Useful properties of rosehip, queen of herbs because it affects human health, tone and nutrition. A glass of rosehip or even rosehip marmalade has a huge reserve of high levels of vitamins, minerals and beneficial acids. Rosehips taste good and have been used in traditional medicine and cooking for centuries.
The rose is actually a bush with straight or curved stems. They reach up to 3 m in length and are covered with stiff and prickly, and sometimes sickle-shaped, spines. The lovely reddish-orange fruits are single-seeded nuts enclosed in a fleshy flower bed that grows to form a bright red spherical fruit. Rose hips bloom from May to July, and the fruits ripen in the fall. They usually thrive in different climates and latitudes, and we can detect their shrubs even at altitudes of 2000 m.
Rosehip composition
Rosehips are literally a bomb of useful substances. They have a high content of vitamin C, which results in the fruit improving the redox processes in the cells and the permeability of the capillaries. An additional plus is their diuretic action. It has been proven that 100g of rosehip contains about 2g of vitamin C – 30-40 times more than red tomatoes and lemons and about 300 times more than apples.
Rose hips contain a valuable complex of natural vitamin A (about 5-7 mg%) and essential fatty acids (Omega-3 and Omega-6), in combination with powerful antioxidants-flavonoids and vitamin E, important for health and beauty of the skin. Vitamins P, B1 (about 430 mg%), B2 and K, as well as pectin (about 11%), oil (about 2%), organic acids (citric and malic), sugars (mainly sucrose, about 2.5) %), tannins and mineral salts (about 3.25%), mainly potassium (about 512 mg%), calcium (about 50 mg%), phosphorous (about 54 mg%), sodium (about 47 mg%) and magnesium (about 122 mg%) salt. In content of mineral salts rose hips exceed many fruits and vegetables.
Selection and storage of rosehip
Whenever you have the opportunity to pick rose hips directly from trees, take advantage. Vitamin C content is highest at the beginning of the full maturity of the fruit – when they are bright red and firm. Its content is less in thin and soft rose hips. It is best to pick rose hips in September and not wait for their full ripening. The bright red color indicates that the rosehips are ready for picking.
Fresh rosehip fruit is superior to all other varieties – dried rosehip, rosehip tea, rosehip flour. But even in winter, dried rose hips are a good source of vitamin C. Because of the resistance of vitamin C to frost, an enviable amount of it can be found even in marmalades in winter.
Store rosehips in cloth bags. To preserve the properties of rose hips for longer, you can dry them yourself at home – either individually or in an oven. The fruits must be dried and stored whole.
Rosehips in cooking
Rosehips can be used to make quite tasty sweets, jellies and marmalades, useful and tonic teas, as well as rosehip wine. On the shelves of the shops you can find rose flour, which is an excellent dietary product. Rosehip syrup is especially suitable for babies and young children who are given it as a dietary supplement. If you eat whole grain bread with a little butter and rosehip marmalade in the morning, you can be sure that you start the day well.
You can prepare a refreshing drink of rose hips, which is not brewed. Just pour a certain amount of the fruit with water and sugar to taste and let it stand for 5-6 days. Then strain and consume. Preparing our beloved marmalade of rose hips is also quite easy. Peel and rinse the fruits, chop them and rinse again. Pour them with water, 1 cm above the rosehips and put them to boil.
Pass or rub well-softened rose hips through a fine-mesh sieve and strain through a cheesecloth to remove the non-edible leaves and seeds. Put 1 g of the resulting mashed potatoes 500 g of sugar and, if desired, 1 h. apple puree. Cook the mashed potatoes with sugar until thickened and stirring constantly. The finished rosehip marmalade is poured into warmed jars, closed and sterilized for 10 minutes. To make rosehip tea, make a stew of 1 tbsp. dried rose in 250 ml of boiling water. For better taste, sweeten your tea, not only because it is tastier, but also because sugar stops oxidation.
Benefits of rosehip
The powerful antioxidants in rose hips help maintain the skin’s natural beauty – make it healthy, supple and make it look youthful because the fruits have powerful agents that eliminate the symptoms of aging – wrinkles, blemishes and even stretch marks. Rosehips are used for the prophylactic treatment and accelerated recovery of the skin (dermis, epidermis, collagen and elastin), to strengthen the blood vessels and cell membranes of all cells for their full functioning. The rich content of pectins and tannins in rose hips helps against gastrointestinal and bronchial diseases, forming a protective layer on both mucous membranes.
The efficacy of rosehip in the treatment of influenza, cough, uterine and nasal bleeding is only a small part of its hidden assets in support of human health. By eating rosehip products on a regular basis, we activate the enzyme systems and the processes of hormone synthesis, which have a hereditary action and have a beneficial effect on carbohydrate metabolism and vascular permeability. It will be used for burning and, more recently, for treating steamed leaves (the leaves are in bloom). Rosehip extract helps with joint pain.