14.05.2024

Sumac (tetra): Anti-inflammatory and hemostatic – cures 100 diseases

By Lesia

THE STRONGEST BULGARIAN HERB CURES 100 DISEASES – SUMMER 

WHAT IS ANCIENT TETRA (Cotinus coggygria) GOOD FOR?

Sumac is a beautiful hairy plant that is very useful for human health. Sumac is a broad-leaved shrub or small tree that reaches up to 5 meters. 

The trunks of the bush are strongly branched, with a gray-brown crown, and the young shoots are green or reddish. The leaves of the bush are egg-shaped. 

The tips of the leaves are dark green, and the undersides are gray-green. In autumn, sumac turns yellow, then turns red and finally turns purple.

The flowers of sumac are small, clustered in an inflorescence like panicles. The inflorescences become fluffy, there are hairs on them that reach up to 30 cm in length. 

Each bush can have different colored hairs. Sumac has different colors that are formed separately – the male flowers are in one inflorescence, and the female flowers are in another.

The sumac bush has small drupe fruits that contain a dried pulp. The fruit is green in color and in the process of ripening acquires a red color. 

This shrub blooms from May to July, and the fruits ripen in late summer-early autumn.

Sumac is long-lived, growing and bearing fruit for up to 100 years. It grows on stony slopes, likes sunny and warm places that are protected from strong winds.

COLLECTION AND STORAGE OF SUMMER

Sumac is harvested before flowering and dried

The medicinal raw material of the sumac plant is its leaves, collected during the flowering period and before the fruits are formed. At the same time, the leaves are collected whole, without being torn or injured. Branches of leaves are cut off.

Sumac leaves are dried in a natural way – in sunny, windless weather under a shed or in a room with good ventilation. If they are dried in an electric dryer, the temperature should not exceed 50 degrees.

The finished raw material is placed in paper packages, stored for no more than 2 years in dry and dark rooms. With greater humidity, the leaves lose their healing properties.

A popular type of sumac is the Young Lady – a bush 2-4 meters high, resistant to cold, lives up to 40-60 years. The leaves of this sumac are green-yellow, and in autumn they turn red or turn yellow.  

Yang Lady begins to bloom in June, during the fruiting period the stems and lengthen, covered with red hairs. This type of sumac loves light, is not picky about the soil, but does not like excessive humidity.

USEFUL PROPERTIES OF SUMMER

The leaves of the bush contain tannin, for which the bush is used as an astringent, anti-inflammatory agent. Sumac has a choleretic, antiseptic effect. In addition, it contains tannins, flavonoids. 

The leaves also contain essential oils (linseed, lanolol, myrcene, tertinol), mericitril (dyeing substance). The plant has blood-stopping, expectorant, wound-healing properties.