Half-month talk on Chinese medicine | Dandelion

· Interesting stories ·

Speaking of the "yellow stamens and floating catkins" in spring, one will immediately think of this - the beautiful dandelion that is both a weed and a wild vegetable.

What was once a famine relief vegetable has become a delicacy today. Wouldn't it be incompatible with the beautiful spring scenery to associate good days with hard times? Let's get straight to the point and talk about its medicinal uses. The common and common dandelion can solve some big problems for ordinary people.

Dandelion, also known as Huanghuadiding, comes from the Tang Materia Medica. It can clear away heat and detoxify, reduce swelling and disperse knots, and can be found everywhere in clinical prescriptions. Mr. Zhou Ping'an once wrote: Dandelion is not rare, it can be seen everywhere in the country, with unyielding self-confidence, revealing the optimistic and upward life force. In the year of famine, it can be used as a wild vegetable, and it will not hurt the stomach. Or the whole plant is used as medicine, which is good at relieving stomach fire, with gentle and lasting power, and does not damage the spleen. Dandelion can be eaten, used as medicine, can be decocted for oral administration, and can be ground for external use. It is not good-looking, but it uses its life to protect the suffering and peace of one side. For example, a few years ago, I diagnosed a 29-year-old female graduate student who was on leave at home due to depression and suffered from chronic mastitis for more than three years. There was a hard lump in the right breast as big as a palm, the skin color was dark and there was no ulcer. The root could be moved when pushed, and the pathological diagnosis was not malignant, but she looked for famous doctors and tried hundreds of methods, but nothing worked. By chance, she met my clinic. The patient came from a rural area outside Beijing. It was early summer at that time, and dandelions were blooming everywhere. I asked him to pick 250 grams of fresh dandelions, add 100 grams of Glauber's salt, mash them into a paste and apply it to the affected area, cover it with a layer of plastic wrap, and apply it with a wet towel for hot compress, day and night, changing the medicine twice a day. After a week, the lump began to soften; after one month, the lump disappeared completely. After that, the patient's mental state improved, and the symptoms of depression also alleviated. This year, the patient came to my clinic for another disease, and said that this symptom had never occurred again. I couldn't help but admire it when I heard this, and I thought dandelions were really effective.

Photo: Ding Zhaoping

Some wonderful treatment cases of traditional Chinese medicine are very down-to-earth and popular among the masses. There is also a story, which is also told by the protagonist himself, which is even more real and vivid:

Once I went to a rural area and saw a man who had a serious stomach disease - gastric ulcer and stomach pain. I prescribed him some common Chinese and Western medicine for gastric ulcer, but he had no money to buy medicine. He asked if I could provide a way to cure this disease without spending money.

He has stomach pain, his wife has stomach pain, his children have stomach pain, the whole family has stomach problems. I guess it might be caused by Helicobacter pylori infection.

I said, you see, it's spring now, the dandelions in the field have grown. Go dig some dandelions, blanch them in boiling water, and drink the water. The water is quite bitter, if you like it, drink it. If not, blanch the vegetables, add various condiments, such as minced garlic, minced ginger, minced green onion, vinegar, sugar, and salt, and mix them together to eat.

The patient was quite obedient because it was free. He picked dandelions and ate them for the first time. Unexpectedly, his daughter ate all of them. His daughter was relatively young. What was their habit? When parents fed their children, they fed them with food they had chewed themselves. I asked them, how could your child not have a stomachache? Later, he went to pick dandelions every day. As a result, after half a year, the stomach problems of the whole family were cured.

This case is true and widely circulated. The protagonist of the story is Professor Hao Wanshan of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. This is a case he cited when he was teaching typhoid fever. He used dandelions to cure the family's illness, and then thought that dandelions can treat infections caused by this bacteria, and finally concluded: "So I think dandelions are a good way to treat Helicobacter pylori infection."

Hao Wanshan's lectures on typhoid fever are not only loved by students from traditional Chinese medicine colleges and universities across the country, but also by ordinary people. A caring person from an ordinary background compiled the medical cases he talked about typhoid fever into a book called "Stories of Traditional Chinese Medicine Classic Prescriptions".

· Source of medicinal materials ·

The dried whole herb of dandelion, dandelion or several plants of the same genus in the Asteraceae family.

· Nature and flavor ·

It tastes bitter and sweet and is cold in nature.

It enters the liver and stomach meridians.

· Efficacy and indications·

Clears away heat and detoxifies, reduces swelling and resolves stagnation, and promotes diuresis and relieves stranguria.

It is suitable for carbuncle, breast abscess, scrofula, red eyes, sore throat, lung abscess, intestinal abscess, damp-heat jaundice, and hot and painful stranguria.

· Usage and Dosage·

For internal use: decoction, 9-15g. For external use: mash an appropriate amount of fresh product and apply, or decoct the decoction and use it to fumigate and wash the affected area.

· Diet therapy recommendation ·

Stir-fried dandelion with pork

Ingredients: 100 grams of pork, 250 grams of fresh dandelion leaves or flower stems, appropriate amounts of salt, cooking wine, chopped green onions, minced ginger, soy sauce, and cooking oil.

Method: Cut the pork into strips. Wash the fresh dandelion leaves or flower stems, blanch them in boiling water, remove them, wash and drain, and cut them into slightly longer pieces. Put cooking wine, salt, soy sauce, chopped green onions, and minced ginger into a bowl, mix well to make a sauce. Heat the oil in a pan, stir-fry the shredded pork, add the sauce and stir-fry until the meat is cooked, then add the dandelions and stir-fry until they are well-flavored. Remove from the pan and serve.

Efficacy: It has certain effects of clearing away heat and detoxifying, nourishing yin and moistening dryness. It is suitable for treating carbuncle, scrofula, red eyes, blood in stool, cough, thirst, gastritis, etc. Using fresh dandelion stems has better effects of clearing away heat and detoxifying.

Dandelion with Garlic

Ingredients: 250 grams of dandelion, appropriate amounts of minced garlic, refined salt and sesame oil.

Method: Remove impurities from fresh dandelions, wash them, blanch them in boiling water, remove them, wash them in cold water, squeeze out the water, chop them into pieces, put them in a plate, sprinkle with minced garlic, sesame oil, and refined salt, mix well, and serve with meals.

Efficacy: This wild vegetable is crispy and tender when eaten, with a slightly bitter aftertaste. It has certain effects of clearing away heat, detoxifying and relieving fire. It is suitable for patients with acute mastitis, lymphadenitis, scrofula, furuncle, acute conjunctivitis, acute tonsillitis, gastritis, hepatitis, cholecystitis, urinary tract infection and other diseases.