Linden Heart-shaped.

Heart-shaped linden: properties and applications

Linden (Tilia cordata) is a large deciduous tree belonging to the linden family. Its height can reach 25 meters, and its trunk is slender and its crown is wide. Young trees have olive or red-brown bark, while older trees become darker. The cordate linden is widespread in the forest and forest-steppe zones of the European part of Russia, in the Crimea, the Caucasus, the Southern Urals and Western Siberia.

The leaves of linden are heart-shaped without stipules, alternate, heart-shaped at the base, finely serrated along the edge, and the blade is entire. Linden blooms in June-July; its pale yellow fragrant flowers are collected in semi-umbrellas and have membranous bracts. The linden fruit is a nut that ripens in August-September.

Linden cordate is an excellent honey plant, and is also used as a tea substitute and for spring vitamin salad. Its flowers with their bracts serve as medicinal raw materials. They are collected in the flowering phase. At a later date, the raw material loses its medicinal properties. Harvesting linden flowers lasts 10-15 days, depending on the weather. To collect raw materials, you must use a ladder and a lopper. Small branches with abundant flowers can be cut with pruning shears.

The raw materials are dried immediately after collection under a canopy, in a ventilated room, in the attic or in a dryer at a temperature of 40-50°C, spread in a layer of 3-5 cm. Readiness is determined by the fragility of the peduncles. Linden cannot be dried in the sun. The smell of the finished raw material is aromatic, the taste is sweetish, slightly astringent. It is stored in a wooden container for 2 years.

Linden raw materials contain essential oil, flavone glycoside hesperidin, saponins, mucus, carotene, ascorbic acid, tannins and phytoncides. An infusion of flowers has a calming effect on the nervous system, moderately reduces blood viscosity, increases the secretion of urine, bile and gastric contents, and has diaphoretic, expectorant and antimicrobial properties. It is taken for colds, coughs, as an auxiliary diaphoretic for influenza and acute bronchitis, as well as for kidney diseases and childhood infectious diseases. An infusion of linden flowers can be used to make tea or as an additive to bath water.

Linden cordate is also used in cosmetology. Its extract has moisturizing properties and helps improve skin condition, making it a popular ingredient in cosmetics.

In addition, the cordate linden tree is used in logging, and its wood is used for the production of furniture, parquet, plywood, firewood and other products.

In conclusion, the cordate linden is a useful and versatile tree that has numerous uses in medicine, cosmetology, food processing and forestry.