Plant mad cucumber: properties, photos, where growing, application

The plant is a rabid cucumber (in Latin it sounds like Ekbalium elaterium), in fact, neither that nor the other. The name "cucumber" he received because of some external similarity with all of us a famous vegetable. The epithet "rabid" was given to him because of the way the seeds were distributed. By the way, in some countries it is called not wild, but a wild or donkey cucumber. And although this plant is completely unsuitable for food, people use it very actively.

Appearance

Rod The mad cucumber belongs to the Pumpkin family. This plant is the only one of its kind, its other species do not exist. You can meet him in Asia, the Mediterranean, in the south of Russia, in the Crimea, in the Caucasus, even in the Azores. This cucumber is annual or perennial. Its stem represents a vine crawling on the ground or climbing on supports. She has no needles. Outwardly, our favorite vegetable and the rabid cucumber have a certain similarity. Photo of the plant is clearly demonstrates. His leaves are as broad and rough as the edible cucumber, the flowers are yellow, in the shape of a corolla. But the fruits resemble a real cucumber only remotely. They are ovate or oblong, up to 6 cm long, densely covered with bristles, very juicy at the beginning of maturity. Seeds are small, only 4 mm or less, slightly elongated, flat. In nature, this plant can be found on garbage piles, dumps, along roadsides.

Why "mad"

Each plant, in order to successfully exist, "invented" its way of propagation in nature. The seeds of some decorate the spines with which they are attached to the animal's fur, and thus move to a new place of residence. Others are settled by the wind, others use birds, giving them juicy fruits. A very original way has a rabid cucumber. Distribution of seeds, he carries out, firing them at a distance of more than 6 meters. Therefore, he was given such a wonderful name. The plant blooms from July to September. Fruits begin to ripen already in August. They turn yellow, the pedicel withers, and the flesh becomes mucous. At this time, a rather high pressure forms inside the fruit. If you accidentally hit a cucumber, it falls off the stalk and instantly shoots mucus with the seeds. If you do not touch the fruit before the fruits, they themselves fall off the dried stems as they ripen, and seeds under high pressure rush into the hole formed outside, away from the parent bush.

What is the use of it?

Raging cucumber is very toxic. You can not eat fruits or any other parts of the plant for food. His flowers do not smell and are not melliferous. And yet, it was widely used even in the time of Avicenna. In the roots, stem and fruits of the plant are many steroids, alkaloids, vitamin C, carotenoids and other valuable substances. Thanks to them, preparations from rabid cucumber are used in official and in folk medicine for the treatment of many diseases. External it is used for lichens, tumors, fungal diseases, non-healing ulcers, gout, hemorrhoids. Inside appoint broths suffering migraines, constipation, rheumatism, intestinal colic, oncological patients, people who have fallen ill with hepatitis, diphtheria.

For medicinal purposes leaves and stems are harvested when the plant starts to bloom. Raw materials are dried in places where there is no direct sunlight, crushed. Roots are excavated in autumn, washed and dried too. First in the air, then in the ovens. You can store finished raw materials for a year.

Some recipes for external use

• Lichen

Dried parts of the plant to grind into powder and sprinkle it with a sore spot.

• Fungus

Prepare the foot bath. Take 200 grams of fresh plants, pour 3 liters of boiling water and insist. You can add a spoon of honey in the infusion. Such an infusion for the prevention of fungal diseases wipe shoes from the inside. There is an opinion that the infusion of a mad cucumber relieves not only the fungus on the skin, but also on the walls.

• Gout

Squeeze the cucumber juice, mix with vinegar. Dampen the tissue in the solution and apply to a sore spot.

• Trophic ulcers

Raging cucumber is successfully used in the treatment of hard-healing wounds. To do this, you need to prepare a decoction from the calculation: a tablespoon of dried and crushed raw materials for a glass of boiling water. Heat on a water bath for 15-20 minutes. Immediately drain and add water, so that again one glass of liquid is produced. For treatment, take a teaspoon of flour and a tablespoon of broth, cook from it a lozenge and apply to an ulcer.

• Hemorrhoids

Boil the cucumber fruit in sesame oil. The resulting means to lubricate hemorrhoids.

Internal application

It must be well understood that a rabid cucumber is very toxic. Even relatively small doses cause severe vomiting, diarrhea, drowsiness, weakness, lead to malfunctions in breathing and heart problems. Inside it can not be used by pregnant women and children.

Decoctions of this plant are drunk with jaundice, malaria, from worms.

The fruit juice has a stronger effect than the juice from the rest of the plant. The healing properties of the roots and the terrestrial part are approximately equivalent.

Freshly squeezed cucumber juice is used for angina, diphtheria, otitis, migraines, and runny nose.

• To get rid of migraines, it is bred with milk and buried in the nose.
• From the common cold, you can bury diluted with water in a proportion of 1: 4 juice, and you can lubricate their nostrils.
• Pain in the ears is removed by instilling the juice into the ears.
• With angina juice is bred with honey and olive oil. The received product grease a throat.

Trifolium, or echinocystis

By ignorance, many call a rabid cucumber echinocystis, or, in a folk way, a larvae, a puzyr, shooting ivy. Indeed, these two plants are similar in appearance, especially fruits. The echinocystis came to us from North America. Now it can be found in Europe and Asia, including Russia, and in the Mediterranean. The spread of rabid cucumber and echinocystis was so widely made possible by their ability to shoot seeds.

Differences in these two plants are many. So, the flowers of echinocystis smell nice and attract bees. Lianas have antennae, with which they crawl up the support. Leaves are smoother than in a rabid cucumber. Flowers do not look like flowers of pumpkin and they represent brooms. The seeds are large, reaching one and a half centimeters. The fruits of echinocystis are edible. They contain many vitamins and mineral salts. Only people use this plant not for food, but to create a fragrant and beautiful hedge, adorn the gazebos, arches. The therapeutic properties of echinocystis have not yet been studied.

Anguria

Very rarely a rabid cucumber is called an anguria, a fruit similar to it. This plant has nothing to do with the frenzied cucumber or the echinocystis. It is very decorative, often grown to decorate not only verandas in private houses, but also balconies in high-rise buildings. Its fruits, really something similar to the fruits of wild cucumber, have a pleasant taste and are used as ordinary vegetables. Seeds they do not shoot. Some people, seeing on the vines spherical green sausages studded with thorns, think that this is a rabid cucumber, although this ends their similarity. Thus, in Anguria, the leaves are more like grape or watermelon, rather than cucumber. The peduncle is longer, and the fruits are somewhat larger.

Cultivation

If you want, you can have a mad cucumber on your garden site. It is better to plant the seeds in the fall so that they spend the winter in the cold. It is desirable that they have a place in advance for them. If not, you can plant the seeds somewhere on the sidelines, and in the spring transplant them as seedlings. For spring planting, the seeds should be kept in the refrigerator for two to three months. Do not need pits or grooves in the ground, seeds are placed on top of the soil, watered and left alone.

Collect the seeds should be very carefully, as ripe fruit is only waiting for someone to touch them, at a speed of 10 meters per second throw out a fountain of mucus. To "outmaneuver" the plant, you need to gently, without touching the vine, put the fruit in a cellophane bag and shake. After the mucus is washed, and the seeds dry.