Parsnip, beneficial properties and contraindications for use. White root essential oil is widely used

Parsnips are not a picky plant. It can grow along roads, in meadows, among grass. A cultivated plant was bred from a wild one. The herb is no different in its medicinal properties. You can plant it in a separate bed in your garden or collect it yourself in meadows and forest belts. The plant is biennial, zoned. It reaches a height of 150 cm. The root looks like an elongated radish. Fusiform, thick, fleshy. Parsnip leaves have a pleasant green color. It is somewhat darker at the top, and a delicate green tint at the bottom. The entire plant is covered with soft hairs and fluffy growths. The leaves are long-petiolate, sessile. Parsnip blooms in July. The flowers are bright yellow or pale in color. The fruits of the plant are hanging, easily split.

Harvesting and storing parsnips

Harvesting takes place in the summer. Both the leaves and roots of the plant are used for medicinal purposes. Parsnips are dried separately (roots separate from leaves) at a temperature of at least 40C. And packaged in a clean, dry paper towel.

Use in everyday life

Parsnips do not serve as decoration for facades and vegetable gardens. However, for medicinal purposes, you can devote a little space to this plant in your garden. It does not require special attention and is able to grow on its own, without daily supervision. In everyday life, parsnips are used to increase appetite and restore stomach flora. Parsnip prevents angina pectoris, is a high-quality diuretic, fights sand and stones in the kidneys and bladder.

Dried and ground parsnip root is a spicy seasoning for various dishes.

Medicinal properties of parsnip

1. Parsnip is an herb that has calming properties; when you mix chamomile and oregano with parsnip, you get a pleasant summer herbal cocktail that can be consumed by anyone.
2. The decoction is an excellent remedy for cramps and constipation. Relieves pain, brings the body's functioning back to normal.
3. In Bulgaria, parsnips are valued as a remedy for excessive thinness and loss of appetite. Parsnip decoction is taken during rehabilitation periods after operations, difficult childbirth, stomach diseases, and kidney failure.
4. For patients with dropsy, parsnip herb is also an excellent non-aggressive medicine.

The use of parsnips in folk medicine

Parsnip decoction for loss of strength

If your body is under stress, you feel a loss of strength, impaired potency, digestion, frequent dizziness and pain, then you need to brew parsnips in hot water, let it cool for five hours and take half a glass every day 2 times a day for 10 days. You can brew parsnip root fresh every day. To do this, you will need to have 1 tablespoon of crushed root per 250 ml of water daily.

Calming parsnip leaf tea

It has also long been taken as a decoction to relieve delirium tremens and hallucinations. The sleepy effect of the herb calms and tidies up the nervous system, fills the body with new energy and a healthy spirit. Parsnip decoction returns the skin to a healthy appearance and restores melanin lost from ultraviolet rays.

Parsnip infusion for baldness

The infusion is rubbed into the head in a bathhouse, when the pores of the skin have finally opened and the person has sweated. You can also make your own hair mask at home by simply mixing dry plant powder with a moisturizing mask, wrap your head in a towel and wait 15 minutes before rinsing. Your hair will become noticeably thicker and its growth will increase quickly.

Decoction of roots for allergic rashes and psoriasis

If you have the misfortune of struggling with psoriasis, lichen, allergic skin rashes, then parsnip root powder will definitely help you get rid of the disease. If you strain the tea after boiling, and wrap the remaining broth in gauze and apply it to the sore spot, then such a compress will quickly help relieve pain, swelling, and heal wounds and purulent formations.

For general strengthening of the body in winter and summer, creamy soup with the addition of parsnips is good.

Add dry cream and milk, a tablespoon of quickly melting cheese, and diced potatoes to boiling water. The broth can be meat or chicken. For those who like to go on a diet, you can add zucchini to the soup instead of meat. After the potatoes are ready, add diced carrots and peeled parsnips, previously fried in a frying pan in oil with onions, to the soup.

Contraindications

Parsnip has no prohibitions as such and no side effects from its use have been identified. But it is best to consult a doctor before serious treatment with the use of this plant. It is recommended to use parsnips especially carefully in food for people with liver disease, kidney disease, or severe nervous system disorders.

Acute intolerance to herbal plants. Personal allergic reaction.

Parsnip belongs to the celery family, it is a vullet plant with a thick, sweetish and pleasantly smelling root. The stem is sharply ribbed. The leaves are pinnate. The flowers are yellow. The fruits are round-elliptical, flat-compressed, yellowish-brownish. Blooms in July - August. The fruits ripen in September. Known only in culture.

This is the oldest culture of the Incas of Peru - even the Quechua Indians cultivated aracacha for the sake of large, juicy, protein-rich edible roots, the upper part of them (close to the stem) has a slightly pungent taste, and the long and thick roots extending from it resemble very tender carrots (from for this reason it is sometimes called Peruvian carrot - Peruvian carrot). These roots are used as a vegetable in stews and soups. Unfortunately, aracacha can only be cultivated in tropical climates, since even in the subtropics it loses all its nutritional benefits.

Dried parsnip roots are used in powdered seasonings and mixtures. Parsnip greens, although slightly spicy, are also used in cooking, both fresh and dried. It is often used when preparing soup mixtures for future use, and added to any vegetable dishes for flavoring. Parsnips play an important role in the canning industry, being an essential ingredient in many canned foods, for example, vegetable ones.

Beneficial properties of parsnips

Parsnips contain carotene, vitamin C, carbohydrates, and essential oils. Essential oil - enhances libido. Root vegetables contain vitamins, mineral salts, and essential oils. In terms of the content of easily digestible carbohydrates, parsnips occupy one of the first places among root vegetables. Parsnips contain a significant amount of potassium and have the ability to reduce water content in the body, promote blood circulation, improve digestion, and have a beneficial effect on the nervous system. The complex of vitamins, macro- and microelements found in parsnips is close in composition to the complex of vitamins in spinach leaves, but somewhat less in quantity.

Parsnip leaves contain a lot of essential oils, and the root contains three times more fructose and sucrose, sweet and harmless even for diabetics, than carrots. It contains more vitamins and minerals (microelements) than parsley. But a completely unique property of parsnip is that it contains substances that relieve spasms. When used correctly, grated fresh parsnip root even relieves attacks of liver and kidney colic.

Parsnips improve digestion, strengthen the walls of capillary vessels, have an analgesic and expectorant effect, and have tonic properties. Parsnips were used in ancient medicine as a diuretic for edema, as a sexual stimulant, to increase appetite, for hallucinations, as an analgesic for renal, hepatic and stomach colic, as an antitussive and to soften and separate phlegm.

In modern medicine, parsnips are used for the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular diseases. In experimental studies, parsnip furocoumarins have been shown to increase skin sensitivity to ultraviolet rays, which promotes repigmentation of skin discoloration in people with vitiligo. Parsnip fruits are the raw material for the production of drugs "Beroxan", "Eupiglin" and others for the treatment of vitiligo and baldness, as well as furocoumarin pastinacin - a vasodilator for the prevention of angina attacks in coronary insufficiency and heart neuroses, accompanied by coronary spasms, in spastic phenomena, renal and gastrointestinal diseases.

In the old days, in the villages, to improve mood and stimulate appetite, they used a tincture of parsnip roots in moonshine. Parsnips were used to restore the strength of seriously ill patients. In these cases, an aqueous infusion of its roots was taken 100 ml with 1 tablespoon of honey 3 times a day 30-40 minutes before meals. The course of treatment was 30 days.

But few people know that parsnip, and especially its root, can relieve spasm of blood vessels. It is used for hypertension, angina pectoris, muscle cramps. Parsnip infusions have a sedative effect, so they are used for neuroses, as well as to improve sleep.

Dangerous properties of parsnips

Parsnips are contraindicated for young children, older people, and those with individual intolerance.

Parsnips are similar in shape to carrots, the differences appear at the level of color and aroma. This vegetable, as well as carrots, was used as food by our distant ancestors. Therefore, it is especially unfortunate that many people never bothered to try healthy parsnips. But this elongated root vegetable with a yellowish or gray-white tint, yellow flesh and fluffy tops, in terms of its beneficial properties, can give a hundred points ahead to other vegetables that are more familiar to our stomach.

Parsnips are a low-calorie food with virtually no fat, no cholesterol, and very little sodium.

Just 1 cup of grated or chopped root vegetable contains 6 grams of sugars, 2 grams of protein and more than 25% of your daily value for dietary fiber. Parsnips are rich in vitamins B1, B2, B6, C, E, K, folate, thiamine, niacin and pantothenic acid. The above amount of product contains more than 5% of the daily value of the following minerals: calcium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, zinc, manganese, copper.

1 cup of fresh parsnips contains 14% of the daily value of potassium, which helps normalize blood pressure and is also very beneficial for healthy muscles and joints. Potassium, along with omega-3 fatty acids, provides the body with vitality and energy.

The entire community of nutrients provides the carrot relative with powerful diuretic, antioxidant and antirheumatic properties.

Benefit for health

1. Parsnips are especially useful for patients suffering from kidney disease, obesity, cellulite, anemia and asthenia, constipation, liver dysfunction, high blood pressure, etc. This is an excellent immunomodulatory product at the stage of recovery from a serious illness, in the postoperative period, during wound healing.
2. Eating parsnips stimulates cell growth and renewal, prevents dementia, heart disease and fractures aggravated by osteoporosis, and reduces cholesterol and blood sugar levels. This root vegetable with a poetic name is good for asthmatics, as it improves blood circulation, and for pregnant women, as it reduces the risk of birth defects in newborns.
3. The anti-inflammatory beneficial properties of parsnips include the prevention of bronchial asthma, malignant tumors and heart strokes.

Magic fiber

Consuming dietary fiber is beneficial to humans for a variety of reasons. It promotes healthy digestion, helps regulate blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and ensures early satiety during meals. Parsnips are an excellent source of dietary fiber, an excellent nutritious product for anyone who cares about their figure.

Vitamin K

Parsnips are rich in vitamin K. 1 cup of chopped root vegetable contains approximately 25% of the average daily value of this rather rare nutrient. Vitamin K promotes proper blood clotting and healthy cell growth. Also reduces the risk of developing osteoporosis.

The Ubiquitous Folate

One cup of peeled and chopped parsnips contains more than 22% of the daily value of folate, also known as vitamin B9. This vitamin helps produce DNA and RNA in cell nuclei. It is also very good as a preventative against anemia, especially during pregnancy.

The beneficial properties of folate contained in parsnips relate to ensuring the health of pregnant women and unborn babies, helping to combat cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis and dementia in newborns.

A little more vitamin C

Parsnips, like many other root vegetables, are rich in vitamin C, with each cup containing 25% of your daily intake (for an adult). This vitamin helps the production of collagen, a structural component of bones, tendons, ligaments and blood vessels.

The body uses ascorbic acid to synthesize carnitine, a substance that plays an important role in fat metabolism.

Use in cooking

For those who have just begun their acquaintance with edible parsnips, it would be useful to find out what specific dishes this valuable root vegetable should be added to. It is good in a variety of soups, meat and fish dishes. Its bright aroma can replace a bunch of spicy aromatic herbs and jars of spices.

Parsnips also feel great in purely vegetable dishes. It is often added to luxury baking flour and some types of wine. The product is very useful in the form of pure juice.

If you decide to limit your starch intake due to its questionable dietary benefits, pay attention to parsnips. Nutritionists are confident that this vegetable is in no way inferior to potatoes in terms of taste and nutritional qualities. And the benefits are many times greater.

Parsnip is a vegetable crop that is similar to parsley root, with larger leaves. The taste is very spicy and aromatic, close to the celery plant family. Looking at this plant, you can see that the root crop is spherical, small, with a rough surface. The root vegetable itself is yellowish, and its flesh is white. The stem is most often smooth and highly branched. The leaves are pinnately branched with blunt edges. Smooth on top and rough below. Parsnips can be classified as a member of the celeryaceae or umbellaceae family. It blooms with small yellow flowers.

This plant is one of the most fortified among vegetables. It contains a lot of carbohydrates that are easily absorbed by the human body, as well as proteins, fiber, sugar, starch and much more. Also contains salts of potassium, calcium, phosphorus, iron, copper and vitamins C, B1, B2. The essential oils contained in it give the richness of the aroma.

Parsnips are very good for planting, as they easily overwinter in open ground. The plant easily tolerates cold and even frost. The plant begins to germinate at temperatures just above zero. Moreover, the seedlings can withstand slight frost. The best temperature for a quick and good harvest of parsnips is about 15 degrees Celsius. The favorable soil for cultivating this crop is loamy with a deep dug layer, and also fertile. The plant is not picky. Parsnips are grown just like carrots, and most often even together with them. After applying manure, or after germination of cucumbers, onions and other light plants. In the fall, the soil is pre-treated with superphosphate and potassium chloride, and in the spring with urea. So, sowing begins with introducing seeds into the soil to a depth of three centimeters. For the most successful harvest, it is important to maintain moisture, for this it is watered three or even four times. After good moisture, no matter artificial irrigation or natural rain, the soil is loosened.

Parsnips are harvested around the time of frost in late autumn. In the case of wintering the plant, the leaves are removed and the rhizome is hilled up. After harvesting, the plant retains its beneficial properties longer if it is stored in a cool place sprinkled with sand.

Like any living creature, parsnips have enemies that can easily defeat them. These include: septoria, black spot, white and gray rot, wet bacterial rot and damage by caraway moth.

By applying all the useful tips, you can produce a harvest rich in vitamins.

Parsnips are used in the preparation of various dishes, in aromatherapy and herbal medicine. This way it stimulates appetite and restores digestion. Strengthens blood vessels and is also a pain reliever. And it has an antispasmodic effect in urolithiasis and kidney stone diseases. Parsnip has a tonic property and is used for loss of strength, spring ailments, and after serious illnesses. That is, it is used as an aphrodisiac. Dried parsnip roots are used in seasonings in powder or mixture form. Green parsnip leaves, although slightly spicy, are also used in cooking, both fresh and dried. It is often used when preparing soup mixtures for future use, and added to any vegetable dishes for flavoring. Parsnips play an important role in the canning industry, being an essential ingredient in many canned foods, for example, vegetable ones. Parsnips are very good for canning, pickling cucumbers, and in marinades. It is also a very valuable crop for feeding animals and birds.

Parsnip fruits contain essential oil with an unpleasant odor. The essential oil content in different growing areas ranges from 1.1 to 2.1%. The composition of the essential oil includes ethyl and octyl alcohols, petroselinic and butyric acids. In addition, the fruits contain furocoumarins belonging to the psoralen group, xanthoxin, isopimpinellin, and a small amount of sphondin. The content of various furocoumarin components varies in different parsnip varieties. The varieties “Student” and “Guernsey” are richest in furocoumarins. Up to 10% fatty oil and flavonoid glycosides were found in parsnip fruits.

Furocoumarins, especially xanthotoxin, are also found in other parts of the plant, but in much smaller quantities. The herb contains essential oil.

Parsnips are used in dietary nutrition for gallstone and kidney stone diseases, padagre, after serious illnesses, for nervous diseases, tuberculosis, emphysema, pneumonia, bronchitis, to improve the function of the digestive organs. Parsnip stimulates appetite, stimulates the activity of the endocrine glands, metabolism, strengthens capillary walls, relieves spasms, has a strong diuretic effect, promotes the removal of stones and salts with an analgesic, bactericidal and calming effect.

Prepared for medicinal purposes decoctions of roots, leaves or fruits. To prepare a decoction, add 1 tablespoon of herb (or leaves) to 2 glasses of water, boil for 10 minutes, leave for 2 hours. Drink 1/3-1/2 cup 3 times a day, 20-30 minutes before meals.

A decoction of leaves, roots or seeds is used to treat baldness. To do this, the decoction is taken orally, 1 tbsp. spoon 3 times a day. At the same time, fresh root juice or tincture of leaves, seeds or roots is rubbed into the scalp in a ratio of 1:10 every other day for a month. If necessary, the course of treatment is repeated after a month.

Infusion of roots Used as a general strengthening and tonic for general loss of strength and recovery after heavy operations. To prepare it, fresh crushed roots (2 tbsp. spoons) are mixed with 3 tbsp. spoons of granulated sugar. Fill them with a glass of water, boil for 15 minutes, leave for 8 hours and drink 1/3 glass 3-4 times a day 15 minutes before meals.

Parsnip juice contains very little calcium and even less sodium, but it is very rich in potassium, phosphorus, sulfur, silicon, and chlorine. The nutritional value of this vegetable is not as high as that of some other tubers, but the healing properties of the juice, leaves and roots of parsnip are very high.

A large percentage of potassium is so valuable for the brain that parsnip juice is very successfully used for many mental disorders. Attention! Parsnips are not recommended for people sensitive to sunlight or suffering from photodermatoses. Contact of wet skin with parsnip leaves and fruits causes burns and inflammation of the skin of the hands, especially in blondes.

Preparations from parsnip fruits have strongly expressed antispasmodic properties and photosensitizing activity, i.e. they increase the sensitivity of the skin to sunlight. The drug has photosensitizing properties Beroxan. It helps restore skin pigmentation in cases of vitiligo or leukoderma, as well as in the treatment of baldness. Beroxan is used internally in the form of tablets or externally as a solution for rubbing.

Another preparation from parsnip fruits - pastinacin used to prevent attacks of angina in mild forms of coronary insufficiency and in neuroses accompanied by spasms of the coronary vessels. It is used internally in the form of tablets.

Parsnips are important as a vegetable and herb used in the canning industry.

The fruits of parsnips serve as medicinal and technical raw materials. The color of the fruit is light brownish-straw, the essential oil tubules are dark brown. The smell is weak, peculiar, the taste is spicy, slightly hot. The permissible content in raw materials,%: moisture no more than 10; total ash 6; organic impurities 10; mineral impurities 1. The content of the amount of furocoumarins in terms of absolutely dry raw materials must be at least 1%.

Raw materials are packaged in 30 kg bags. Store in a dry, ventilated area on racks. Shelf life: 3 years.

Dish recipes

The root of garden parsnip, thick and fleshy, like the leaves, is widely used fresh and dried, like parsley, in salads and soups. To prevent it from turning black, parsnip root, like potatoes, is dipped immediately after peeling in cold water or cut with a knife, which is periodically moistened in water. Cook the parsnip pieces for no longer than 10 minutes so that they remain tender but do not turn into a puree. For large pieces you need to allow 20 minutes. When ready, drain and serve with sour cream or puree with butter and black pepper. Parsnip puree. Properly cooked parsnips are sweet and nut-like. Parsnips should be steamed, unpeeled, until tender or roasted. Then you need to peel it and cut it lengthwise, along the root. If it has a large core, remove it. Mash and serve like mashed potatoes.

Parsnip salad: 500 g parsnips, 100 g mayonnaise, 2 tomatoes, parsley or dill. Cut the parsnips into pieces and steam until tender, then drain in a colander, drain and season with mayonnaise, add herbs. Place the salad on a plate and garnish with tomato slices.

Parsnip soup: 500 g parsnips, 300 g raw potatoes, 1 onion, 1 liter of broth, herbs. Boil parsnips and potatoes in broth. Season the soup with a small amount of fried onion. Add salt. At the end of cooking, add chopped herbs.

You can harvest parsnips for future use fresh, dry or pickled.

(Green and spicy vegetable plants)