Healing Hollyhock

The treatment hollyhock is known to people from the times of Old world before Christ. It was used in ancient Greece and ancient Rome.  The Hollyhock  was cultivated in the 9th century A.D.  In modern pharmacology, Hollyhock’s extracts are used to produce some drugs. On the sides, the plant is used for dyeing wool, because of the malvidin pigment. Due to its aroma, the herb serves as a flavor of dishes in the culinary industry.

The plant is known under the names Althea officinalis or Ox eye. Originated from the Mediterranean. In the wild nature, it is wide – spread  in  Asia and Europe. The plant can be found in damp riparian and marshy places up to 1000 m above sea level.

 

Hollyhock Description

The Ox eye is a perennial gray-green plant. It belongs to the plant department ‘’ Coating -Seed ‘’, class “Two-sided”.  It has a short thick rhizome, covered with starry hairs and whitish root, up to half a meter long.  The stem of the plant is right, up to 2 m high and branched at the top. The leaves are consecutively located on the stem, ovate, long 5 - 15 cm, wide 3 - 12 cm; the lower ones are slightly triple, the upper ones are clearly triple, jagged, sitting down. The handle of the leaves is 2 to 6 cm long, shorter than the peutrate. The blossoms of the plant are pale pink or whitish, located in the top of the stem, forming grape or broom inflorescences.  The outer color cup is 8 to 12 linear, 5-10 millimeter long, and the inner cup has 5 triangular sharp edges. Petals are five, 10-20 mm long. The stamens are many, fused in a tube, they have bright red anthers. The flowering period is July - September. The fruit is flat, discoid, when ripening decays to 15-25 dry parts. 

The blossoms, the leaves and the roots of the hollyhock are used. Вlossoms  are picked without the handles during flowering - June - September. Dry in a shade or in a drier at a temperature of up to 40 ° C. The dried herb is pale pink, odorless and slimy. The permissible air humidity for drying is twelve percent. Packed in bales. Leaves are also picked during flowering without the handles. Dry in a shade or in a drier at a temperature of up to 45 ° C. The allowed humidity is 13%. The dried leaves are gray-green, also odorless. Packed in bales. The roots are only taken from a two-year plant in the autumn of September - October, or at the end of the winter and early spring - February - April. On annual plants, the roots are thin and do not contain enough mucus, and the three-year-old roots are stiff and the slimy substance has decreased. After being removed and cleaned from the soil, they are peeled, the thicker ones are cut and dried at a temperature of up to 45 ° C. A permissible humidity of 12%. The dried roots are white outside and pale yellow on the inside, with characteristic smell and sweet taste. Packed in book - hemp bags. All parts of the herb are kept in dry and airy rooms. 

Hollyhock Use

A few words about the chemical composition of the plant. The leaves and colors are rich in vitamin C, essential oil and malvidin pigment. Mucous substances are contained in the roots.

The herb acts anti-inflammatory, mitigating and expectorating, due to slime substances. It is used internally for cough, shortness of breath, inflammation of the stomach and intestine, kidney and bladder problems, painful urination, diarrhea, dysentery. Externally applied to injured skin, compressions for eye problems, gargle with a hoarse voice, vaginal problems in women.

You can use the Hollyhock herb as follows. Two tablespoons of dry roots are cooked in 500 ml of hot water and the mixture should stand for 8 hours. The resulting mixture is then squeezed and drunk over a coffee cup in two hours. This fluid can also be applied externally to compresses and vaginal rinses.

Before using this plant, consult with a doctor in clinic.