How can we support our digestion with herbs?
2025-02-21
We are building the future now! We need to act as role models now, we need to step out of our comfort zone if we want to live a more beautiful, healthier, happier and longer life!
Many people in the modern, fast-paced world are affected by digestive problems. This is usually due to improper nutrition, complications of infections, frequent alcohol consumption or everyday stress. Fortunately, with a little attention and herbs, it can be fixed, if the physiological conditions are given. In this article, I would like to introduce you to two pungent, but very useful herbs.
Benedict grass (Cnicus benedictus)
It is known by several names: blessed thistle, blessed grass and bitter thistle. The last name is absolutely descriptive…terribly bitter. It is grown in our country. It blooms from June. We collect its flowering leafy shoots. It is important to dry it in a shady, dry place. It belongs to the family of the asteraceae. The active ingredients of its flowering leafy shoots are: quinine, xanolitenolide, artemisifolin (bitter substances, sesquiterpene-framed compounds), mucus, tannin, resin, nicotinic acid (niacin or vitamin B3). It is an herb that improves appetite, stimulates digestion, has a choleretic and hepatoprotective effect. It can also be used externally to treat wounds that are difficult to heal, in the form of a wrap or compress.
Contraindication:
It is recommended for children from the age of 12. It is not recommended for use during pregnancy.
Milk thistle (Silybum marianum)
It is known as milk thistle and milk thistle in many places. It belongs to the family of the asteraceae. In Hungary, it is an annual, cultivated plant. Its ripe fruit (hay fruit) can be collected from mid-July, which contains flavonoids (including the famous silymarin), bitter substances, resin, linoleic acid and oleic acid. These active ingredients have a liver-protective function and help regenerate liver cells. The seed can be used as a tea after drying or encapsulated as a ground substance. It can be consumed internally in the form of tea or preparations (e.g. capsules). Although research results support that its effect is more effective in the ground form.
Its application can help:
- chronic inflammatory liver diseases, liver cirrhosis (e.g. Hepatitis infections)
- liver stress, liver enlargement (chemicals, alcohol, smoking and excessive drug use)
- and for the treatment of dyspeptic (indigestion) disorders.
It is also used in the pharmaceutical industry to produce Legalon capsules, and silymarin, the active ingredient in Legalon, is extracted from the milk thistle fruit.
Contraindication:
Milk thistle can only be used if an allergy to asteraceae can be ruled out! It can be consumed from the age of 12. Medical consultation is required during pregnancy regarding its use.
Our organism, our body, deserves to be taken care of, because we live in it, we live with it, it carries us and protects us. If we can solve the problem of a disease that is caught in time with a gentle but effective treatment, why would we expose it to “fire”. Let us love ourselves, protect our body and take care of it wisely, so that we can spend as much time with it in health as possible!
Szarvas Nikolett, Diána
Founder of HerbClinic, health bioengineer, phytotherapist