on the effect of natural hydroxycinnamic acids on slugs: someone will give them a coffee spray to drink, someone will treat them with “Zircon”, someone will not spare tomato juice, and it will force the sticky parasites to leave the territory. And then we will share the results of the experiments.
Write in the comments your ways of dealing with slugs, perhaps we will find a solution to these insatiable pests!
Leave a Reply