Buy Stepmother leaf, Plantain leaf, Volyn region.

Mother-and-stepmother is a perennial herbaceous plant of the complex flower family. Its rhizomes are creeping and thick. Mother-and-stepmother blooms in early spring, as soon as the snow falls, in Ukraine it is the end of March.

Flowers collected in single baskets, yellow, 2-2.5 cm in diameter. When ripening, they turn into fluffy heads, similar todandelion.

The leaves of the mother-and-stepmother appear only after flowering, in the form of a rosette, on long, rather thick petioles. The shape of the leaves is round-heart-shaped, unevenly toothed. The size of the leaves is different, mostly about the size of an open palm. From below they are covered with a thick layer of white hairs, and from above they are smooth, dark green. If you touch a leaf from above, it seems cold, and from below - warm.

Mother-and-stepmother grows preferably on wet and clay soils: along the banks of rivers, lakes, streams, in meadows, on embankments, etc. She is the first to feel the beginning of spring, blooming with bright yellow flowers as soon as the snow melts.(//tractor-service.com)

In folk medicine, mother-and-stepmother is used both independently and as part of herbal collections. Flowers and young leaves are used for medicinal purposes. Flowers are harvested in early spring, during flowering, and young leaves - after flowering, ripening and shedding of seeds. The shelf life of raw materials is 2 years.

In traditional medicine, mother-and-stepmother leaves are used in the form of an infusion for diseases of the respiratory tract, as an expectorant, disinfectant and anti-inflammatory agent. Mother-and-stepmother liquefies thick secretions (sputum), has an enveloping effect on cough, hoarse voice, bronchial catarrh, pharyngitis, bronchial asthma, and lung inflammation.

Mother-and-stepmother infusion (inside): 4 teaspoons of crushed flowers and leaves (dry), pour 1 glass of boiling water, infuse for 20-30 minutes, then strain. Drink the infusion during the day, in several doses. The recipe is used for cough, sore throat, hoarse voice, bronchial catarrh, bronchial asthma, lung inflammation, etc.

Mother-and-stepmother infusion is used even in the absence of appetite, inflammation of the mucous membrane of the gastrointestinal tract, etc.