Such a familiar lilac, composition and useful properties of flowers. Potential harm when consumed. How inflorescences are eaten, what dishes are prepared. Interesting facts about the famous plant. Lilac flowers are widely used as an ingredient in home cosmetics. They are introduced into masks to eliminate increased pigmentation, reduce pores, soften the skin, smooth wrinkles and retain precious moisture.
Contraindications and harm of lilac flowers
Oral products with lilac flowers should be used very carefully, not exceeding the dosage, since one of the ingredients of the chemical composition is hydrocyanic acid. Abuse can provoke intoxication, which is quite severe. Spasms of the bronchial branches, respiratory failure, swelling of the soft tissues of the larynx, diarrhea may appear.
With individual intolerance and used as cosmetic or external medicines, the allergy passes much easier and is limited to itching, irritation of the skin, and eye pain.
But harm from lilac flowers when applied externally is rare. Individual intolerance is detected during flowering, and then they refuse to use it for food or for medicinal purposes.
Contraindications to the use of inflorescences: frequent constipation, renal and liver failure, hormonal disorders that cause changes in the menstrual cycle. You should not use a medicinal plant in the treatment of pregnant women, children under 12 years old, or introduce them to a new taste up to 5 years old. In babies, metabolic processes are accelerated, in children under 12 years of age and pregnant women, the hormonal status, which affects metabolic processes in the body, has not been established.
You cannot put a bouquet of lilacs in the room where you sleep. The aroma is so strong and irritating that it can provoke vasospasm in the head and a severe migraine attack.
How lilac flowers are eaten
Not everyone likes the flower taste. It is very interesting - bittersweet, with a tart aftertaste, but too specific. But even small children know how to eat lilac flowers - they look for an inflorescence with five petals and swallow without even drinking it.
A handful of raw flowers, as already mentioned, will not bring happiness, but will cause poisoning. Therefore, before being introduced into the diet, they must be soaked in cold water for 3-5 hours or boiled for 15-20 minutes. This is the only way to completely get rid of hydrocyanic acid.
To preserve the beneficial properties, panicle inflorescences are plucked whole, tied in bunches and dried in the shade, hung on ropes or laid out in one layer on a pallet covered with a clean cloth. Flowers are torn off after drying. Fresh lilacs are also collected, first the brushes, and only then the petals are separated from the sepals.
Lilac flower recipes
From the inflorescences of the plant, you can cook syrup and jam, add them as an ingredient in desserts. But flowers are not introduced into salads or hot dishes. To experience a slightly bitter sweetness when combined with other foods, you need a lot of them. And abuse, as already mentioned, causes intoxication. Recipes with lilac flowers:
- Jelly … A can of 0.5 liters is tightly clogged with petals. Then the color is poured into an enamel container, poured over with hot water for 3 hours. Squeeze the soaked inflorescences, pour in 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Mix 0.5 kg of granulated sugar and 6 g of pectin, spread in squeezed lilac, grind and cook for 2 minutes until the sugar has completely melted. Cool first at room temperature and then in the refrigerator. You can eat it like a marmalade, only then it is pre-poured into molds.
- Lilac sugar … Dried flowers are laid out in a jar, sprinkled with sugar. Store in the refrigerator. Can be added to pastries for baking and to tea instead of sugar.
- Jam … The flowers are poured with boiling water, boiled for 15 minutes, allowed to cool and discarded in a colander. The flower mass is squeezed out (the juice is not poured out), weighed, mixed with the same amount of sugar and boiled, stirring constantly, until it melts. Then the juice is added, boiled for another 20 minutes. If there is not enough liquid, add. Just before turning off, add lemon juice, bring to a boil and remove from heat. The juice mutes the bitterness and improves the aroma.
- Ice cream … 4 inflorescences of light lilac are washed under running water, dried on a paper towel, and then the flowers are separated from the sepals. Pour a glass of milk and 33% cream into an enameled ladle, add 2/3 cup of sugar, bring to a boil and add flowers. As soon as the mixture boils, remove from heat and cool, first at room temperature and then in the refrigerator. Lilac cold milk is poured into a blender bowl, whipped, maple syrup is poured in, 2 tablespoons. Put it back in the freezer again. Leave for an hour, interrupt again with a blender and only then pour into a mold, where it is finally frozen. When served, it can be combined with chocolate or coffee ice cream.
The medicinal properties of lilac flowers are not preserved after heat treatment. But the use, too, can not be limited, if you are not afraid to get better. Alkaloids are completely destroyed.
Lilac flower drink recipes
Drinks from plant inflorescences have an interesting taste and rich color. Recipes:
- Impregnation syrup … 600 g of flowers (this is approximately 12-14 branches of terry large lilacs) are separated from the sepals, washed, and the liquid is allowed to drain. Boil syrup - 0.5 kg of sugar for 0.5 liters of water. Flowers are poured into syrup and boiled for 20-25 minutes over low heat, so as not to "gurgle". If the lilac is dark, then the syrup will turn out to be black. Lemon will help improve the color and taste. The juice of a whole lemon is poured into the purple lilac syrup after 5 minutes from the start of boiling, from the light one - enough juice of the half. The boiled syrup is poured into jars and stored in the refrigerator.
- Tincture of lilac flowers … A 1/3 liter jar is filled with flowers, they are carefully tamped, left for 3-4 hours. Then add sugar, 250 mg, mix thoroughly and pour vodka to the brim. Cover with gauze on top, put a plate. No tight cover required. Insist for a month in the dark, checking periodically. Bubbles will appear - sugar is added. The gauze is changed as it gets wet. No need to stir. The finished tincture is filtered and poured into a bottle with a narrow neck, which can be sealed with a tight cork. The tincture is not medicinal, drinking. It tastes like liquor.
- Tonic drink … Lilac inflorescences are poured into a liter jar, about 2 fingers above the bottom level, and poured with cold water. In the morning, the liquid is decanted by squeezing the flowers. Add a slice of lemon and ice cubes before drinking. You can dilute fruit juices or add strong alcohol instead of tonic.
Interesting facts about lilac flowers
Naturalist Karl Linnaeus was the first to describe the fragrant plant and gave it the name "lilac" in honor of the ancient Greek goddess Syringa, "responsible" for joy and family idyll.
In Europe, lilacs were first planted in the 16th century and the plant was called "Turkish viburnum". It was appreciated for its decorative properties, fragrance and unpretentiousness. The plant is not afraid of frost, easily tolerates drought or flooding. Even vandals who cut branches mercilessly do no harm. The number of flowering brushes will double next year.
Hungarian lilacs do not smell, although the flowers look the same as the rest of the varieties. But white is so fragrant that the bodies of the deceased were covered with bouquets of it in order to interrupt the smell of death. Because of this, white lilacs were treated with prejudice for a very long time, not allowing them to be brought into the home. It was believed that such a bouquet is for the deceased.
In England, a bouquet of lilacs was handed to the groom as a sign of refusal, like a pumpkin in Ukraine.
Russian peasants believed that the scent of lilacs attracted kikimor, and if they planted a plant, then away from the porch. A flower with five petals, according to legend, brings good luck, but if you pick a branch on which there are several flowers with three petals, it is unfortunately.
Do not eat more than 3-5 "lucky" flowers at a time. Diarrhea may interfere with desire.
Lilac oil made from purple flowers soothes the nerves and helps relieve insomnia. From white - relaxes and prevents the development of depression, from lilac - increases sensitivity and sensuality.
The recipe for making a beneficial oil: the flowers are tamped tightly in a glass jar, poured with oil so that it reaches the top. Leave for a day. Then the flowers are drained, and the oil is heated, again poured into a jar with tamped flowers. The operation is repeated as many times as necessary to obtain a fragrant oil. It is applied to the projection of the pulse and lymph nodes on the neck, closer to the collarbones.
Do not give up the opportunity to make oil from lilac flowers. The pleasant aroma will remind you of spring all year round. Lilac blooms in late May - early June.
Watch a video about lilac flowers:
