Rosehip has long been recognized as a plant with amazing properties. In fact, every family knew how useful rosehip was, how to brew it and how to drink it, therefore, every year in September-October, ripe red berries were collected and given to children with delicious syrup, strengthening their immune system and stimulating growth. Even the ancient Slavs believed that it symbolizes youth and beauty, and considered it sacred.
Why did our grandmothers single out rose hips among other plants? To understand, let's take a closer look. The main and indisputable advantage of rose hips is that it contains a record amount of vitamin C (ascorbic acid), three times higher than in a foreign delicacy - lemon and two than in blackcurrant.
Rosehip is not deprived of vitamins B, A, K, E and P. It is worth mentioning that the plant also contains trace elements that are so important for the proper functioning of the body: magnesium, phosphorus, fluorine, calcium, iron, chromium, sodium and potassium. The petals of the shrub contain oils that have anti-inflammatory, astringent and bactericidal effects.
And the branches and roots contain an incredible amount of tannins, which are very necessary for the body as a hemostatic, astringent and bactericidal agent that reduces inflammation in the gastric mucosa.
Apparently, just for this reason, our ancestors used rose hips to strengthen the body, as well as to treat anemia, strengthen the heart and blood vessels, with digestive disorders and problems with the genitourinary system. Last but not least, it is worth mentioning that it is able to stop bleeding, inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria, reduce high blood pressure, eliminate kidney failures, accelerate tissue regeneration and promote the healing of broken bones.
The list of the listed possibilities of the plant is far from complete, you can talk about the healing properties of this miracle of nature for a long time, but let's not forget that in order to use it to the maximum, you need to figure out what rosehip is, how to brew and how to drink decoctions and infusions from various parts of this unique plant.
How to brew wild rose
Rosehip can be recycled in several ways. The most famous and familiar to us is brewing. However, here the question arises - will the vitamins be preserved in the finished drink, because experts have long proven that many fruits do not tolerate cooking well. When boiling, vitamins are lost, in addition, the original taste and aesthetic appearance of the fruit are lost.
Imagine how many nutrients you will lose. So, you ask, is it impossible to cook a rosehip decoction? Nothing like this! It is necessary to combine the reception of a decoction with an infusion, thus obtaining the maximum benefit. A healthy body needs a certain dose of vitamin C per day.
Surprisingly, only 15 berries contain just such an amount. However, keep in mind - an excess of vitamin C is as harmful as its deficiency is dangerous. So do not try to drink as much as possible of a healing drink per day, the main thing is not to forget about its daily intake in certain proportions.
How to brew fresh rosehip
drink from freshly picked wild rose, naturally, the most fragrant and healthy. But unfortunately, the opportunity to cook it appears only 1-2 weeks a year, during the harvest period.
- If the berries are soft, we simply wipe them through a sieve, making sure that the villi do not get into the finished gruel, which in some people can cause allergies, irritation or uncomfortable sensations in the throat. We put the resulting gruel in a thick-walled container, pour it with boiling water, cover with a lid and go to watch colorful dreams. After 6-7 hours, the decoction is ready for use.
- Cut each rosehip berry in half, put in a mortar and knead well. In crushed form, rose hips will share their vitamins with you faster and better. Pour two tablespoons of crushed berries into a thermos and dilute with hot water - 400 mg per 1 spoon. (The water temperature in this case can be about 60 degrees). Insist 7 hours. When finished, be sure to strain through cheesecloth, preferably twice, to remove the villi.
Brewed rose hips should be drunk without exceeding the norm - one cup a day, can be divided into 2-3 doses. If you drink a drink in the morning, add lemon juice to a cup. If you want to drink a healthy infusion in the evening, it would be ideal to dilute it with a spoonful of honey. During brewing, you can also add strawberries, currants, apple slices or blueberries to the wild rose, which will make the broth even more nutritious and tasty. - For 1 liter of water you need 30 rose hips and 3 ripe apples. Boil everything for 15-20 minutes, adding a sweetener and a little fragrant cinnamon. You will get a great compote. And if you add a little citric acid to such a decoction, then you can safely roll it into jars and drink it all winter, replenishing the lack of vitamins in the body on cold, snowy evenings.
How to brew dried rose hips
Dried rose hips are certainly more convenient for making drinks. It keeps well for a long time.
The process of preparing dried rose hips is much easier than fresh ones: just select good berries, pass them through a meat grinder and boldly start brewing.
Pay attention to the choice of dishes for preparing a decoction. Rosehip contains a lot of organic substances, which, reacting with metals, especially aluminum, corrode it. For this reason, it is desirable to use dishes made of glass, ceramic or enameled iron.
There is also more than one way to brew dried rose hips:
- Boiling rose hips in boiling water
Cut ten berries in half and put in a saucepan, add 400 milliliters of heated water and start heating. When the water reaches 100 degrees, open the lid and heat for another 3 minutes. Add some dry rosehip petals to the pan and let sit for 15 to 20 minutes. Then strain through a fine mesh sieve. Our great-grandmothers called such a drink a broth and drank it as tea. Along with rosehip petals, blackberry, strawberry, currant or lemon balm leaves were put in such tea. - Water bath cooking
In 200 mg of hot (approximately 50-60 degrees) water, put 1 tablespoon of processed rose hips. Place in a water bath and let it steam over a minimum heat for a quarter of an hour. Then cover the broth with a thick cloth and let it brew for 3 hours. - Prolonged cooling in a warm place
If there is no desire to suffer with a water bath, you can do it easier - pour Art. a spoonful of prepared rose hips 400 mg of hot (about 90 degrees) water in a jar. Cover with a lid, insulate well and leave warm for 5-6 hours. The cooled and strained broth can, if desired, be sweetened with sugar, honey or your favorite jam. - Brewing with a thermos.
For this method, you can take whole rose hips. We scald the thermos with boiling water, pour 1 tbsp. spoon with a slide of berries and pour 400 mg of boiling water. We leave for the night. By dawn, the infusion will be ready, all that remains is to enjoy the fragrant drink, not forgetting to strain it.
How to brew rosehip roots - 2 tbsp. boil spoons of roots in a water bath for three hours, adding 400 mg of water and, from time to time, adding boiled water to replenish the volume. Decoction to feast on 1/2 cup half an hour before meals.
How to brew rosehip flowers
Along with useful substances, rosehip flowers have a special, delicious aroma. Such a decoction is perfect as an addition to simple tea or as an independent drink. Pour 1 tbsp. a spoonful of flowers 200 mg of boiling water and hold for 15 minutes. You can enjoy an infusion of wild rose flowers throughout the day at any time.
How to make rosehip tincture at home
For tincture, it is desirable to use high-quality luxury vodka. You can insist on dried or fresh rose hips. But keep in mind - from fresh berries, the tincture will be slightly cloudy and it will have to be filtered several times.
From dry berries, the finished product will taste like dried fruits. The most ideal for tincture are slightly dried, within three to four days, rose hips. Then the taste and color will be harmonious.
Having started making the tincture, be patient, because the finished product will have to wait more than 1 day.
1 glass of fruit pour 0.5 liters. vodka. Send to a shaded place at a temperature slightly above room temperature. After half a month, filter the tincture, store in a tightly sealed glass container in the cold. You can experiment with taste - add lemon or orange zest, coarse coffee beans.
How to drink rosehip
A carefully made drink from a miracle shrub given to us by nature, whether it is a decoction of berries, roots or flowers, must be consumed correctly. Like any medicine, it is recommended to drink it not constantly, but in courses.
For health problems, people over 12 years old can drink one and a half liters of decoction per day. For healthy people, two glasses will be enough to support the immune system.
- Tots up to 6 months - no more than 100 ml per day
- From 6 months to 2 years - a maximum of 200 ml per day
- from 2 to 4 years - 300 ml
- from 4 to 6 years - 400 ml
- from 6 to 8 - 500 ml
- 8-10 years - maximum 600 ml.
It is necessary to give children a decoction between feedings, not on an empty stomach, since the work of the esophagus and gastrointestinal tract can be disrupted.
Having thoroughly examined the wild rose, how to brew and how to drink this miracle berry, let's turn our eyes to other parts of the shrub. Consider what other miraculous drugs can be obtained from the progenitor of a garden rose.
Rosehip oil
Rosehip oil is called "Liquid Sun" because of its unique cosmetic properties. The oil is obtained by direct pressing from the seeds. Used by cosmetologists to rejuvenate the skin, fight acne and inflammation. It is added to creams and face masks.
Rosehip oil is also taken orally for the treatment of gastritis, anemia, atheroskerosis and acute respiratory infections.
Dog-rose fruit
The most useful decoctions, tinctures, teas and compotes are made from rose hips. It is quite difficult to get vitamins from them, so before preparing drinks, you need to familiarize yourself with the rules for processing fruits. The use of various decoctions of berries for weight loss is widespread, since they tend to reduce appetite. They are also used to treat various diseases and strengthen the immune system.
rosehip root
Apply dry, not forgetting to grind, to speed up the process. Tannins help to normalize digestion and cure urolithiasis and cholelithiasis.
How to drink brewed rosehip
To be healthy and strong, every adult should consume 1 glass of infusion daily. For children under 12 years old, half of this norm will be enough. The reception schedule is extremely simple - we drink 2 weeks, a week break.
For a tonic effect, the decoction should be drunk in the morning, before breakfast. If a choleretic effect is needed, the daily rate should be divided into 3 times and drunk 20 minutes before meals. But a cold is treated by taking a warm remedy before bedtime, with the addition of honey.
Rosehip contraindications and harm
Remember that for all its usefulness, rosehip, like any drug, has its contraindications. Of course, first of all, you need to remember that even a completely healthy person, an excess of vitamin C in the body can harm. Therefore, decoctions and infusions should be taken in moderation. With frequent use, rose hips can damage tooth enamel, so it is advisable to rinse your mouth after taking decoctions.
During pregnancy, breastfeeding, as well as babies, rose hips should be drunk extremely moderately and after consulting with a doctor.
Serious contraindications are high or low blood pressure, gastric and duodenal ulcers, endocarditis, hypertension, heart disease and increased blood clotting.
Before eating rosehip products, find out if you are allergic to ascorbic acid.
Be healthy and remember that mother nature always takes care of us, the main thing is to be able to use her gifts, one of which was described above.
Rosehip is a shrub of the Rosaceae family, which is widely used in folk medicine. For the preparation of various tinctures, drinks, compresses, etc. not only rose hips are used, but also its leaves, branches, flowers and even roots. But still the most popular are rose hips. We will tell you today how to brew and drink them.
How to brew dried rose hips?
Most often, when talking about how to brew rosehip tea, it is understood that it is dry rosehip that will be brewed. How to brew tea in this case? There are several ways.
Method one. Obtaining an infusion of wild rose
For this you need a thermos. If you don’t have one, or it’s not the right size, then you can build a thermos yourself. To do this, you need to take an ordinary jar (volume does not matter), a plastic lid and some kind of blanket or large towel to wrap the jar. But back to the recipe for making rosehip infusion.
To prepare it, you need to take rose hips and water in a ratio of 1:10. That is, if your thermos is designed for 1 liter, then you need to take 100 grams of dry rose hips. This is approximately 4 tablespoons, or about 30 berries. They need to be washed thoroughly. And here the cooking recipe has two alternative options for the further development of events.
You can take whole berries and just pour boiling water over them. The advantage of this method is the absence of villi present inside the berries. But so the taste of wild rose will not be so pronounced.
Or you can chop the berries, and then put them in this form in a thermos and pour boiling water over them. Then the taste will be more saturated, and the rose hips will give the maximum amount of useful substances. But this method of preparation also has disadvantages, namely the presence of villi in the drink. In this case, before drinking, you need to strain the drink through cheesecloth several times, and only then drink it. And you also need to be very careful when chopping fruits. Since the villi can get on the skin, in the eyes and cause unpleasant itching.
In a thermos, you need to insist rose hips for at least 7 hours. Therefore, it is recommended to pour the fruits in the evening, then in the morning you will get a wonderful drink.
Method two. Rosehip decoction
A decoction of rose hips is prepared in the same proportions as the infusion. The easiest option is to simply boil rose hips for 1 hour. In this case, boil them under a closed lid, and periodically add water. Then it is recommended to insist this drink for several more hours. But you can already use it in this form. Be sure to strain the broth through cheesecloth several times before use.
What is the best way to brew fresh rose hips?
To get a healthy drink, you can use fresh rose hips. To do this, you will need 2-3 tablespoons of berries and 1 liter of water. First, we wash the rose hips, then knead it with a fork, or pass it through a meat grinder. But remember that you need to be very careful when doing this, as the hairs can remain on your hands, in a meat grinder, get into your eyes or into another dish. Then we take half a liter of boiling water and fill it with mashed fruits. Cover with a saucer or lid and wrap. After 30-40 minutes, we filter the water, and pour the chopped fruits with the remaining 500 ml of water and boil for 30 minutes. We pass through again. We combine the infusion and rosehip broth, and the drink is ready.
How to brew rose hips during pregnancy or a child?
It is best to use the first method of infusing dry rose hips, and do not knead the fruits. But it should be remembered that 10-15 rose hips contain the daily requirement of vitamin C. Therefore, this drink should not be abused. And if you have prepared an infusion of 30 berries per 1 liter of water, then you can drink no more than 1/3 liter of rosehip infusion per day.
How to brew rosehip root?
A decoction of wild rose roots is prepared as follows. We take 1 tablespoon of crushed rosehip roots and 500 ml of water. Boil the wild rose for 15 minutes, then let it stand for about 10-15 minutes, and then filter.
Rosehip is a wonderful doctor, saving from many ailments. When we pick its bright, pretty berries, we hope that their use will bring maximum benefits to our health. Therefore, it is very important to know how to properly brew and drink rose hips in order to preserve all the vitamins and gain good health.
Berries are used mainly for decoction; both fresh and dried fruits, as well as roots, can be thrown into a saucepan. In brewing rose hips, there are special instructions, without knowing which you can get compote instead of a medicinal drink. Although the compote is also delicious.
But our task is to preserve useful substances, and there is a whole collection of them in rose hips: vitamins (C, E, P), minerals, esters, acids, flavonoids, antioxidants. No wonder people since ancient times use it in the treatment of many diseases. When there were no sciences in the world, people drew conclusions with their own eyes. They saw that rose hips were effective and irreplaceable. It is able to both selectively treat various diseases and strengthen the body's immune system.
Before taking on any rosehip recipe, it must be remembered that its daily dose for the body is 15 berries (about 2 tablespoons of dried fruits).
How to brew dried rose hips
whole berries
The simplest instruction on how to brew dried rose hips consists of just a few points:
- Given the daily dose of berries, you need to remember the proportion: 15 berries plus 2.5 cups of water.
- Berries need to be sorted out, checked for integrity. After all, our task is to preserve the maximum benefit. Pay attention to the color of the fruit: it should be brown, without spots and mold. Signs of overdried and useless berries are black color and excessive friability.
- Berries should be thoroughly washed before preparing the drink.
- For brewing, any enameled bowl, or a regular teapot, is suitable. The container should contain the daily dose.
- The prepared dish must first be scalded with boiling water, and only then dry fruits should be placed in it.
- Pour boiling water over berries. In this case, the water should not be seething. It is recommended to turn off the fire, wait a few minutes and only then pour the berries. This is because capricious vitamin C does not like boiling water, it loses all its beneficial properties as soon as it enters water with a temperature above 80 degrees.
- It is better to brew rosehip in the evening, because it needs a long exposure - up to 10 hours. The vessel must be tightly closed with a lid. If you are brewing in a kettle, you need to plug its spout. And best of all - warmly wrap the container with tea leaves with a towel.
- In the morning, be sure to strain the drink through a strainer or gauze.
The tincture can be completely consumed during the day, if desired, adding sugar or honey to the drink.
How to brew crushed rosehip
A drink made from medicinal fruits is useful and amazing, people appreciate it for its rich taste and a storehouse of vitamins. It turns out that there is a way to make the broth even richer and richer. The secret is in grinding dry berries. With this method, up to 90% of ascorbic acid remains in the broth. Of course, such a drink will also have a drawback - berry villi, which are not very pleasant in the mouth. But they are easily removed from the infusion by straining. If everything is done according to the rules, nothing will stop you from enjoying the benefits of a rich infusion from crushed rose hips.
So, how to brew crushed dried rose hips for drinking
- First you need to grind the berries in a wooden mortar or coffee grinder. You can place them on the table, cover with a towel and lightly beat with a kitchen hammer. Rolling with a bottle will also help. Carefully! Fluff can get into the eyes and cause irritation.
- If you have time, you can immediately remove the villi, but this is jewelry work. Therefore, it is better to leave this procedure for later.
- Similarly to the previous recipe, the crushed fruits must be poured into a scalded bowl and pour boiling water (a few minutes after it stopped bubbling).
- Such a drink is infused for 7-8 hours, after which it is necessary to strain the tincture. But gauze in this case will not work, it will skip most of the villi. You will need a thick, clean cloth.
Root
Rosehip roots can be obtained by yourself or bought at a pharmacy. To prepare a decoction, they will need to be crushed in any way. After that, we prepare the ingredients: 1 tablespoon of chopped roots and half a liter of water. All this must be placed in an enameled saucepan and boiled for about 15 minutes. When cool, strain through cheesecloth.
flowers
Suitable both dry and fresh. They need to be poured with boiling water (just like we brew regular tea) and wait about 30 minutes until they are infused. It is advisable to add various useful herbs to such a drink. With diseases of the gallbladder, such a remedy comes in handy.
fresh berries
About 20 fresh whole berries should be washed and mashed with a fork (or scroll through a meat grinder). Be careful with lint! They are very sticky. Pour mashed fruits with 2 cups of boiling water in an enameled container, cover and wrap with a warm towel for half an hour. By the next moment, you should already have a new portion of boiling water ready in the same amount - 2 cups. Strain the berries, and pour prepared boiling water into a saucepan and put on fire. Boil for half an hour - and the drink is ready.
How to brew rose hips in a thermos to keep all the vitamins
Preparing the infusion in a thermos is very convenient: no need to look for lids and wrap dishes. The thermos will do everything by itself, steaming the berries well in its warm walls, but you need to know some nuances, namely, how to properly brew rosehips in a thermos in order to preserve all the vitamins and nutrients.
- When the fruits are in a thermos filled with boiling water, you need to leave a little air for them so that the drink breathes: this will make the taste fresh and soft.
- For thermos preparation, it is best to grind the berries: this will allow the nutrients to penetrate the drink faster and better.
- More than 8 hours, rose hips should not be in a thermos! Healing properties will begin to leave the drink.
Collecting and harvesting rose hips, we all hope to get the maximum benefit for ourselves. But it is very important to know how to properly brew rose hips in a thermos, or without it, in order to preserve all the vitamins and not lose its beneficial properties. Today I will share with you all the secrets and subtleties of preparing brewed fresh and dried rose hips - decoctions, infusions, tea.
When I talked about useful properties
healing fruits, I said that the vitamins in it are a fragile thing. If it is wrong to collect and store wild rose, as well as prepare it for use, then it is easy to lose what we are harvesting the magic berry for.
It is possible that the resulting drink will be tasty, but there will be no trace of vitamins, so it’s not seriously necessary to talk about the benefits they bring ...
How to brew rosehip
In the preparation of tinctures, drinks and decoctions, traditional healers use not only rose hips, but also root, flowers, leaves and even branches.
And first, let's define the types of healing drinks made from healing fruits:
- Plain tea with the addition of rose hips.
- Fruit decoction.
- Rosehip infusion.
Ordinary tea is just a delicious drink and there is no need to expect a healing effect.
The recipe is simple: add a few fresh or dried berries to your favorite tea (green or black) and brew in the usual way. You will get a pleasant flavor and some vitamins. Also you can cook healthy rosehip syrup
. Read my other article by clicking on the link.
A few tips for the proper brewing of rose hips
There are general rules for brewing rose hips, the observance of which will preserve all the nutrients and bring maximum benefits to the body.
- For a liter of water, take 100 gr. fruits.
- The beneficial properties of infusions last no more than 7 hours, so try to prepare a fresh drink for longer in a thermos).
- The daily dose of decoction or infusion is not more than one liter. Try to use it before meals.
- If you are brewing fresh rose hips, then be sure to rinse them thoroughly before use and remove the villi, if possible. These villi have a rather insidious property: once on the mucous membrane, they can irritate the throat.
- Dried rose hips can be brewed without removing the villi, but it is necessary to rinse off the dirt that has fallen during the drying process.
We brew a decoction
For the treatment of many diseases, traditional healers use rosehip decoctions. To preserve the beneficial properties of brewed rose hips, consider some of the nuances. The method is not very good, because when brewing dried and fresh rose hips, you do not save the maximum of vitamins, since they have to be boiled. And these vitamins do not spare.
With this method, throw the fruits into already boiling water and boil for 15 minutes (the saucepan should be covered with a lid). After the decoction, insist for quite a long time - from three hours to a day. Be sure to strain the decoction.
Usually sugar is not added to the broth, if you can't resist - put a little honey.
We brew the infusion
A huge plus of any infusion is to preserve all the vitamins to the maximum. There are several ways to properly brew rose hips: in a thermos and without a thermos.
Brewing rose hips in a thermos
Any thermos is suitable for brewing infusion.
- If it is small and completely absent, make a container yourself. Pick up a jar that is suitable in volume, cover with a regular nylon lid and wrap it with a blanket - the thermos is ready.
- For a liter container you will need 100 gr. rosehip berries - about four tablespoons (30 fruits). You can do less, but you need to brew rose hips correctly, your goal is to improve your health.
- There are two cooking options. First - pour boiling water over the whole berries. The advantage of this method is that you do not have to clean the fruits from the villi (we are talking about fresh rose hips). The option is also suitable for brewing dry rose hips.
- According to the second option, the berries are crushed and cleaned of villi. It will take more time, but the benefits of the infusion will be as effective as possible. And the taste is much richer. Just before use, be sure to strain the drink, removing the remaining villi.
- You need to insist the drink for at least 7 hours. This infusion has a good choleretic property, so it is extremely useful for people with gastrointestinal disorders to drink it.
Brew rose hips without a thermos
Without a thermos, a drink is made quite simply: rinse fresh berries, cut into pieces, removing the villi. Just wash dried fruits.
- Further tips for preparing the infusion vary. Some sources say: you need to pour boiling water over them, other healers say that the water temperature should not be higher than 60 degrees.
- How you will brew rosehip is up to you. But I choose the second option, keeping the vitamins to the maximum.
You need to infuse the drink for at least 4 hours, but longer is better, for example, overnight.
There is another, fairly well-known infusion, which is called the "Infusion of the Seven Berries".
Quite troublesome and time-consuming, but it normalizes salt metabolism and removes stones from the kidneys.
- Preparation: in the evening, cook 7 whole berries for an hour over low heat. Then pour the broth into a thermos, putting the next 7 berries in it. Strain the infusion in the morning and drink all day.
- Do not throw away the berries remaining in the thermos, boil them for an hour, and pour the resulting broth into a thermos, where new 7 berries are waiting for it.
- Repeat the steps until the rose hips run out or the desire disappears.
Rosehip in a water bath
A drink prepared in a water bath is drunk to improve immunity. Pour finely chopped fruits with hot water (2 tablespoons per glass). Next, bring to readiness in a water bath (it will take 15 minutes). Then cool and drink.
Brewing rosehip flowers
Use fresh and dry flowers. You need to brew them like regular tea, insisting for about half an hour. It is good to add other herbs to tea. Infusion of wild rose flowers helps with diseases of the gallbladder.
Rosehip for pregnant women and for children
During pregnancy, women are contraindicated in taking most pharmaceuticals. Rose hips can be an excellent substitute for increasing immunity, fighting viruses.
It is better to brew dry rose hips without crushing them. But you do not need to abuse the drink, drink no more than a third of a liter per day. About the rules for drying wild rose, read here .
In the piggy bank for your health:
Cedar tincture - properties and uses.
Hawthorn tincture - benefits and uses.
rosehip root
Half a liter of water is taken per tablespoon of the crushed root of the plant. Boil them for 15 minutes, insist and strain for the same amount.
Everyone knows the taste of rosehip drink, but not everyone likes it. This is annoying, but understandable: in childhood, we were offered to drink it very often, sometimes instead of sweet soda. Adults knew what they were doing: rosehip decoction perfectly quenches thirst, tones and strengthens the body. And the parents also knew how to brew rose hips for drinking deliciously, so that little fussy people would not refuse it. Now, realizing all the advantages of this healthy drink, nothing prevents you from brewing rose hips for drinking by all family members, young and old. We are ready to explain all the subtleties of this process.
Are you surprised? But this is true: it is necessary to brew rose hips correctly, for whatever purpose you prepare the decoction. For an infant, for weight loss, just for pleasure and thirst quenching ... Only properly brewed rose hips will turn out to be tasty and truly healthy. It is not difficult to cook it on your own, but, despite the universal usefulness, it is not worth drinking rose hips for everyone. Be sure to consider this before brewing rose hips for drinking and offering it to your loved ones.
Rosehip decoction: composition, benefits and contraindications
Rosehip, or wild rose, is a common cultivated plant, unpretentious and tenacious. Thorny rose hips are close relatives of elegant roses on long straight stems, but are valued not so much for the beauty of flowering as for their fruits. Rosehip berries are brightly colored in shades of red, from carrot to deep burgundy. This indicates a high content of carotene in them, that is, vitamin A provitamin, which strengthens the immune forces of the human body and performs antioxidant functions in metabolism.
Rosehip in folk medicine and modern herbal remedies is used for:
- body detoxification;
- tissue regeneration;
- strengthening the walls of blood vessels;
- activation of carbohydrate and fat metabolism;
- vitamin deficiency compensation.
How to choose a rosehip for brewing?
Like any source of biologically active substances, wild rose is not equally useful at different times of the year, at different stages of ripening and ripened in different areas. With proper processing, all the benefits of fresh raw materials are preserved and concentrated in dried fruits. Before you buy rose hips, ask about their origin:
- The further south the wild rose is harvested, the more vitamin C it contains. For comparison, berries grown in central Russia contain 1-1.5% ascorbic acid, and in Kazakhstan - already 4-5%. If there is a lack of vitamin C, it is worth looking for Begger's rosehip berries, which contain from 10 to 20% ascorbic acid.
- Rosehip bushes with yellow flowers produce fruits that are richer in tannins, that is, more tart in taste than pink-blooming ones. But a decoction of these berries is more conducive to hematopoiesis and is preferable for anemia.
- The most effective is the wild rose harvested from August to October, that is, fully ripe, but not affected by frost. It is important that after picking the berries are not stored fresh, but dried during the first 12-24 hours.
- Contrary to popular belief, rose hips should not be dried in the sun - ultraviolet destroys vitamins. Buy only those berries that are dried in special industrial ovens with regular stirring.
How to brew wild rose in a thermos?
The healing properties of dried rose hips pass into a decoction without any problems. But do not forget that water is the most powerful natural solvent, and it is important not to violate the proportions, after which the concentration of nutrients in the drink will be disturbed. The temperature of the preparation of the decoction also matters. So remember these rules: 
- Proportion 1:10. Simply put, for every 100 grams of dry berries, take 1 liter of water, no more and no less. To taste, you can dilute a ready-made rosehip broth for drinking with water in a glass or decanter, but you need to cook it only in this ratio.
- Water temperature. To extract useful substances from dried berries, the water must be hot enough, but not boiling, so as not to destroy chemical compounds. This is easy to observe if you first boil the water, and then remove it from the heat and pour the berries in a thermos or other thick-walled container.
- Berries condition. Rose hips are often crushed or cut before brewing - this is a mistake, the decoction must be prepared from whole berries. Firstly, with this approach, the nutrients pass into the water gradually, better preserved. Secondly, a decoction of crushed berries will be filled with hairs and thin bristles under the skin.
How to prepare a delicious drinking rosehip broth?
The universal usefulness of wild rose decoction makes it indispensable in a variety of situations: for baby food, during pregnancy, as part of a medicinal diet and weight loss. You can use one brewing recipe or diversify it: 
It is interesting to know that in ancient times, rosehip decoction was used to dye fabrics red and orange. This information illustrates how concentrated this drink is. Therefore, you should not abuse it, so that the benefit does not turn into harm. In particular, only 15 rose hips (and a decoction of them) contain a daily dose of vitamin C for an average-weight adult, more is simply not needed. And those who suffer from increased acidity of the stomach and / or gastritis should use rose hips with extreme caution. The same applies to patients with liver disease. Everyone else should at least occasionally brew rose hips for drinking. With its help, maintaining health is not only easy, but also delicious!