Chinese Materia Medica ⁽⁶³⁾

As early as the Western Han, overseas spices and medicines flowed continuously into China via the Silk Road and sea routes; these were gradually accepted by Chinese physicians and eventually merged into the Chinese medical family as part of the materia medica. Such herbs were…

Wangbuliuxing is the seed of Vaccaria segetalis (family Caryophyllaceae); Vaccaria is a common weed in wheat fields, widely distributed in China except the south. In folk practice Wangbuliuxing is a lactagogue; a folk proverb says, "Wangbuliuxing, taken by women, makes milk flow freely." For postpartum…

Today, a family member from Jiangmen, Guangdong, whose child is suspected of having adrenal neuroblastoma, consulted me. She told me her child (now three and a half) had previously grown a lump on the neck (never confirmed by a hospital), and after a cold with…

Eggplant is a vegetable familiar to every one of us; it tastes delicious and is deeply loved by people. I myself love eggplant and eat it almost every day when it is in season. Many people already know that eggplant is one of the anticancer…

During the Zhenyuan reign of the Tang Dynasty, a man named Songyangzi wrote a Biography of Weilingxian: “Previously in Shangzhou (present-day Shangxian, Shaanxi), someone fell seriously ill and could not walk for decades. Excellent doctors exhausted their skills without cure, and his relatives placed him…

The Chinese medicine puffball (mabo) is the dried fruiting body of fungi of the Lycoperdaceae family, mainly Lasiosphaera fenzlii, Calvatia gigantea and Calvatia lilacina. It has aliases such as machibao and niushigu. Although puffball is not an edible mushroom, it was used as a medicinal…

Baijili (also called Cijili) is the dried ripe fruit of Tribulus terrestris (family Zygophyllaceae); full, firm, yellowish-green fruits are best. Because TCM holds that Baijili dispels wind and invigorates blood, brightens the eyes, and stops itching, it is a commonly used dermatological herb and appears…

Huaruishi (Ooids Lithos) is an ore medicine with hemostatic action, first recorded in the Jiayou Bencao (Jiayou Materia Medica) of the Song Dynasty. Huaruishi is mainly a composite of marble formed from the mineral calcite and serpentine. When ancient TCM used it as medicine, it…

Mirabilite (Mang Xiao) is a mineral used in TCM from ancient times to the present; its main component is sodium sulfate. Among the sulfates, both sodium sulfate and magnesium sulfate are excellent laxatives. Their purgative mechanism is that the sulfate ions they contain are poorly…

The ginkgo is a national botanical treasure of China, a rare relict species from the Mesozoic era. Wild ginkgo is found only on Tianmu Mountain in Zhejiang Province. But ginkgo is a highly pollution-resistant plant with an attractive appearance, especially in autumn when its leaves…