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 The benefits of green spaces have long been known to mankind. They play a significant role in regulating the thermal regime and air humidity, and improve the microclimate. Finally, the forest is a giant filter.
It cleans the air from dust and various aerosols. Scientists have calculated that planting 400 young poplars over the summer traps about 400 kilograms of dust - almost a kilogram per tree. It was not without reason that Peter the Great in 1707 ordered the governor of Astrakhan to plant a forest in the steppe.
The influence of forest plantations on climatic conditions has long been known. For example, the expedition of Dokuchaev established that the main measure to combat drought is planting protective forest belts in the fields. The forest protects the soil from weathering, the rivers - from drying out. Green spaces along the railway line protect it from dangerous snow drifts.
The flora is an amazing gift of nature, it is a kind of natural "pharmacy" that everyone can use. And people have been using forest plants and their fruits for a long time as medicinal substances.
It has long been known that various fresh fruits and vegetables are of exceptional importance in human nutrition due to the presence of vitamins in them. Also in. In 1757, the English researcher D. Lind noted a definite connection between scurvy outbreaks and a lack of fresh plant food. But only in 1897 the Dutch physician Eikman was able to prove the existence of a special class of substances, which later became known as vitamins.
 It has now been quite firmly established that the role of vitamins, which are needed in very small quantities, is a kind of enzymatic effect on products to be processed in the body.
A large number of vitamins are now known, and it cannot be said that any of them is the main one. The absence of at least one in food leads to rather serious consequences. For example, exclusion of vitamin A from the diet entails stunted growth and, in addition, often leads to xerophthalmia, swelling of the eyelids and corneal damage. As we have said, a lack of vitamin D leads to painful changes in the structure of bone tissue (rickets). An insufficient amount of B vitamins in food threatens the most serious diseases of the blood and nervous system, and vitamin C prevents the development of scurvy.
Studies have shown that many forest fruits contain, to one degree or another, almost the entire complex of vitamins. Strawberries, black currants, raspberries are very rich in vitamin C. By the way, pine and spruce needles contain a large amount of vitamins C. But in rosehip berries, for example, along with a large amount of vitamin C, there are a number of other vitamins: provitamin A, B2 (riboflavin), P (citrine), vitamin K.
Together with vitamins, forest fruits are rich in various organic acids: malic, citric, oxalic, and in some cases a large amount of sugar. So, juniper berries contain sugar up to 40%.
But not only vitamins are rich in forest plants. In some cases, they contain valuable medicines in the leaves, stems or roots. In particular, the infusion of lily of the valley flowers is used as a means of regulating cardiac activity, because it contains certain substances - glycosides: convallamarin and convallarin.
From the leaves of belladonna, or belladonna, containing various alkaloids (primarily atropine, scopolamine, etc.), many drugs are prepared, which are used to treat some gastrointestinal diseases.
The history of the alkaloid quinine is quite peculiar.The healing effect of the bark of cinchona trees, which are home to Peru and Bolivia, became widely known as early as the 17th century, when the Viceroy of Peru, Anna del Chinchon, was cured of malaria with this bark. By the way, these trees were named after her. However, almost 200 years passed before the French pharmacists Pelletier and Kayent managed in 1820 to discover its active principle in the bark of the cinchona tree - the alkaloid quinine. Salts of this particular substance have long been used orally and subcutaneously as a specific remedy for malaria. And although at the present time chemists have managed to synthesize the so-called plasmokhin - a substance that is 60 times stronger than quinine, the bark of the cinchona tree has not yet lost its medicinal value.
 Ginseng has long been particularly popular. Literally translated, this means "root man". Indeed, the ginseng roots in appearance strongly resemble a human figurine. But it is not for this that ginseng has been worshiped since ancient times. As the chemical analysis of the root has shown, its composition contains a whole range of various substances. In particular, various glycosides, a mixture of palmitic, stearic, oleic and linoleic acids, volatile essential oils, B vitamins1 and in2... Therefore, the effect of the root on the body is very versatile. Ginseng is considered a drug that actively affects the nervous system, endocrine apparatus, cardiovascular system, respiration and metabolism. Ginseng preparations activate the main cortical processes, stimulate the diencephalon, tone up the heart and blood vessels. In medicine, ginseng is often used as a tonic for hypotension, fatigue and overwork.
Of the plants widespread in our forests, of course, many have medicinal properties. In particular, common oak bark. Perhaps the main active principle of the bark is tannins, the content of which reaches 20% in it. In addition, oak bark contains proteins, starch, quercetin and levulin. The action of all these substances in. mainly comes down to astringent and anti-inflammatory effects based on the ability of tannins to thicken tissue membranes.
If you look through various medical and pharmacological reference books, you can see that now about 25% of medicines are natural drugs. All of these are extracts, tinctures, decoctions made from a wide variety of plants. No wonder the forest is called the founder of pharmacology.
Scientists who have studied the physiology of plant organisms for a long time have come to a very interesting conclusion. It turned out that plants are characterized by the so-called process of photosynthesis, that is, the assimilation of carbon dioxide from the air under the influence of light. Our famous compatriot Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev contributed a lot to the study of these processes.
It was found that during photosynthesis, plants from carbon dioxide, water and a small amount of mineral salts synthesize (create) a variety of organic substances, which later, with the help of enzymes, these kind of catalysts, are converted into cellulose, resins, essential oils. And the "waste" of the production of these valuable substances is pure oxygen. In other words, six molecules of carbon dioxide and six molecules of water make one glucose and six oxygen molecules. This, of course, is only a general scheme for binding carbon dioxide. In fact, everything is much more complicated. But this scheme also speaks volumes. It was her study that convinced scientists that the rapid development of the plant world in the prehistoric era led to a significant change in the composition of the atmosphere. It is now generally accepted that atmospheric oxygen owes its existence almost entirely to plants. It was they who gave a person the atmosphere in which he now lives. In this regard, of course, it becomes clear why the air in the forest zone is so fresh and clean.
 But the forest is a truly inexhaustible storehouse of secrets and new discoveries.
About thirty years ago, Soviet scientist Professor V.P. Tokin discovered the so-called phytoncides - bactericides of plant origin. Many of them have the ability to kill various disease-causing microbes. For example, Robertson's eucalyptus phytoncides kill the sticks of diphtheria and whooping cough within 4-5 minutes. The wild rosemary phytoncides have a similar property. Practically all tree species, both deciduous and coniferous, form and emit phytoncides.
The chemical nature of phytoncides is very complex and varied. In most cases, this is not one individual chemical compound, but a very complex mixture, which sometimes greatly complicates their study. Basically, they are a complex of different classes of organic substances: they include many saturated and unsaturated acids, quinones, resins, essential oils, glycosides, terpenes, and balm.
The healing and antibacterial properties of resin-balsamic substances have been known since ancient times. In particular, since ancient times they have been used to embalm (preserve) corpses. However, the scientific study of such substances and, in particular, phytoncides began relatively recently.
Only recently have scientists found that phytoncides of birch, poplar, thuja, geranium, fir, and wild rosemary have strong bactericidal properties. Researcher L.N.Savchuk conducted an interesting experiment several years ago. He studied the action of phytoncides of pine, walnut, peach, apricot, sweet cherries, cherries, plums, grapes, coriander, hemp, petunia, dahlia, tomato, raspberry, chrysanthemum, wormwood, cloves, asters and aloe on various microbes. During the study, microbial emulsions were applied to plant leaves. The results obtained, which are taken from the work of L.N.Savchuk, speak for themselves. In the table, the plus sign indicates the presence of microbial growth, the minus sign indicates its absence. It can be seen that wormwood has the greatest phytoncidal activity, hemp and coriander. After two hours, the microbes are completely killed.
 Phytoncides are not only able to kill various microorganisms, but also affect the digestive processes. So, for example, volatile fractions of pine phytoncides for 30 minutes of action cause a third increase in gastric juice separation in experimental rabbits. In addition, it was found that they have a positive effect on the phagocytic activity of leukocytes, that is, they help the fight of human white blood cells with various pathogens.
But still, although the forest is an amazing miracle of nature and a real natural "pharmacy", you need to use it with caution. It is not without reason that a number of prescription drugs are available in pharmacies.
The forest is not always useful for everyone. So, for example, when examining cardiac patients, it was found that in spring and summer, being in a coniferous forest is unfavorable for them. The fact is that it is during these seasons of the year that such air contains increased amounts of turpentine and other aromatic substances, as well as phytoncides secreted by conifers. The whole complex of these compounds has a bad effect on the functioning of the cardiovascular system. In hot weather, most heart patients feel better in a deciduous forest or in open spaces. In winter or autumn, the coniferous air does not have any harmful effect on them. On the contrary, the purity of the forest air, oxygen saturation, and the silence of the forest make it possible to recommend recreational walks in winter for almost all categories of patients.
Vlasov L.G. - Nature heals
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