Amelanchier is not the most popular plant among gardeners, despite its cold resistance and unpretentiousness. Meanwhile, there is another reason to plant this plant: the beneficial properties of Amelanchier, which will be discussed.
Botanical reference
Amelanchier is a deciduous shrub or small tree common in Central and Southern Europe, North America. It is easily propagated by seeds and, thanks to birds that are very fond of Amelanchier berries, it can quickly spread over quite considerable distances. As a rule, it gives a lot of root growth.
Blooms profusely; small white flowers are collected in brushes resembling inflorescences of Prunus. The fruits are bluish—black or purple with a bluish coating of apples with a diameter of about 1 cm. The most common species are Amelanchier ovalis; Amelanchier alnifolia and Amelanchier canadensis. This plant will not cause trouble when growing and will decorate your garden.
Useful properties of Amelanchier
Amelanchier fruits are used as food and medicinal raw materials, less often — bark; there is also information about the use of flower tinctures in folk medicine. The fruit has a high content of fructose and pectins, but the content of organic acids (mainly malic) is small — no more than 1%.
Fruits are valued for their high content of vitamin C (according to this indicator, Amelanchier surpasses many fruit crops, including cherry, apple, pear) and vitamin P. This is a very useful combination, because vitamin P slows down the destruction of vitamin C, enhances its antioxidant properties and helps the body better absorb it.
In addition, vitamin P helps to strengthen the walls of blood vessels, increase their tone. Amelanchier berries are useful to eat for hypertensive patients and people suffering from cardiovascular diseases – not as a medicine (you should not expect a pronounced healing effect), but as a means for prevention and improvement of the general condition.
The carotene and vitamin B2 contained in berries are essential for the eyes. Amelanchier fruits, like blueberries, are recommended for improving vision and as an additional remedy for conjunctivitis, corneal inflammation, twilight vision disorders.
Fresh Amelanchier berries and juice from them are also used as a restorative and immunostimulating agent, are used by folk medicine for the prevention and treatment of hypovitaminosis.
The bark and leaves of Amelanchier are characterized by a high content of tannins, due to which infusions and decoctions of this raw material are successfully used as an astringent and anti-inflammatory agent for inflammation of the throat, oral cavity, gastrointestinal diseases. Fresh juice from Amelanchier berries is also used for rinsing with sore throats.
Contraindications to use
There were no pronounced contraindications to the use of Amelanchier berries. They do not cause allergic reactions and can be used in baby food (from 3 years old).
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