» Cucumbers
Wild cucumber or cucumber It is popularly considered a weed: the vine does not require special care and can self-sow. The long weaving stems of annuals are similar in appearance to the above-ground part of an ordinary cucumber and are endowed with the ability to quickly spread along the ground and weave along nearby supports. Due to active weaving and the ability to grow shoots up to 6 m, wild cucumber is often used in landscape design to create a hedge.
Wild cucumber - annual plant , belonging to the genus of lianas and the pumpkin family. It can be distinguished by the following characteristics:
The stem is covered with stiff short hairs. In one season, the creeping stems of thorny carp can grow in length from 50 cm to 6 m.
The vines are evenly distributed along the entire length on long petioles leaves similar to the leaf blades of an edible cucumber: strongly dissected into several lobes.
The lower part of the light green leaf blades is covered with short white hairs. Near the leaf plates there are tendrils with which it clings to the supports.
Enters the flowering phase in June and blooms until early autumn. The white-green female flowers of the vine grow singly or in pairs, while the male flowers are collected in small inflorescences.
Regardless of gender flowers consist of 6 petals and are located in the axil of the leaf. During flowering, a pleasant sweetish aroma emanates from the inflorescences.
After the end of flowering, the vine bears fruits that from a distance resemble an ordinary cucumber, only their shape is more round, and the thorns are much longer than those of the fruit of a cultivated plant.
The set fruits are colored a muted green color, and upon reaching maturity they become brown. The skin of the fruit changes closer to ripening and changes its delicate structure to a hard one.
Inside the prickly fruit, in two compartments, there are 4 brown or black seeds, shaped like pumpkin seeds. As soon as the fruit ripens, it explodes and scatters seeds around it.
If there is a lot of rainfall during the growing season, water splashes out of the fruit, which carries the seeds several meters away from the mother plant.
To avoid uncontrolled self-seeding The fruits must be picked before they crack.
Use in folk medicine
From dried stems, fruits and rhizomes prepare healing decoctions, tinctures, and powders.
- preparations made from it have antibacterial, laxative and diuretic effects;
- a drug based on prickly carp is used as anthelmintic and antitumor agents;
- infusions of wild cucumber are prescribed by folk healers to treat malaria, inflammatory diseases liver, reducing swelling;
- The powder is used for diseases of fungal origin.
Before using medications, you should consult your doctor.
Despite its use for many medicinal purposes, the plant is very poisonous. The skin that comes into contact with the vine sap becomes covered with burns and wounds.
Eating fresh fruit or above-ground green parts will cause severe poisoning, which manifests itself as vomiting, headaches, bloody diarrhea, and drowsiness.
Origin of wild cucumber
Curious gardeners brought the exotic vine from North America just a century ago.
During this short time, wild cucumber moved from European botanical gardens to the open spaces of all of Europe, and quickly spread throughout the continent. Now it can be found in Siberia, the Caucasus, China and even Japan.
Use in the countryside
Due to the peculiarity of the vine, it quickly grows stems and weaves the space around them with them, it is often used for landscaping summer cottages and also for obtaining honey.
In the last century, public places were often decorated with creeping plants. Nowadays they create from the plant hedge, they decorate balconies and terraces, as well as the walls of high rooms.
The liana is planted near a special trellis, the purpose of which is to hide boxes, utility rooms, and equipment from guests. It looks especially beautiful during the period of flowering and ripening of fruits, which change color.
The flowers of the vine emit a pleasant aroma that attracts bees, so the plant can often be found near beehives.
About the use of wild cucumber in a summer cottage:
Difficulties in growing
Every plant in the garden requires care from the owner. In order for growing a wild cucumber to bring benefit and joy to the gardener, the plant must be cared for.
Since the vine is very unpretentious in care and does not require special conditions, the main thing in care is to control its spread.
The fact is that the plant is capable of self-sowing in the surrounding area. Therefore, it is recommended to sow the plant near fences that are located away from your own and neighbors’ gardens.
If you don't look after a wild cucumber, it can take over most of the area.
To prevent excessive self-seeding, It is recommended to pick the fruits before they ripen or weed out the sprouting seedlings in the spring, which are very similar in appearance to pumpkin ones.
To clear an area of adult vines, just cut off the stem before winter. There is no need to dig up the rhizome - it dies on its own before spring.
Wild cucumber - an amazing combination of beauty, healing substances and dangerous poison. The annual creeping plant is used to decorate summer cottages and eliminate health problems.
Growing a plant is practically devoid of any difficulties, except for controlling self-seeding and giving the desired shape.
The mad cucumber belongs to the pumpkin family and is an annual plant. Its Latin name is Ecballium elaterium. The habitat in our country occupies the Caucasus, the south of the European part of Russia, territories close to the border with Kazakhstan, where the mad cucumber prefers sandy soils with good drainage.
Reactive plant
Actually, a mad cucumber is a common herbaceous plant large sizes, having a thick fleshy root, small rough stems with large leaves. Blooms bright yellow flowers, collected in inflorescences of several pieces, or single. During the ripening process, the inside of the fruit is converted into mucus, which, due to the action external factors begins to ferment and release gas. By the time the cucumber is ripe, the pressure created by this process can reach 8 atmospheres.
If the cucumber is overripe, it is torn from the stem. Gas and mucus create a jet stream, with the help of which the fruit, spinning wildly, performing incredible somersaults, scatters seeds around. The radius of the seed distribution zone can reach 20 meters. Using this method, the plant can expand its zone of life activity over a large area.
To eat or not to eat?
It should be noted that this plant, despite the similarity in name with all known vegetables, is not eaten. Moreover, it is poisonous. The mad cucumber contains a lot of different substances, most of which have a toxic effect on humans. For example, the pulp of a mad cucumber includes compounds such as steroids, alkaloids various organizations, organic acids and other elements. All of them are harmful to humans when consumed.
However, many gardeners plant the plant on their plots to use it as part of traditional medicine. Preparations made using its derivatives have a local antibacterial, laxative effect, and help cure helminthiasis. The stems, inflorescences, leaves and dried roots of the plant are used for medicinal purposes. Herbalists recommend using infusions and decoctions with mad cucumber, but only in cases where the patient does not have problems with the stomach or intestines.
To grow a crazy cucumber, you need to choose a well-lit area of the garden that is located on a hill. After all, this plant needs warmth to a greater extent than many others.
Fight the mad cucumber
Not all countries recognize the benefits of crazy cucumber. In Belarus, the plant is considered a weed, and a real war has been declared on it. It started with the fact that local scientists, trying to develop a new silage crop, brought the seeds of the plant to the country. The effect was the opposite. The milk of animals that ate the mad cucumber began to taste bitter. Meanwhile, all attempts to peacefully get rid of the weed were in vain. Squirting cucumber burned people's skin, destroyed cultural crops, showing amazing vitality.
Common mad cucumber - perennial or annual Mediterranean plant, belonging to the Pumpkin family. His distinctive feature What is of interest to many is the ability, when fruits ripen under pressure, to be thrown over fairly long distances. In nature, the plant is found in Asia Minor and Central Asia, in the European zone of Russia, in the Crimea, in the Caucasus, in the Mediterranean countries, along the Black Sea coast, in the Azores. Crazy cucumber is used in folk medicine, since it has medicinal properties. Some people grow it for decorative purposes to decorate arches, gazebos, and fences in their summer cottages.
Botanical description
The mad cucumber is pretty unpretentious plant. It can grow on pebbly seashores, dry clay slopes, wastelands, roadsides, deserts and steppes, on sand, and in the area of landfills. Reproduction is carried out using seeds, the germination technique of which is similar to the germination of zucchini or pumpkin seeds. Before planting, they are soaked and then planted in greenhouses, greenhouses or flower pots in the apartment.
The root system is taproot type. The root is fleshy, slightly branched, thickened, whitish in color inside.
The stems are thick, climbing, creeping along the soil or ascending. The outside is slightly rough, covered with stiff hairs, and does not have antennae. The length of the stem can reach one meter or more.
The leaf arrangement is alternate, the leaves are on long (5–15 cm) fleshy petioles. The shape of the leaf blade is heart-ovate or slightly lobed. Its length is 5–10 cm, and its width is 4–8 cm. The edges are jagged. The leaves are colored on top green, below - grayish-tomentose, rough, wrinkled, densely pubescent with short hairs.
The mad cucumber blooms in July and lasts until September. The plant is monoecious, the flowers are dioecious. Large flowers emerge from the axils of the leaves and are yellowish-green. The corolla is bell-shaped, five-lobed, the petals are fused. Female flowers are solitary, located on long peduncles, male flowers are collected in axillary racemes on long peduncles in the axils of the upper leaves.
Fruit ripening occurs between August and October. The fruit is a bluish-green oblong pumpkin 4–6 cm long, covered on the outside with prickly bristles, and juicy on the inside. Its length is 4 – 8 cm. appearance a bit like a regular small thick cucumber.
At the moment of fruit ripening, even the lightest touch or a breath of wind causes the pumpkin to abruptly tear off from the stalk and the seeds with mucus are thrown out through the resulting hole under pressure. The seeds are dark brown in color, smooth surface, elongated, compressed in shape, about 4 mm long.
Interesting: The pressure inside a ripe fruit is about 3 – 6 atmospheres, so seeds can fly out of it at a speed of 10 m/s over distances of up to 10 – 12 meters.
Chemical composition
The fruits and herbs of the mad cucumber plant contain biologically active substances. However, its composition has not yet been fully studied. In the above-ground part of the plant the following were found:
- elaterins (α- and ﾤ - elatherin, elatericins A and B);
- alkaloids;
- steroids;
- triterpenoids (curbitacins);
- proteins;
- carotenoids;
- organic and higher fatty acids;
- allantoin;
- vitamins C and B1.
Medicinal properties
Products prepared from the aerial part of the mad cucumber have a pronounced laxative, anthelmintic, antibacterial, antitumor and diuretic effect. They are actively used in folk medicine to treat the following diseases:
- dropsy, swelling;
- inflammatory liver diseases;
- gout;
- hepatitis;
- helminthiasis;
- neuralgia, rheumatism, sciatica;
- intestinal colic;
- inflammation of the urinary system;
- malignant neoplasms of the uterus;
- menstrual irregularities;
- intermittent fever.
Procurement of raw materials
Grass (stems and leaves), unripe fruits and roots of mad cucumber are used as medicinal raw materials.
To harvest the above-ground part, the stems are cut, divided into pieces, washed and dried in the shade in dry, sunny weather. The readiness of the raw material is determined as follows: when bent, the stems should not bend, but break easily.
The roots are collected in the fall. First, they are dug up, shaken off the ground, washed with water from a cold tap, dried outside in the sun or indoors with good natural ventilation and then dried in a dryer.
The fruits are usually used fresh to obtain juice or infusions. The fruits are dried, cut into two parts, just like the roots, after withering them in the sun.
Finished medicinal raw materials obtained from mad cucumber can be stored in a closed glass containers and use within 1 year.
Methods of application
In folk medicine, infusions, decoctions, powder, and juice are prepared from various parts of the plant.
Decoction for the treatment of skin diseases
IN enamel pan pour 1 tbsp. l. dried herbs, add 1 liter of boiling water, place on water bath and stand for 20 minutes. Then, while still hot, filter and bring the volume of the solution to the original volume with boiled water.
For long-term non-healing trophic ulcers, prepare a cake from 1 tbsp. l. the resulting decoction and 1 tsp. flour, apply it to the ulcer and secure it with a bandage. If the skin is affected by a fungal infection, the inflamed areas are rubbed with a decoction.
Remedy for the treatment of sinusitis
A small amount of juice is squeezed out of freshly picked unripe fruits of mad cucumber. Take 2 drops of juice and add 8 drops of cool boiled water to them. The resulting composition is instilled into the nose once a day in an amount of 3–4 drops into each nasal passage. The next instillation can be carried out only after three days. If there is no effect after the second instillation, treatment is stopped.
Warning: When obtaining fresh juice from fruits, be sure to wear gloves on your hands, as it has a strong irritating effect on the skin and can cause burns, ulcers and blisters.
Remedy for the treatment of hemorrhoids
A mixture of 100 ml is kept on low heat for a quarter of an hour. vegetable oil and 6 - 7 g of chopped fresh or dried unripe fruits. After time, the mixture is allowed to cool and filtered. The resulting oil is used to lubricate inflamed hemorrhoids.
Infusion for swelling and worms
Chopped dry wild cucumber herb in the amount of 1 tsp. pour 200 g of boiling water. The container in which the infusion is located is wrapped and infused for 45 minutes, then filtered. Take 20 minutes before meals, 5 ml three times a day for edema of various origins, worms and as a laxative.
Tincture for neuralgia, sciatica and rheumatism
In a dark glass container, mix fresh or dried mad cucumber fruits and 70% alcohol or moonshine in a ratio of 1 to 20. The container is left for two weeks, after which it is filtered. The tincture is used externally for rubbing sore spots for rheumatism, sciatica and neuralgia.Precautions
When treating with mad cucumber, you need to be especially careful and carefully monitor your well-being, since the plant is very poisonous. A consultation with your doctor is required first.
Treatment with this plant is contraindicated for people suffering from pancreatitis, stomach and heart diseases, those with a tendency to loose stools, as well as pregnant and lactating women.
Chemical compounds contained in the fruits and seeds of the mad cucumber can cause acute intoxication of the body and death. Their ingestion is strictly prohibited. It has been established that just 0.5 g of fresh fruit juice taken orally can result in fatal poisoning for a person.
Every time I vacation in the south, I try to borrow some kind of unusual plant. For example, the year before last I brought from Crimea vine seeds with green oval “hedgehog” fruits (up to 6 cm in size), which “explode” when ripe.
RADIC CUCUMBER IS A LINA WITH SPINES
Already at home I learned that the plant is called common cucumber, or thorny cucumber. Belongs to the pumpkin family. Distributed in Central and Asia Minor, the Mediterranean, the Caucasus and southern Russia and Ukraine.
This annual liana is very unpretentious, and therefore is often found in wildlife. Its stems reach a length of 1.5 m. The leaves are large, up to 20 cm long and up to IS cm wide. The flowers are quite pretty, yellowish, fragrant. In gardening, prickly carp is used for landscaping terraces, gazebos, arches, fences, walls, and balconies.
FRIEND ZUCCHE
As I have seen, the crazy cucumber grows well in Middle lane Russia. Agricultural technology is the same as for zucchini and pumpkins.
Before planting, rub the vine seeds on sandpaper so that it is easier for the sprouts to break through the hard shell. And then soak them in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for a day and place them in a bowl with wet sawdust. Cover with a bag. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for a month. Then move it to a warm place (not lower than 25). When the roots appear, plant the seeds in pots with humus substrate, leaf soil, peat and sand (2:2:1:1). You can try to sow the seeds directly into the ground, but only when stable warmth has established.
Transplanting a crazy cucumber into open ground
At the end of May - beginning of June, plant the seedlings in open ground at intervals of 35-50 cm. Pour half a shovelful of humus into each planting hole.
The liana grows in both sun and partial shade. If only there were no drafts. The soils preferred for it are slightly acidic sandy loam or light clayey, well-drained. Moderate watering is needed. Fertilizer - twice a month with a solution of mullein or bird droppings (a shovel per bucket of water).
Flowers on the plant form from July until autumn frosts. The fruits ripen in late August - early September. But I cut them off earlier, leaving only a couple of testes. After all, with uncontrolled “explosions” of mad cucumbers, their seeds scatter to the sides at a distance of up to 20 m! Then dig up seedlings throughout the garden!
BEFORE THE “EXPLOSION” OR AFTER?
I collect mad cucumber seeds with all precautions. When the stalks of the testes turn yellow, I put on glasses to protect my eyes, take a cucumber and carefully place it inside plastic bag. Then I sharply shake the fruit, it spews out a jelly-like mass with seeds into the bag. This mass, due to fermentation with the release of gas, causes increased pressure inside the shell of the fruit, leading to an “explosion”.
Having completed the operation, all that remains is to select the seeds from the bag in a strainer, rinse them under running tap water and dry them on a napkin.
You can also collect the seeds after the natural explosion of the fruit. This is easier, but some of the seeds may scatter in an unknown direction.
HEALING PROPERTIES OF RAD CUCUMBER
Crazy cucumber is widely used in folk medicine to treat the liver, kidneys, colds, trophic ulcers, and neuralgia. Fruits, leaves, and shoots are used. However, it must be remembered that the mad cucumber is poisonous plant. You cannot taste any part of it! Even the juice from the stems and leaves of the vine, if it gets on the skin, can cause irritation, burns, and ulcers.
Get treatment homemade drugs from crazy cucumber should be under the supervision of a doctor, since an overdose can cause increased heart rate, dizziness, abdominal pain, and vomiting. This treatment is contraindicated during exacerbation of diseases gastrointestinal tract, during pregnancy, breastfeeding and children under 18 years of age.
The herbaceous annual plant mad cucumber is a weed that grows on the Black Sea coast, in Asia Minor, and other regions. It is poisonous and medicinal at the same time. Used in folk and official medicine.
Description
The plant belongs to the pumpkin family. Loves sandy soils and is often found on the coast. How garden culture not grown, considered a noxious weed. The name of the weed comes from the spread of seeds.
Source: Depositphotos
A crazy cucumber stings like nettles until the fruit ripens.
When the fruit ripens, a pressure of 6 atmospheres is created inside, the cucumber is torn away from the shoot, and the seeds are shot out at a distance of 6-12 m around. This is how the seed material spreads and the plant reproduces.
Botanical description:
- heat-loving annual;
- creeping stem 50-120 cm long with tendrils;
- leaves are hard, pubescent, bluish on the inside;
- yellow flowers;
- flowering time - July - September;
- fruits are oblong, 4-7 cm long, covered with bristles;
- ripen in August - September.
After ripening, the cucumber turns brown and shoots out elongated seeds in a slimy mass. The length of the seeds is 4 mm, similar to the seeds of a regular cucumber.
There is a cultivated variety of annual called Momordica. Used as curly ornamental plant for decorating the walls of a house, gazebo or other buildings.
Composition, medicinal properties
The herbaceous part - the stem and leaves - is used as a medicinal raw material. Collected in summer, during flowering. The raw materials are dried, crushed, and used for medicinal purposes.
Biologically active substances found in the stems and leaves:
- steroids;
- organic acids;
- carotenoids;
- alkaloids;
- ascorbic acid;
- glycosides.
Cucumber has a laxative and diuretic effect on the human body. It has antitumor, antibacterial, anthelmintic properties. Decoctions and infusions of dried raw materials are used to treat jaundice, gout, and rheumatism.
Diluted juice from fresh leaves is used to instill the nose for inflammation of the paranasal sinuses and sinusitis. The plant is used to prevent cancer of the female genital organs and treat uterine cancer. Effective for edema, kidney diseases, neuralgia, hemorrhoids.
The juice contains a high concentration of substances toxic to humans. Therefore, when preparing medicines strictly follow the instructions and, when used, the dosage. Contraindicated for stomach diseases, pancreatitis, pregnancy, diarrhea.
