Swamps are amazing natural habitats. Among their other features is the fact that canned mummies of animals and even people are often found in the thickness of peat. Why didn’t they decompose? The fact is that there is more than one marsh plant that disinfects the water of marshes.
Sphagnum belongs to the genus of sphagnum mosses. 42 species grow on the territory of the former USSR, all in all there are more than three hundred of them. Most often it is found in swamps, but occasionally it can be found in moist and dark forests.
This marsh plant, which disinfects the water of swamps, is also famous for the fact that inside each stalk there are thin tubules from dead cells. They can absorb a huge amount of moisture, as a result of which the sphagnum is characterized by excellent hygroscopicity. Our ancestors also noted this property, using moss when dressing.
Sphagnum first appears in Permian sediments. Unlike other mosses, it does not have rhizoids (a kind of root system), so the sphagnum has the ability to absorb water in its entire area in large quantities.
For the first time, scientists became interested in its properties in Soviet times. It turned out that this marsh plant, disinfecting the water of marshes, contains a lot of bactericidal, fungicidal and bacteriostatic substances. This proved that the information of traditional medicine, which recommended it as a wound healing agent, is completely true.
The second leader in terms of disinfection is calamus marsh. It is noteworthy that Asia is the birthplace of this plant, and nomads brought its rhizomes to our country for a very definite purpose: if you throw cut roots of calamus into the dirtiest barrel, then you can fearlessly drink horses from it in a couple of hours.
It contains the following phenoxy acids:
- isochlorogenic;
- fumaric;
- chlorogenic;
- pyrocatechol.
In addition, in small quantities there are substances from the coumarin class. Zoocoumarin, which is the most important component of the components of disinfestation, belongs to the same type.
Already forgotten, but an important plant that disinfects water, is marsh ledum. So many organic acids and poisonous substances are hidden in its tissues that nectar of ledum kills bees.
And here is where the main intrigue lies. Despite its toxicity, in small quantities it not only disinfects water, but can also be used to treat intestinal disorders. In particular, it was often used not only by healers, but also by veterinarians in the treatment of livestock diseases.
Any marsh plant that disinfects the water of water bodies prevents the spread of natural infections. More importantly, the infusions of the same sphagnum had a detrimental effect even on the causative agents of many fungal diseases, which many modern medicines cannot boast of.
I wonder what other marsh plants, whose names are regularly found in the ancient books of herbalists, will be recognized as official medicine? Indeed, out of hundreds and even thousands of herbs that have been widely used in the recent past, only a few dozen are known today.
Each marsh plant that disinfects the water of marshes acts the same way: rainwater, having been insisting on them for centuries, turns into a real liquid preservative that easily kills all pathogenic microflora. This explains the unique properties of some forest ponds.
