Black radish

In ancient Chinese and Greeks, black radish was highly valued: it was believed that it costs as much gold coins as the root crop weighs. It was no less popular in ancient Egypt, as evidenced by inscriptions on the pyramids and ancient excavations.

The homeland of this vegetable is Egypt, from which it got to the shores of ancient Hellas, and then began its march through Europe. In Russia, this variety of radishes, most likely, came with the numerous caravans of merchants coming from Asia. The Russians quickly realized what treasure had come to them and found a worthy use for it.

In old recipes, black radish was used as the main component of the Türi - a dish for the poor, in Rus folk healers radish juice treated many diseases of the respiratory system, stomach and intestines, and struggled with abundant hair loss. Northerners, or rather Pomors, usually took her with them on a long voyage - she helped them to cope in the sea with scurvy and other diseases.

Physicians from many countries in the Middle Ages almost equally used this vegetable, which is a natural antibiotic.

Black radish is an unpretentious medicinal plant that is part of the cruciferous family. It already in the first year forms a rosette, sometimes reaching a height of one and a half meters and the weight of the fruit to almost 3 kg.

For medicinal purposes, this vegetable uses root crops and seeds, which are harvested in the summer for future use and stored in vegetable stores until spring.

The taste of black radish is very burning, which is due to the essential oils and glycosides that make up its composition. In its rhizomes there are sugar, fats, fiber, vitamins, potassium, calcium, and also lysozyme, known for its strong bactericidal properties.

This root has no side effects, its enzymes dissolve cell walls of many varieties of existing bacteria, which is why radish juice is so effective in treating purulent and inflammatory processes, ulcers and wounds, it is very useful in diseases of the liver, heart and bronchi.

The reason for such a beneficial effect on the gastric and intestinal tract is that this vegetable increases the secretion of gastric juice, strengthening the digestive process, its juice is an excellent choleretic that normalizes the metabolic process in people suffering from inflammatory diseases of the bile duct and gall bladder.

Healers believe that the juice of this plant has strong diuretic properties, due to what it can be drunk as a therapeutic drink with stones in the bile, urinary bladder and kidney.

However, most of all helps the black radish from coughing. The people of Central Asia eat it in the chronic form of this disease in boiled form or simply drink a decoction. This remedy works well for pertussis, tuberculosis and bronchitis, acting simultaneously as an antispasmodic.

Black radish with honey from cough is considered the most common medicine among Russian medicine men: for this, its juice is mixed with honey in equal proportions. The resulting mixture can be drunk on one spoon several times a day as soothing and expectorant.

Fiber contained in the radish, helps to remove cholesterol from the body, preventing the development of atherosclerosis, while also increases peristalsis in the intestine.

However, with such many useful properties, black radish has a number of contraindications: it can not be strictly used by people who suffer from erosion or stomach ulcers, gastritis, and also from various organic heart diseases.

Many people like the taste of this extremely useful vegetable, and it seems that even in the course of centuries there is hardly a natural and natural medical folk remedy in nature that will be an adequate substitute for a black radish.