Effect:
calming, sleep-promoting, digestive, antispasmodic
Areas of application:
Digestive weakness, liver disease, jaundice, bilious disease, urinary retention, kidney disease, bleaching disorder, loss of appetite, cramps in the digestive tract, menstrual cramps, muscle cramps, bronchial cramps in asthma, dropsy, premature aging, premature ejaculation, overstimulated sexuality, aphrodisiac, depressive moods, nervous stomach upset, promotes sleep , sedatives, anxiety, bruising, ulcers, inflamed tissue, arthritic joints
Plant parts used:
Female cones and shoot tips
Collection time:
August to September
To find:
Hop fields near farmers
Ingredients:
Resin, essential oil, tannins, humulone, lupulone, flavonoids, minerals, bitter substances
Other:
☕ Tea: 2 heaped teaspoons of flowers are poured into 1/4 liter of boiling water and steeped for 10 minutes. 2 cups per day are sufficient.
🛀🏼 Bath for relaxation: Add 1 to 2 handfuls of hop cones in a linen bag to the bath water. Stay in the bathroom for a maximum of 10 minutes. However, hop baths are considered to have a weaker sleep-promoting effect than lemon balm baths, but they do help with headaches.
Hops have a branching trunk with steep, downward-pointing hairs that provide stability. This allows the hops to climb. The plant grows between 4.5 and 7.5 m high. It has green, opposite, lobed leaves. They have 3 to 5 lobes with finely toothed edges and pointed ends. Male and female hop flowers are each found on separate plants. The male flowers grow on panicles 7.5 to 12.5 cm long. The female flowers (seed cones) resemble a small pine cone. The flowers are 3.75 to 7.5 cm long and have overlapping yellowish-green bracts with a small fruit (achene) at the base. The flowers have a sweet smell.
The first thing I think of when I hear hops is beer and so the next sentence from my clever book fits: When all your bones hurt after a long day, but sleep is still a long time coming, something helps Infusion (i.e. not beer 😄) of hops to relax. The alcohol content in beer does exactly the opposite, it makes you sleep restlessly.
Hops can be mixed well with other herbs. For age-related complaints, mix with hawthorn, valerian, mistletoe or garlic and in a blood cleansing tea with nettle, dandelion, birch or gundel vine.
The shoot tips can be eaten as a salad and the young hop sprouts can be used to cook asparagus-like vegetables.
Hildegard von Bingen: With its bitterness, hops keep rot away from the drinks to which they are added. It has the effect of increasing melancholy in people and makes something sad.