False Bedstraw
False bedstraw is a member of the bogbean family. Its Latin name is Galium spurium L. (G. vaillanti DC.).
The family name of false bedstraw itself is Menyanthaceae Dumort.
Description of False Bedstraw
False bedstraw is an annual herbaceous plant, growing between ten and fifteen centimeters tall and often bare at the nodes. Its leaves can be either oblanceolate or lanceolate, measuring fifteen to twenty millimeters long and about one and a half to two millimeters wide. The cymes of this plant are axillary, trifoliate, or forked, with six to nine flowers, and sometimes simple. These cymes are also tricolored or reduced to single flowers, while the flowers themselves are greenish-yellow, one to one and a half millimeters long, and about two to three millimeters wide. These flowers are densely pubescent with hooked hairs, lack tubercles, and are bare at the base.
Cleavers bloom from July to August. In the wild, this plant is found throughout Eastern Siberia, Belarus, Ukraine, European Russia, Central Asia, and the following regions of the Far East: the Amur region, Primorye, Sakhalin, and Kamchatka. False bedstraw prefers sandy coastal shores, meadows, shrub thickets, dry steppe and rocky slopes, vegetable gardens, orchards, fields, roadsides, and near homes.
Description of the Medicinal Properties of False Bedstraw
False bedstraw has valuable medicinal properties, and the juice of the above-ground parts of the plant is recommended for medicinal purposes. These valuable medicinal properties are attributed to the plant’s content of alkaloids, vitamin C, saponins, and the iridoid asperuloside. It should be noted that false bedstraw has very effective anti-inflammatory and diuretic properties.
Notably, the roots of this plant can dye wool red, while the flowers produce a yellow color. False bedstraw seeds are also used as a coffee substitute.
As a diuretic, it is recommended to use the following very effective healing remedy based on this plant: to prepare such a healing remedy, you will need to take one tablespoon of dry crushed bedstraw herb per glass of boiling water. It is recommended to infuse the resulting healing mixture for about two hours, and then this mixture should be filtered very carefully. Take the resulting medicinal product three times a day, one or two tablespoons.
As a diaphoretic and expectorant, it is recommended to use a very effective remedy based on this plant: to prepare such a healing remedy, you will need to take three tablespoons of dry crushed bedstraw herb per two glasses of boiling water. The resulting mixture should be infused for about two hours, after which it is important to strain this mixture based on false bedstraw very carefully. Take this healing remedy warm three times a day, one-third of a glass. If used correctly and competently, such a healing remedy based on false bedstraw will be very effective.
