Last year one of my subjects was Pharmacognosy; it’s the study of medicines made from natural sources, it also studies plants and its medicinal effect on our organism. I studied for this exam last year in summer and amongst all medical teas, diaphoretic tea was the one which I memorized the most. This year I decided to make it. And I did! 
I gathered a lot of Elderberry blossoms last month when it was blooming. I took my younger brothers, two big baskets and we went for it. We repeated this 5 times. We collected a lot of them. At home we put them in electrical drier. On a field where Elderberries grow there are a lot of Lindens. I hadn’t been able to collect their blossoms because there were none until 4 days ago. The smell is just wonderful! I think that today I’ll go too but to be honest, there’s nothing left to collect, I have taken all the blossoms already! I took some pictures of a Linden tree before and after we fleeced it. You should spot the difference 
This photo shows Linden before and after “harvesting”.
Now, let me explain to you what’s this tea really about. Diaphoretic tea (lat. Species diaphoreticae) is a tea which consists of Linden blossoms (lat. Tiliae flos), Elderberry blossoms (Sambuci flos) and Camomile (lat. Chamomillae flos).
If you want to make the tea by yourself, here’s how to do it:
Species diaphoreticae
Rp
Tiliae flos……………………………………………………………………. 40
Sambuci flos ………………………………………………………………. 40
Chamomillae flos ……………………………………………………….. 20
Aq. ferv./Aq. bull. ………………………………………………….. ad lib.
Filtr.
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Take some of the ingredients, put them in a cup of tea and pour over some hot or boiled water. Leave the mixture for 5 min and then filter. Drink it while still hot.
……………………………………………………………………………………..
Dictionary:
Rp (Recipe) – take;
Species – tea;
Aq. ferv. (Aqua fervida) – hot water;
Aq. bull. (Aqua bulliens) – boiled water;
Filtr. (Filtra) – filter;
All mentioned medicinal plants have diaphoretic and diuretic effect. That means that they promote sweating by increasing perspiration and make you urinate several times. Because of this quality, they can reduce fever. Such tea can be used to treat cold; a patient is supposed to consume it hot while lying in bed; much of tea’s diaphoretic effect is based on patient’s physical warming. However, our body shows different heat sensitivity during the day, diaphoretic tea has no effect in the morning but in the afternoon because temperature in our body is rising at that moment so profuse sweating is promptly induced.
We found a lot of interesting things in the woods. Take a look!
How many things a man can find in nature. When I and my brother were gathering Linden’s blossoms we came along this one three days ago. Eggs were still warm so it seemed like that we scared a mother bird away.
We found this little fellow who fell from one of the bushes we “tortured”.
Pharmacognosy always sounded very interesting to me. If it had been offered at my school, I would have probably taken it. That tea sounds good! Any other kinds of homemade teas you’ll try in the future? =)
Pharmacognosy is indeed very interesting subject. However, it’s quite hard to learn because of all the plants’ Latin names and their compounds which you have to memorize. But the feeling of knowing a plant you see and knowing its Latin name too is fantastic. I’d like to try a tea for sedation (Species sedativae) but I don’t know where to find the ingredients
I’ll write about other medicinal teas in the future, there are 10 of them.