Willow white (willow) - salix alba l.

Botanical characteristics. Family is willow. Shrub or tree up to 30 m in height with a winged branchy crown and dark-gray bark. Bark with deep cracks. Leaves are long, lanceolate, silvery-silky, pointed at the end, serrate, short-petiolate at the edges. Yellow-green flowers are collected in oblong earrings. Blooms from April to May. The fruit is a box, ripens in May-June.

Spread. It often grows together with the breaking of leaves, willow purple, etc. All kinds of willow form a variety of hybrids.
Willows like raw river banks, flooded meadows, thickets of bushes. It occurs almost throughout the European part of Russia, the Urals, the Caucasus, Siberia and Central Asia.

Used parts of the plant. Bark and leaves.
Willow bark contains glycoside salicin, tarry substances and catechins.

Application. As bitterness in spring asthenia, with poor appetite. In folk medicine was used for infectious diseases and malaria (instead of quinine). In medicine, the decoction of the bark is used as an astringent for diarrhea. Decoction of the cortex has an anti-inflammatory effect and is administered internally for rheumatic joint damage and gout. The bark has a tonic effect, is effective in hypotension.
External infusion of bark and leaves of willow white is prescribed for skin diseases, trophic ulcers, furunculosis and hyperhidrosis; As a rinse - with inflammation of the mucous membranes of the mouth and nasopharynx.

Preparation. 1 tablespoon willow bark insist with 2 cups of boiling water (in a thermos bottle). Infusion is drunk 3 times for 20-40 minutes before meals.
Take the inside of the willow bark powder: 1 g 3 times daily before meals.
Decoction of the willow bark is prepared from the calculation of 1 tablespoon bark to 2 cups of water. Boil on low heat for 15-20 minutes. Take 1-2 tablespoons 3-4 times a day. Decoction is used for external use.
Cor Willows in Russia successfully treated malaria. To prepare the medicine you need to plan a fresh bark of willow. 2 tablespoons of bark boil with one and a half glasses of water under a lid on low heat until one glass of liquid remains. The whole broth of the patient drinks in the morning on an empty stomach with honey or sugar (the taste of the broth is very bitter). During the attacks of malaria, the patient, except for drinking willow broth, under the sheet for the night laid slightly heated willow leaves.