Plants And Health. Useful Indoor Plants. Application. Photo

2023 Author: Ava Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 07:50

Since ancient times, people have tried to decorate their homes with plants. He, feeling himself as one with nature, transferred its particle to his home. Turned to plants for healing. But this desire was rather intuitive. Currently, scientists have found that in addition to aesthetic properties, plants have another useful function - indoor plants improve the composition of the air and purify the atmosphere.

Content:

The benefits of indoor plants
Which plants to choose
Some more interesting facts about houseplants
The nine healthiest houseplants

The benefits of indoor plants

Houseplants are of great help in improving the indoor microclimate. They release oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide, purify the air from germs and dust. In addition, the invigorating aroma emitted by indoor essential oil plants, which emit a large amount of volatile phytoncides, improves our well-being, increases the functional state of the body, stimulates its efficiency and defenses.

It should also be remembered that plants, evaporating moisture from the surface of the leaves, humidify the excessively dry air of apartments (the humidity can be easily increased by placing plants in a tub in the room). In a word, they heal, ennoble the air, creating a microclimate in the room favorable for humans. All this contributes to an increase in the body's resistance to infection and, therefore, has an important healing value.

The most pronounced antimicrobial effect of phytoncides is white-spotted begonia, fragrant pelargonium, white oleander, spring primrose, elastic ficus, domestic geraniums and other indoor plants. They are very useful both for patients (for example, those with diseases of the upper respiratory tract and lungs) and for healthy people. With an increased tendency to diseases of the upper respiratory tract, inhalation of phytoncides secreted by indoor lemon also has a positive effect. This plant has a beneficial effect on people with diseases of the cardiovascular system.

The aromas of plants, irritating the olfactory receptors of the nose, have a reflexive effect on the central nervous system, which depends on the type of plant and can be soothing, dulling perception (up to narcotic effects), stimulating and, finally, causing a state of nervous excitement. Knowing these features of plants, you can purposefully breed them at home.

So, for those who have an increased excitability of the nervous system, it is useful to have fragrant geranium in their room. Inhalation of its aroma soothes, improves sleep, and in people with high blood pressure - leads to its decrease. The scents of chamomile, mint, rose, garden violet, orange and lemon refresh the air and have a beneficial effect on the emotional state of a person, improving mood and stimulating performance.

With the help of flowers, you can create a cozy corner in the apartment, a kind of green oasis in which you will be happy to spend your free time. Indoor plants will help you transform your interior, decorate and bring it to life.

Plants help not only create comfort in places where people work and rest, but also contribute to the creation of a favorable microclimate. However, everything is fine in moderation, you should not clutter up the office space or apartment with indoor plants. So, for example, flowers placed on a windowsill should be low (12-15 cm) and occupy no more than 15% of the window opening.

Remember that some plants (geranium, primrose, calendula, etc.) can cause allergic reactions manifested by an acute runny nose (rhinitis), photophobia, poor health, headache, skin rashes, and in more severe cases - attacks of asthmoid bronchitis and bronchial asthma. Such plants must be removed from the apartment.

Which plants to choose

Geranium

The most common domestic flower is geranium (pelargonium). She plays the role of a kind of room doctor for diseases of the nervous system, especially with its functional disorders, neuroses of various etiologies, and insomnia. The main active ingredient of geranium is geraniol. It has antibacterial and antiviral activity. On rainy autumn-winter days, the scent of geranium, its bright red or pink flowers and scalloped leaves can improve mood, help relieve stress and fatigue.

Geranium preparations have an astringent, hemostatic, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic effect. In folk medicine, rhizome and less often geranium leaves are used for various external and internal bleeding, gastritis, bronchitis, nephrolithiasis, rheumatism, gout.

An infusion or decoction of geranium is used for rinsing the mouth with stomatitis, tonsillitis; in the form of lotions - for eczema, ulcers, fistulas, with itchy dermatitis; for shampooing - for hair loss. A decoction of the leaves is used for baths for bone fractures (hence another popular name for geranium - bone breaker). The infusion and decoction of geranium is prepared at the rate of 2-4 teaspoons of dry plant leaves for 2 cups of boiling water.

Geranium oil is good for depression, fears, neuralgia, impotence, hypoglycemia, and softens menopause. To prevent colds, you can knead a torn geranium leaf and put it in your nose before leaving the house or, conversely, after returning home. Geranium oil will cleanse the nasal mucosa and protect against possible colds.

Aloe

Everyone knows the agave, which has been used as a home healer for many centuries. Centennial (aloe tree) has a lot of properties beneficial to health: anti-inflammatory, choleretic, antibacterial, wound healing, anti-burn. It enhances the secretion of the digestive glands, improves appetite, normalizes digestion, increases the protective functions of the body and its immunoreactive capabilities, enhances the recovery processes in damaged tissues.

Aloe is prescribed for anemia, radiation injuries, with progressive myopia, inflammation of the eyelids, gastric ulcer, bronchial asthma, chronic gastritis, accompanied by constipation, pharyngitis, laryngitis, after dysentery, as well as a general tonic and a means to increase immunity. Usually for these purposes, aloe juice is mixed in equal proportions with honey and a third of a teaspoon of this mixture is taken 3 times a day 30 minutes before meals, washed down with warm milk. The course of treatment is 3 weeks, then a break of 10 days.

For the treatment of purulent wounds, trophic ulcers, burns, abscesses and boils, aloe juice is used externally in the form of irrigation and lotions, changing the dressing soaked in aloe juice twice a day. Compresses with aloe juice for radiation-induced scalp dermatitis relieve pain, accelerate tissue regeneration and hair growth.

For diseases of the oral cavity and gums, laryngitis, rinse with aloe juice diluted with water in a 1: 1 ratio is prescribed. Three times instillation of juice into the nostrils (5-8 drops) at intervals of 3-5 hours stops the development of a cold.

With pneumonia, it is useful to add 1 teaspoon of salt to a glass of aloe juice and take 1 tbsp. spoon 3 times a day one hour before meals. Emaciated patients and children are given a nutritional mixture of 100 g of aloe juice, 500 g of walnuts, 300 g of honey and juice of 3-4 lemons. Take this mixture 1 teaspoon 3 times a day 30 minutes before meals.

With pulmonary tuberculosis, as an additional treatment, the patient is given a mixture of 15 g of aloe juice, 10 g of cuff juice, 100 g of butter (pork or goose fat), honey and cocoa. Take at lunch or in the evening for 1 tbsp. spoon with a glass of hot milk.

To prepare aloe juice, pluck the side shoots, lower and middle leaves of a 2-4-year-old plant, soak them to enhance biological activity for 10-14 days in the refrigerator on the lower shelf, then pass through a meat grinder, squeeze, filter after 3-4 a layer of cheesecloth and boil the resulting juice for 3 minutes. Use immediately after preparation, as the juice quickly loses activity during storage.

It should be noted that with numerous indications, aloe also has contraindications that must be paid attention to. Aloe juice is not recommended for liver and kidney diseases, for severe cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, acute indigestion, uterine and hemorrhoidal bleeding, long pregnancy, as well as people over 40 years old.

Kalanchoe

Kalanchoe is popularly called a home doctor. It has soft juicy leaves, from which juice is squeezed out, which is successfully used to treat wounds, including purulent, long-lasting trophic ulcers, bedsores, erysipelas. Kalanchoe juice is also used for tonsillitis, sinusitis, stomatitis, periodontal disease, gynecological diseases (erosion, inflammation of the cervix, and others).

To obtain juice, it is necessary to keep the Kalanchoe leaves in the dark at 5-10 degrees for 7 days, then rinse and pass through a juicer. Kalanchoe ointment, which is prepared from 40 parts of Kalanchoe juice, 60 parts of lanolin and equal amounts (0.25 parts each) of furazolidone and novocaine, also has a healing effect. The ointment can be prepared for future use, so that it is always at hand in case of emergency or emergency care.

Peppermint

On your window, you can grow peppermint, which summer residents usually pluck mercilessly, weeding their gardens. If you transplant it into a pot in the fall and put it on the window, then in cold December you will see delicate light green leaves with a fresh and strong smell.

The scent of mint soothes the agitated nervous system, helps relieve irritation, fatigue, and aggressiveness. In addition, this smell helps to concentrate, so American psychologists recommend that everyone who works on a computer for a long time, put a pot of mint or a vase with a bunch of dried mint next to it, from time to time inhaling its aroma.

Peppermint is widely used in official and folk medicine. It has an analgesic and anti-inflammatory effect on the body, improves appetite and the secretion of the digestive glands. Many housewives know her as an excellent culinary addition.

If you have grown mint on your window, then by the New Year you can prepare a very simple and exotic dish from it - candied mint: mint leaves are dipped into whipped protein, then for 1-2 minutes - into boiling sugar syrup, laid out on plates and slightly dried … Your guests will be pleasantly surprised to taste this delicacy.

Lemon

Homemade lemons are worth growing for more than just the fruit. Their fragrant leaves also have healing power. They release 85 different medicinal substances. In the room where the lemons are located, the air is almost sterile. If a lemon grows in a room, then many pathogenic microbes that live in this room will lose the ability to multiply. Lemon is known to everyone as a storehouse of vitamin C, but it also contains other vitamins (P, PP, B1), as well as various trace elements.

It is believed that lemons were first cultivated in China in the 8th-9th centuries. Then lemons appeared in several countries of Asia Minor and the Mediterranean coast of Europe. The importance of lemon as a factor contributing to strengthening and increasing the elasticity of the walls of blood vessels is difficult to overestimate, and people have known about it for a long time. It is known and in some cases used the ability of lemons, candied in honey, to reduce high blood pressure.

The aroma of cut lemon increases efficiency, eliminates drowsiness even in very tired and weak people. Japanese doctors believe that the aroma of freshly cut lemon has a positive effect on the nervous system and enhances visual acuity.

Lemons primarily owe their pleasant specific smell to the essential oils contained in their peel. According to Russian scientists, essential oils of citrus crops (lemons, tangerines, oranges, grapefruit, etc.) act on E. coli several times more effectively than known antibiotics (for example, streptomycin), and on staphylococci, they are stronger than chloramphenicol.

Tea with lemon is a strong sokogonny agent, therefore, in case of diseases of the pancreas and stomach with high acidity, sometimes one should refrain from lemons. For kidney disease, tea is preferable not with a slice of lemon, but with lemon juice. It is also good to add to foods for salt-free and low-salt diets.

For dessert, healthy people and with certain diseases, but after consulting a doctor, you can prepare the so-called lemon milk. To do this, squeeze juice from one lemon, pour it into a mixer, add a glass of cold milk, 3-4 teaspoons of sugar, beat and cool the resulting mixture. This healthy cooling drink is best drunk with a straw.

Now there are phytodesigners who can compose special compositions from plants, taking into account their decorative and medicinal properties. But this pleasure is quite expensive, so if you want to compose a small medical and aesthetic composition, then know that oregano, snakehead, lavender, lemon balm, monarda have a calming effect, and juniper is able to reduce streptococcus colonies in the air by 8 times.

Composing compositions from phytoncidal plants, you will get less sick. They will help you maintain and improve your health, relieve stress and increase performance.

Indoors, you can use medicinal rosemary, whose phytoncides are indicated in the treatment of chronic bronchitis, pulmonary emphysema, catarrh of the upper respiratory tract, bronchial asthma and other diseases. Laurel noble helps with spastic conditions (angiospasms), intestinal and biliary tract spasms.

If you want the phytocomposition to have a general healing effect and purify the air from pathogenic microbes, then use the original combination of aloe tree or Kalanchoe pinnate with various forms of chlorophytum.

When growing indoor plants or composing phytocompositions, be careful if anyone in the house has bronchial asthma or any other allergic diseases. Indoor plants can cause allergic reactions not only to their own flowers and leaves, but also to the land in which they grow.

As a rule, microscopic fungi develop on the ground, which form a white coating on the soil surface. It is these mushrooms that are the most powerful allergens and can provoke attacks of bronchial asthma, allergic rhinitis (runny nose), conjunctivitis (inflammation of the eyes) or other allergic manifestations. In these cases, houseplants will have to be abandoned.

Near the bed, you can put a composition of simple geranium (with different colors of inflorescences) and fragrant geranium. It will have a beneficial effect on sleep. The composition of myrtle, eucalyptus and rosemary will have a bronchodilator, antimicrobial and antiviral effect.

Some more interesting facts about houseplants

Houseplants purify the air

Everyone knows how important the cleanliness of the air in the house is and how common air pollution inside the apartment is.

NASA scientists conducted a study on the effect of indoor plants on human health and found that ordinary indoor plants can improve air quality. The study found that indoor plants can remove up to 87% of harmful air toxins in 24 hours. What is needed for this? Use 15 to 18 decent sized indoor plants in 15-20 cm pots for a 160 sq. m.

Houseplants will help remove a variety of toxic fumes, including ammonia, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, benzene, xylene, and trichlorethylene. Below you will find a list of the most beneficial plants in this regard, and remember, the healthier the plant, the more benefits it will bring to your health.

Houseplants make you happier

Bruno Cortis, a cardiologist in Chicago, writes that houseplants make you calmer and more optimistic. Remarkably, he says, patients who are able to look at the garden from a hospital window recover faster than those who have to stare at the wall.

Houseplants fight fatigue and colds

Houseplants help relieve coughs, sore throats, fatigue and other symptoms associated with colds by more than 30%, according to research from the Norwegian Institute of Agriculture, in part because they increase air humidity and reduce dust.

Home plants in the office

Even large corporations are beginning to realize that planting houseplants can add health and happiness to workers. According to one study published in The Rehabilitation Literature, a manufacturing company placed houseplants so that no worker was more than 14 meters from the plant. The management of the company reported on the increased creative activity and increased efficiency.

Of course, some indoor plants are poisonous and need to be handled with care or not grown at all if you have small children.

But by acting with some caution with the plants you choose, you can take full advantage of all the benefits that plants bring to your home.