Juniper

Juniper is an evergreen shrub or tree - the only representative of the cypress family in the North. The Russian name comes from the word "mezh - spruce forest". True, there are other interpretations: from the words "mozg", and such Old Slavonic "mozhzha" - a knot. This shrub is also called heather, juniper, bruzhzhevelnik, grouse berries. It also has another name - orderly No. 1, it received it because it really cleans the air from toxic gaseous substances and microorganisms like a pump. Among the Slavs, juniper branches became a symbol of overcoming death, eternal life. Juniper branches were burned at funerals, or covered the last path of the deceased, as if protecting him. Juniper was smoked after an enemy - so that he would not return, during epidemics houses and roads were fumigated with juniper - so that "black impurity" would not fall on a person. From evil spirits, unclean forces they protected themselves and their farms with juniper branches, consecrated in the church. In the old days, a Russian peasant drove his cattle out to pasture in the spring with a juniper branch: it, they say, will protect the animals from diseases and all sorts of misfortunes. There was a lot of rationality in these rituals, if you take into account the disinfecting properties of the plant. In warehouses with furs fumigated with juniper, moths did not live. Meat, fish: smoked on juniper needles, were preserved longer. Dairy dishes, barrels, tubs for pickles, steamed with juniper, became almost sterile. Traps and pitfalls rubbed with juniper needles did not smell like humans.

 

For medicinal purposes, ripe cones - berries - are usually collected - fleshy, spherical, blue-violet, almost black in color, with a gray waxy coating. They taste sweet and spicy with a pleasant smell. The berries contain a lot of sugar (glucose), essential oils, resins, organic acids, mineral salts, wax, phytoncides, vitamins C, B (thiamine), riboflavin, etc., many microelements.

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