Małgorzata Kaczmarczyk lives in the countryside in the Beskid Wyspowy and deals with the collection and preparation of herbs on a daily basis - as infusions, ingredients for home medicines, and even lunches or cosmetics. Once, however, she led a completely different - city - life. We talk with the author of "Herbs for taste, he alth and beauty" about how to use herbs in your home, where to learn about them, and about the greatest herbal discoveries.

  • When did your interest in herbs arise? How did it happen that a woman who had been living and working in the city for many years decided to quit her job, move to the countryside and start a completely different life?

Małgorzata Kaczmarczyk:The desire to be close to nature has always been with me. As a child, I used to go to my grandma's on vacation. She had a wooden house near the forest, which I left in the morning after waking up in my pajamas. We ate all our meals in the gazebo, picked blueberries, raspberries and mushrooms in the forest, built stone dams on the moat, lay in the grass, and soaked in puddles. Time ran differently, as a teenage girl I went alone to my grandmother to rest, then together with my children. When I was an adult and I started to have he alth problems, I knew that I had to change something in my life, because disease always shows us when our body is not happy, when it lacks something. I quit my job and started looking for what I wanted to do. At the same time, my husband and children started going to his family, to his uncle's farm. I loved the windy, mountainous terrain and the plants growing in the meadows and forests. I started taking pictures of plants and looking for their names, it turned out that some of them were medicinal plants. And so it began - I found postgraduate studies in Krakow - cultivation and processing of herbs and medicinal and alternative plants. I finished them and a few months later I started a blog - www.ziolowawyspa.pl. At the same time, we bought a farm after our deceased uncle and decided to settle down in the countryside.

  • How did your family react to the idea of ​​moving?

My children, when our lives changed, were already adults, each of them knew what they wanted to do,developed professionally. So it was a good time for a change, because we did not destroy any of their life plans.

  • What is the average day of a herbalist?

When I wake up, in the summer time, I open the door and go outside with my coffee. I sit under an old linden tree and during its flowering time I listen to the buzzing of bees, the singing of birds, which we have a lot of, because like my grandmother, I live near the forest. After that, I usually reply to e-mails and write articles or collect materials for a book. Depending on whether there is wind or not, I plan photos, see which plants have bloomed, and set up a schedule to work with herbs for the afternoon. I belong to the type of larks, I have mental activity before noon, in the afternoon I do physical work related to processing the collected herbs, making ointments and creams, checking extracts, filtering them. I finish the day by tidying up the workplace with plants and reading a book or watching a movie.

  • The use of herbs - we know that they help with coughs, runny nose, but can you indicate other - more unusual uses? We do not know what properties of herbs yet?

There are many uses of herbs, but maybe I will mention the most useful ones, because I did not know that with their help we can quickly get rid of the pain after burns, speed up the healing of wounds, eczema. There are a lot of herbs that contain bactericidal and fungicidal compounds, usually on every walk in the meadow or in the forest we can find several plants with this effect. There are also plants that can be rubbed against us to avoid mosquitoes.

I recently inhibited the development of herpes on my lip by rubbing the juice from a very popular plant, which is tansy, several times.

We do not know, for example, that there is no cure for viruses, but there are plants that can stop the spread of the virus in our body, including the already very popular ginger root, elderberry fruit, plantain and many others.

  • How do you think herbs work in cosmetics, what do you think about the recently popular natural cosmetics?

I have a sensitive skin and I had to use carefully selected cosmetics not to make me allergic. Since I started making them myself, I have noticed that there are few creams that can sensitize me. I suppose it caused the rejection of many components that I don't use in cosmetics, I only rely on cold-pressed oils, preservatives for children and essential oils, not fragrances. I also make herbal extracts of herbs fromown crops or wild. Anyone can do natural cosmetics, it is not difficult, you just need to learn the basic rules, for example emulsifying the water and oil phases, using the right oils, and what is important - you do not have to live in the countryside to make such a cosmetic. Our herbal shops are well-stocked, and in the winter I use plant droughts myself, if I miss something.

  • Can you find a fairly easy and effective recipe for a home cosmetic (I can find it in your book, you do not have to enter it in full here, but please indicate the specific one).

I think the easiest way would be to do a body scrub, one that will lubricate your skin at the same time.

This will be useful to you

Recipe for homemade fir peeling

Fir peeling warms up and has a positive effect on all skin changes, soothes rheumatic pains.

Ingredients:

  • 200 g sea s alt
  • 120 ml of oil macerate from fir needles (can be pine or spruce)
  • optional: a few drops of fir oil

Preparation method:

1.Finely cut fir needles, drizzle with alcohol, leave for an hour in a closed jar. Pour 1: 1 with warm oil, e.g. sunflower oil.

2.Keep in a warm, dark place, stir occasionally.

3.Filter after a week.

4.Mix the oil macerate with s alt, you can add a few drops of fir oil.

  • Can the average city dweller afford to prepare the recipes you propose? Where to find the listed herbs? Are they not difficult to access?

Everyone can make their own cosmetics, it is not difficult, herbs are available in herbal stores, you do not need to create more complex extracts, because you can buy them in stores with cosmetic intermediates. However, there are many rules that it is better for someone to pass on at the beginning, hence beauty workshops have become supportive. It is on them that we get knowledge in a nutshell and thus avoid mistakes.

  • How to collect herbs? Is it not too dangerous a task - after all, a mistake may affect our he alth. What to remember when choosing herbs? Do you pay attention to the different parts of their construction?

We always collect only those plants that we know for sure. At the beginning, I got to know them by smell, taste and appearance. We check the arrangement of the leaves, the flower. Besides, these basic herbs are obvious - everyone will know nettle because it will burn, chamomile because when rubbed it will smellchamomile. So far I go with my smartphone and either take pictures of the arrangement of the leaves or check whether it is forest purgatory - for example. I'm in the middle of searching for him. There is also a "Plant Hunters" group on Facebook - you can take a picture of the plant and ask for its identification, just remember that it must be a picture of the plant growing, not picked off, and it should be sharp. We must also remember that we never collect plants that we do not need and we collect only as much as we need, we do not pull them out in stock. Only 1/4 of the plants can be picked from one position, use a knife to avoid uprooting. At home, we process or dry it immediately.

  • Which herbs are safe for children?

I always check prof. Ożarowski "Medicinal plants" and on the website of Dr. Henryka Różański - www.rozanski.li, whether a given herb has side effects, can it be used by children. Doctor Różański often gives doses to the youngest. There are plenty of herbs, it's hard to say which are safe, but maybe the most supportive are elderberries, rowan, bird cherry, elderberry flowers, linden, goldenrod, dandelion, mallow, mallow, nettle herb (in certain doses), plantain lanceolate. Of course, first you have to read about the processing, because, for example, the fruits of rowan and lilac must first be boiled to destroy the unfavorable compounds that decompose under the influence of temperature.

  • Is herbal preparation too difficult for the average busy person?

It is not difficult, but first it takes time to become familiar with the basic principles of processing. However, herbs bought in a herbal medicine store only require preparation of an infusion or decoction, which is not laborious. There are also ready-made mixtures and extracts that we can use.

  • Can herbs be harmful and when?

We can have allergies to some herbs, such as chamomile, which can fight allergies, but also make them feel bad. The following herbs are allergic: mullein, rue and St. John's wort, which is an excellent herb with a very broad spectrum of activity. However, we also need to become familiar with when it cannot be used. Some herbs must not be consumed in excess, but only periodically, for example, common drinking nettle can cause vitamin B1 deficiency in the body, so it is worth supplementing it.

  • You could indicate your pubic herb - in terms of its multiplicity of uses and activities - which is also one of those easily accessible toeveryone?

My pubic herbs are comfrey and St. John's wort. Both are a bit controversial, but work perfectly. Every spring and autumn, I dig up the comfrey root and prepare a glycerine-alcohol macerate for use in ointments for pain and regeneration of the spine, knee joints, and tennis elbow. I use the leaves and flowers to make acetic macerate, based on apple cider vinegar - with the addition of tansy it is great for leg swelling, pain, bruises (additionally with arnica flower).

Comfrey and St. John's wort make cosmetic extracts which I use as part of the water phase in the cream as they help to moisturize the skin.

Comfrey should not be used internally because of the pyrrolizidine alkaloids found in them, which damage the liver in the long run. However, I always have a small jar of comfrey root glycerin extract in case of a tiring, dry cough. Nothing can get rid of it that quickly, 2 teaspoons a day for 2-3 days is enough and we can forget about coughing. In turn, St. John's wort is an excellent herb for external use - it has a strong analgesic effect, heals wounds, burns, but we must remember that if we use it on the skin, we should not expose it to sunlight, because St. John's wort is a photosensitizing plant.

  • Can you name your greatest herbal success? What ailment did the herbs work on?

I have several such charms. Certainly, the action of alcoholic extract of hazel, St. John's wort, comfrey - he immediately coped with the burn. Another success is my ointment for pain - comfrey, St. John's wort, resin, poplar and propolis. I prepare each extract separately and mix them together in the right proportions, the result is an ointment that always amazes me with its power of action. It's meant for rheumatic pains, neuralgia, but she has also de alt with my sinus headache recently. I was really amazed at this. I also have another perfect product - a mixture consisting of self-made propolis and viviparous juice - it is able to chase away an infection that begins.

  • Do you consider herbs to be a safe supplement to conventional medicine?

Definitely yes, but first you have to read a bit about them to know in what amounts to use them, how to prepare macerates, how to protect yourself from pathogens.

Małgorzata Kaczmarczyk's book "Herbs for Taste, He alth and Beauty" was published by the Samo Sedno publishing house.Poradnikzdrowie.pl is the media patron of this book. We recommend!

Category:

Alternative medicine