Currant leaves: the benefits and harm when to collect, how to dry and store at home

With a black currant a few plants can compete in the number contained in their benefits. In addition, its berries are very tasty. However, few people use other parts of this amazing plant, and in vain. After all, currant leaves can heal and strengthen the body, they are used in cooking, and they also make cosmetic products from them to maintain beauty and saturate the skin with vitamins.

What are good for health?

Currant leaves contain so much benefit that they are able to compete with certain medications and will certainly enrich the body with the substances it needs. When at the end of winter and spring there is a lack of vitamins, there is constant fatigue, lethargy - it's time to start enriching it with vitamins and minerals, brewing delicious tea from currant leaves, bearing undoubted benefit to most body systems and not causing a person any harm, except for cases of individual intolerance.It will also help recuperate after suffering diseases and cope with overwork, carrying vigor and energy.

• Vitamin C is indispensable for any organism, its deficiency can lead to serious consequences, while saturation of the body with this strongest antioxidant will strengthen the immune system, prolong youth and even help prevent cancer.
• Infusion of leaves or decoction is used as a disinfectant, as well as an anti-inflammatory drug. These properties of currant leaves are used even in the treatment of gastritis and other stomach diseases, as well as in skin diseases.
• It is good currant tea to improve blood quality: it fights with anemia and helps with atherosclerosis. It is good to drink it for people with rheumatism and gout.

• Thanks to not only vitamin C, but also to the volatile leaves of currant leaves, tea is used for viral inflammatory diseases of the respiratory tract, in other words, for colds.For example, a curd tea can be made from currant leaves.
• Thanks to currant leaves, mature and elderly people can maintain their vision, heart, blood vessels and brain activity at a stable level. Delicately expanding blood vessels, a decoction of currant leaves helps to reduce pressure, which is of particular relevance in the elderly.
• If you have been prescribed antibiotics, then due to the decoction of currant leaves their action in the body will be strengthened.
• Very often, this drug is included in complex specialized fees from medicinal plants intended for the treatment of many diseases. These fees can be purchased at the pharmacy or make yourself.
• The leaves of this plant are widely used in traditional medicine of various peoples, such as Tibetan, which uses them to treat diseases of the lymphatic, urogenital, cardiovascular systems, respiratory diseases, as well as conditions associated with general malaise of the body.

The action of currant leaves is proven and used by traditional medicine as part of complex therapy for the following diseases, as well as for their prophylaxis:

• diabetes;
• Alzheimer's disease;
• oncological diseases.

When to collect and how to dry the leaves of currants

In order to make tea not only tasty, but also bring the maximum benefit, it is necessary to know when to pick them for harvesting for the winter. Not every season greens contain the same amount of nutrients. As for currants, their maximum concentration falls on flowering period. This time may vary depending on the region and the variety of currants, so it is better to take the appearance of flowers for the team at the beginning of the harvest, regardless of whether they bloomed in May or in June. Take the raw material should be in the morning in warm, dry weather, at a time when there is no dew. It is very good if, shortly before the harvest, it rained and washed the plant, because after you tore them, you cannot wash the leaves. Moisturized, they do not dry properly and are likely to rot.

So, it was raining the other day, but the dry sunny weather was already established, the moon was growing, and the currant bush was blooming - it's time to collect the leaves. They take the youngest, thin and tender young leaves, not dirty and not affected by diseases or insects, whole, beautiful and shiny.

Collect the leaves - this is only half the battle, or rather, its beginning. Then they should be properly dried, so that they retain the benefit and not lose it.

Drying

The place where the raw materials are located for drying should be:

• warm;
• dry;
• not illuminated by the direct rays of the sun;
• blown.

This is necessary so that the material does not hit the mold and the sun does not destroy chlorophyll, and with it - some useful elements. The leaves are laid out in a uniform layer on a clean cloth or paper.

From time to time the heap of leaves is required to be turned in order for them to dry out evenly, and at the same time to check whether the mold has struck them. Do this until the leaves become brittle. This indicates that the raw material is ready and can be stored. It often happens that in May or the beginning of June the weather is not happy with warmth and sunshine, it can rain and the air is saturated with damp. Under such conditions in the air, leaves can not be dried, but you can use the oven. True, this method deprives the raw material of some of the useful elements. Leaves are placed on a baking sheet in one layer and put in an oven, preheated to 100 ° C. After 1.5 hours, reduce the temperature to 50 ° C, at which the mass is dried until ready.

But it is not necessary to dry the leaves of the currant in the way our grandmothers did to get a fragrant billet for tea at home.

Fermentation

You can resort, for example, to fermentation. Technologically, this process is somewhat different from traditional drying, but the product obtained as a result is more fragrant. This method is more appropriate when preparing raw materials saturated with tannins; just a currant leaf is perfect for this.

1. Collected leaves are required to begin to wrap up, for this they are left in the shade, spread out in an even layer. By the time it will take from half to full days, you need to judge the state of the central vein of the leaf: when the raw material is ready for the next stage, it does not break, but bends, becoming elastic.
2. The next step is to extract the juice from the prepared material in the maximum possible quantity, the taste qualities of the future drink depend on it. This can be done in several ways: put the leaves into piles of 5-7 pieces and, turning them into a roll, cut into thin strips, mash in a bowl like chopped cabbage before extracting the juice or grind into a meat grinder.In the first case, the brewing will turn out small-leaf, in the second - large-leaf, in the third - granules.
3. The next stage is fermentation. To do this, the raw material is folded, for example, in a bowl and covered with a damp cloth. The billet ferments around 6 hours, but you need to focus on the aroma: it must be strong, have a fruity smell, you cannot wait until a sour tint or the smell of fermented raw materials appears. The temperature of the air in which fermentation should take place is about 26 ° C, this is the optimal condition for the full disclosure of the aroma of future tea.
4. Subsequent drying occurs at a 100-degree temperature in the oven with the door ajar, until the raw material is completely dry. It is important not to overdry it and stop drying at the moment when the leaves start to break when trying to bend them. If the tea is too dry, it will lose much in taste and aroma.

Frost

Another way to preserve useful raw materials for the winter is freezing. Such technology will allow to preserve the maximum benefit of the plant, however, the aroma will be less saturated than that of dried raw materials.The cut leaves are folded into bags and, releasing air from them, are sent to the freezer.

How to store at home

Dried raw materials are packaged in fabric bags or tightly closed cans and stored in a place where:

• dry;
• cool enough;
• preferably dark;
• no air stagnation.

Another condition that is especially important to observe when stored in bags is to exclude the proximity of products that have a strong smell, as well as spices, spices and the like.

Application

Useful, medicinal and taste and chemical qualities of the currant leaf have found their application in various fields:

• due to the subtle exquisite aroma and tannic qualities of currant leaf is used in cooking;
• high content of nutrients that can heal and support the body, are used in traditional medicine;
• anti-inflammatory and disinfectant properties, as well as vitamin composition allow currant leaf to be a popular ingredient in various cosmetics.

In cooking

First of all, currant leaves, both fresh and dried, are used as tea leaves for tasty and healthy vitamin tea, but this is not their only use.

1. Currant leaf is a very popular additive to brines and marinades when harvesting vegetables and fruits for the winter. It is also used to improve the taste of fruit jams, preserves, jam, compotes. In these cases, the sheet is taken fresh.
2. In the process of making homemade wine, liquor or tincture, fresh currant leaves are often added, which have a delicate aroma and enrich the taste of the product.
3. Young leaves rich in vitamins can be used in salads, as well as canned for the winter to be added to meat and fish dishes.
4. From the currant leaf even prepare fruit vinegar, which is then used in the preparation of various dishes.

In folk medicine

Currant leaf - has long been known and widely used tool in traditional folk medicine, decoctions on it used in the treatment:

• stomach ulcers and gastritis;
• joint diseases;
• atherosclerosis;
• anemia;
• kidney disease.

Due to its exceptional properties, currant leaf:

• normalizes the circulatory and cardiovascular systems;
• positive effect on metabolic processes in the body;
• helps to remove excess fluid, which helps to reduce edema;
• regular use of decoction reduces the risk of diabetes and lowers blood pressure;
• contributes to the proper operation of the gastrointestinal tract and liver;
• increases appetite.

No less useful decoctions of the leaves of this plant for skin diseases:

• eczema;
• dermatitis;
• skin inflammation;
• itching;
• added to the bath, it will cure baby prickly heat and dermatitis, relieve inflammation.

In cosmetology

Currant leaves - a unique natural remedy for women, which has no contraindications and has numerous beneficial properties, which is used to maintain beauty and health in the composition of skin and hair care products.

Known antioxidants in the composition of currant leaves - vitamins E, D, C - make the skin and hair look better and healthier. These vitamins fight for youth, preventing premature wilting, and fight wrinkles. Due to the ability to excrete excess fluid from the body, they also prevent the formation of bags under the eyes.

Currant decoction:

• add to the water for washing and bathing;
• frozen in the form of cubes to wipe the face;
• used as a basis for face masks;
• rinse their hair.

Healthy and tasty tea recipes

In order to cook classic black currant tea, have to take:

• 1 teaspoon of black or green tea without any additives or flavors;
• 2 tablespoons freshly chopped and chopped, or 1 tablespoon of dried currant leaves;
• 1 liter of boiling water.

Tea and currant raw materials are put in a clean scalded teapot and poured boiling water. To insist on such a tea is laid from 10 to 20 minutes: fresh leaves take less time to reveal their properties, dried - a little more.

This person is recommended to drink one person a day just a liter, so drink brewed tea during the day, and many ailments will stop or for a long time depart from you. This recipe can be adjusted to your own taste as you like, for example, to increase the proportion of any ingredient, or to diversify the taste and extend the therapeutic range by adding leaves, fruits and greens of various plants:

• raspberries;
• cherries;
• mint;
• strawberries and others.

Adding lemon and / or honey will help to improve the healing properties of tea and diversify its taste.

Folk recipes

Some famous folk recipes using currant leaves.

Pyelonephritis, cystitis, urolithiasis:

• chopped fresh or dried leaves - 6 tablespoons;
• boiling water - 1 l.

Pour raw and insist hour wrapped. Strain. Take 5 times a day for 1 glass of infusion. Cold, rheumatism, vitamin deficiency:

• crushed leaves - 1 cup;
• boiling water - 3 cups.

Pour the raw material and insist at least 20 minutes. Strain. Drink warm three times a day for half a glass.

Temperature, improved metabolism and blood composition:

• 1 tablespoon of a mixture of dry leaves of raspberry, blackberry and currant in the proportion of 3 × 3 × 4;
• boiling water - 0.5 l.

Pour boiling water, insist 15 minutes, strain. Eat warm, up to 3 times a day as needed.

Tuberculosis of the lymph nodes:

• currant leaves - 3 tablespoons;
• boiling water - 0.5 l.

Brew for 2 hours, strain. Drink 4 times a day for half a cup for a long time, up to several months.

Acne:

• currant leaves dry - 1 tablespoon;
• boiling water - 10 tablespoons.

Insist 10 minutes, soak infusion napkin and put it on face for 25 minutes. The course lasts 3 weeks, if necessary, after 3 weeks is repeated. Body Mask:

• currant leaves - 4 tablespoons;
• lime blossom - 2 tablespoons;
• hop cones - 2 tablespoons;
• chamomile flowers - 2 tablespoons;
• peppermint - 2 tablespoons;
• series - 2 tablespoons;
• creeping thyme - 4 tablespoons;
• horsetail - 2 tablespoons;
• boiling water - 8 glasses;
• olive oil - 2 glasses.

Blend herbs with boiling water, after some cooling add oil, mix and infuse for 24 hours.

To rub into the skin of the body with movements reminiscent of massage. The mask improves skin condition, gives softness.

Skin whitening:

• chopped fresh leaves of currant - 1.5 tablespoons;
• sour milk - 150 ml.

The components are thoroughly mixed, squeeze out excess liquid through gauze, the remaining mixture in it, apply on face for 20 minutes, rinse mask with water. Hair Growth:

• leaves of black and red currants - 1 tablespoon;
• boiling water - 1 l.

Brew infusion during the day, drink 200 g 4 times a day. The tool has a positive effect on the condition of hair and their growth.

Contraindications and harm

The leaves of currant, as well as any medicinal product, in addition to useful properties are available and contraindications. This is not surprising, because any drug that benefits can harm someone.

1. It is not recommended to take decoctions and infusions for people who have an increased acidity of gastric juice.
2. Patients with pathologies associated with blood clotting, are accustomed to control everything that they consume, and this tea also does not suit them.
3. It is inappropriate to use it for people with individual intolerance to currants.
4. In the presence of gastritis, stomach ulcers or hepatitis, you should consult with your doctor before taking currant decoction.
5. Caution means you should treat people who are prone to allergies.
6. This tea is not contraindicated for pregnant women, but it is advisable to consult with a doctor beforehand.

It is not at all difficult to prepare the leaves of such a useful plant as black currant for the winter, and enjoy its aroma and taste all winter, benefiting your body, supplying it with the missing vitamins that will give strength and drive away unpleasant diseases, and add beauty to the skin and hair.