Siberian shiksha, Altai broth, psycho, black siksha, bagovka, Lopar berry, black raven, berry berry, black black caviar, veris, bear berry, swamp and many others - all of these are the names of a single medicinal plant that belongs to the shrubs of the Heather family. This bush also has another title - “dear grass”, because people appreciated its ability to heal many ailments.
Botanical description: description
Altai Vodyanica - an evergreen and very beautiful shrub that looks like small fir-trees strewn with black, round berries-beads. The branches of the plant creep on the surface of the earth or rocky soil. On the branches grow small leaves, similar to the needles of spruce, which keep on the plant to five years. Shrubs are in height from 20 centimeters to one meter. 
The plant itself can remain viable for up to one hundred years. The Latin name of the plant Émpetrum means "on the stone", which indicates the conditions of its growth. And the name "floozy" says that the plant has a pronounced diuretic property.
Did you know? By the diuretic effect on the body, siksa can be compared to watermelon.It blooms from April-June (depending on the region) with small flowers that have three petals of bright pink color, but sometimes there are flowers and a deep red color. Berries about 5 millimeters in size, sourish taste, very juicy, in each berry there are up to 8-9 seeds. When ripe, the berries are similar to blueberries due to gray-gray spraying, but their skin is tougher than blueberries. Ripen at the end of the summer, but may persist on the shrub throughout the winter.
Find out more about such medicinal plants as: meer, three-leaf watch, walker, onosma, creeping gobbler, centaury, astragalus, bonfire, bedstraw, Lesopida, serpentine head, sedge, book fox, pike, umbrella of winter time, yasnotka and bison.
Spread
Black Shiksha is a plant known in the world. It loves cool climatic zones with mountain slopes and tundra. It settles even in the arctic polar zone. The bush also prefers swampy areas in coniferous forests and wherever there are mosses with wet soils. It can be found in both the Southern and the Northern Hemispheres. It also grows in Scandinavian countries, Great Britain, Europe, China, on the Japanese islands, in Mongolia, as well as in Canada, the USA and Chile. In Russia, it is found in the mountainous areas of Altai, Kuriles, and Kamchatka, as well as in the Sayan Mountains and in the Siberian expanses.
Chemical composition
The whole plant (branches, leaves, berries) has a rich vitamin composition:
- Most of all it contains Vitamin C (several times more than in lemon), rutin, carotene, quercetin.
- A lot of carbohydrates, tannins (about 4.5%), resins, essential oils, glycosides, sugars.
- Found in the leaves of caffeic acid, which increases immunity, as well as flavonoids, coumarins and alkaloids, and in berries - fructose, sucrose, wax, saponins, glucose. There is manganese and other trace elements.
Read also the benefits of cherry leaves, currants, blueberries, raspberries, lingonberries, thyme and mint.
Medicinal properties of shiksha
Siberian shiksha or psycho found its deserved place in folk healing. It is capable of treating diseases of the nervous system, mental disorders, as an anticonvulsant. It is used for stress, depression and sleep disorders. This herbal doctor eliminates headaches and migraines, chronic fatigue, fights nervous exhaustion.
This herb is considered to be a worthy auxiliary in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction, withdrawal syndrome, and especially in cases of manic-depressive conditions. Radioprotective properties make shiksh indispensable in the treatment of radiation sickness, as well as a prophylactic agent for the withdrawal of radionuclides from the population living in adverse areas. 
Preparations from flooderbs have a diuretic, hypotensive, antiseptic and choleretic effect. It has also proven itself as a flooder and as an anti-edema drug for problems with gallbladder and kidney diseases, such as pyelonephritis, cystitis, and dropsy. Heals the plant problems of the stomach and intestines: enteritis, colitis, gastritis, diarrhea, dysentery, liver damage. Due to the rich vitamin composition, shiksha will help people with scurvy.
Did you know? In Tibet, with the help of this herb and its berries, they learned how to cure even anthrax.As a powerful energotonik and vitamin remedy, Vodnik helps with loss of strength and vitamin deficiency after suffering severe illnesses. Her decoction and infusion serve as prevention of iron deficiency anemia. Regularly taking drugs from this plant, you can normalize blood pressure, help the heart and blood vessels to work in a normal rhythm.
In diseases of the cardiovascular system, plants such as carrots, radishes, hawthorn, basil, eggplants, aconite, hazelnut and gumi are also used.Infusion on the grass is useful for people with dry eye syndrome (for washing), working at a computer. It will relieve fatigue in the eyes and will have a beneficial effect on vision. The infusion is recommended for glaucoma, cataracts and eye injuries. For external use, shiksha is used in cosmetology for hair care, treatment of dermatological diseases such as allergies, rashes, acne. Grass contributes to the healing of ulcers and wounds on the skin.
Application buzzard
As already mentioned, this plant is used in the national treatment of diseases, cosmetology, culinary use, for gardening and in other industries. 
In medicine
In folk medicine, the collector has been widely used, and in official medicine its pharmacological and chemical effects on the body are not fully investigated and not fully understood. Although clinical studies still show that this plant is effective in nervous diseases, with epileptic seizures, schizophrenia, paralysis, hypertension, tick-borne encephalitis, poor sleep and memory disorders, migraines and fatigue.
It has also been experimentally proven that drugs from flooding can prevent the development of epileptic seizures, have a protective effect on diseases of the stomach, can strengthen the immune system and increase resistance to infections, help produce energy. For medicinal purposes, shiksha is harvested at the beginning of fruiting and the entire ground part of the plant is used. From it prepare healing infusions, teas and decoctions, which are discussed below.
Did you know? Shiksha berries can quench their thirst. This knowledge is useful to those people who travel in northern areas.
In cosmetology
For cosmetic purposes, shiksha is used mainly for strengthening and growth of hair due to its rich vitamin composition, an invaluable natural source of moisture, a variety of trace elements, alkaloids and tannins, and also oils and resins. Broths from the leaves, as well as ready-made shampoos, which are produced by the cosmetic industry, have a therapeutic and prophylactic effect on the condition of the hair. These remedies restore the hair structure, strengthen the roots, make the hair strong, moisturized and silky, eliminate dandruff and itching. 
For the skin of the face and neck are used husks from the plant itself, as well as the juice of the berries. They are added in the form of components with other ingredients in the composition of vitamin masks. Masks are used for acne and pimples. Below we give a few recipes for the preparation of healing potions from this useful plant in order to use them for cosmetic purposes and in the treatment of diseases.
In cooking
Vitaminized juices, compotes and teas, desserts in the form of marmalade can be made from vodyany berries, they serve as a filling in baking. Jams, marmalades and jams are made from it, which will support the body in the winter during colds. It is possible to use the logger with kefir, yogurt or milk. Also berries can tint drinks and creams for cakes and pastries.
Did you know? Indigenous northerners are very fond of the tolkushka dish, which is made from siksha, blubber (seal fat) and fish. And berries infused with vodka are an excellent liqueur for the holiday table.Low-sour taste of these berries goes well with meat and fish dishes.
In gardening
Shiksha is getting accustomed to well enough on the private plots. It looks beautiful in combination with other plants on the alpine hills. For this it is necessary to provide the plant with sufficient light and good groundwater drainage. 
Before planting the shrub, the soil needs to be dug up, removing all the roots of the weeds. Then add to it in equal quantities of black soil and sand. After that, make small pits and make sure that the planting system does not plunge the root system into the soil to a depth of more than two centimeters.
Important! It is best to take plants from the nursery, and not from the tundra, otherwise it may die due to a sharp change of soils and the environment.Shiksha care is quite simple: you need to weed the soil at least once a season from weeds and ensure periodic watering. It is advisable to make fertilizer from nitroammofoski (50 g per 1 sq. Meter). In the spring, you need to prune last year's shoots.
In other areas
The pigment anthocyanin is present in the grape berries, therefore natural dyes are made from them for dyeing the skin and wool in a red-cherry color. These berries are a delicacy for wild animals, from which they receive all the nutrients and vitamins necessary for their vital activity. No wonder shiksha called bear grass. During its maturation, several individuals of these forest sweets can gather at the feast at the same time.
Possible harm
Definitely you can not use drugs from Shiksha to people with individual intolerance to individual elements that are part of it. It is fraught with allergic manifestations.
Important! Vodanika treatment as a folk remedy should be carried out after a medical examination and be accompanied by the advice of the attending physician.
Contraindications
Pregnant women and nursing mothers should better refrain from using it because of the possible effect on the brain and nervous system of the mother and child.
Collection, preparation and storage of berries
It is necessary to collect the vodnik berries after they are fully ripe, approximately in the middle of September. The collected fruits should be folded in a glass dish with sealed lids and stored in the refrigerator. Because of the benzoic acid contained in them, putrefactive processes are suppressed, therefore the preservation of berries throughout the winter is guaranteed.
Familiarize yourself with the subtleties of preparation for the winter of gooseberry, yoshta, bilberry, cranberry, black chokeberry, cornel and viburnum.Still harvested fruit, using freezing, and the berries do not freeze together with each other. Also soaked and soaked fruits that lay in barrels, where they are well preserved thanks to the same benzoic acid. Good and dry the fruit.
Here are three ways to make it:
- Freezing - Pick up the collected berries in a single layer on a linen towel, sort from the leaves of the needles and twigs and put in the freezer. After freezing, pour into glass containers or tubs and store in a cold closet.
- Urination - After harvesting, rinse and sort the berries, pour them into a barrel placed in a cold room, and pour with spring water or purified bottled water.
- In the form of juice - Wash the fruit, put it in a juicer and squeeze the juice. The finished product is poured into sterilized jars with sealed lids and stored in a cool place.
Healing Drugs Recipes
As already emphasized, Floret is successfully used in traditional medicine. For infusions, decoctions, tea and tinctures use its leaves, flowers and fruits.
Tea
You need to take 4 tablespoons of dry chopped herbs and pour one liter of cold water. Let it simmer and cool slightly. Take one glass once a day: for kidney diseases in the morning, and as a tonic after overwork - in the evening.
Tincture
Tincture can be prepared in two ways.
- The first - in a half-liter jar to impose the top dry or fresh grass, but do not ram. Pour 300 ml of vodka, insist for ten days, shaking occasionally. Strain. Take one teaspoon with epilepsy after a meal.
- Second - 100 g of dry grass pour 1 l of dry red wine. Insist two weeks in a dark and cool place, often shaking. The remainder must be pressed. Drink 30 ml three times a day 30 minutes before meals. Indications: headaches due to overwork, depression, neurotic states.
Decoction
A decoction of shiksha has a wide range of applications.
- For acne and acne: 1 tbsp. l raw materials pour 400 ml boiling water. Hold in a water bath for 15 minutes, strain. Use as a lotion. Such a decoction will be effective in the treatment of boils (to make lotions) and for washing wounds.
- From migraine: 2 tbsp. l Shiksha herbs pour half a liter of boiling water, then over low heat for 5-7 minutes. Insist 40 minutes, wrapped in a towel. Strain. Reception: 4 tbsp. l - 5 times a day.
- From epilepsy: 60 pieces of vodniki berries pour 1 cup boiling water, hold in a water bath for 30 minutes, leave to infuse overnight. Take: adults - 1 tbsp. l - 7 times a day (from 8 am to 20 pm), regardless of the meal; children - 1 tsp.
- From the effects of alcoholism and drug addiction: 4 tbsp. l dry powdered herbs pour 1 liter of whey from milk, bring to a boil. Then pour this broth into a thermos and let it brew for some time. Intake regimen: 1 glass 5 times a day.
- From convulsions, paralysis, restless sleep: 1 tbsp. l herbs pour 0.5 liters of boiling water and simmer for 5 minutes. Take: 3 sips 6 times a day for two days. Then pour boiling water over the broth and continue the treatment according to the same scheme. You need to do this while the decoction is still green.
Infusion
The infusion is prepared practically, like a decoction, only skipping the process of languor in a water bath. Because of this, the resulting agent may not be so concentrated. Infusions are applied both in cosmetology and in medicine.
- Dandruff: 4 tbsp. l Herbs pour 400-500 ml of boiling water and let stand for one hour. Then strain and rinse hair immediately after washing.
- For eye diseases (dry eye syndrome, cataracts, glaucoma): 1 tbsp. l dry grass steamed in 2 tbsp. l boiling water, cool, squeeze. Scheme of reception: bury 2-3 drops in the lower eyelid 6 times a day. The duration of treatment is up to three months.
As you can see, a siksa or flooder is an inexhaustible source of nutrients for people and animals in a harsh climate. By eating and treating, you can remain healthy, vigorous for a long time and significantly increase the life expectancy.
