Half-month talk on Chinese medicine | Tiger-head banana

· Interesting stories ·

In traditional Chinese medicine, there are many Chinese medicinal herbs with the word "tiger" in their name, and tiger-head banana is one of them.

Tiger-head banana, also known as golden thread lotus, golden silkworm, golden stone pine, golden thread into the bones, golden thread tiger-head banana, tree grass lotus, golden thread fern dragon, bird ginseng, golden thread, and golden earrings.

Why did the tiger-head banana get the title of "bird ginseng"? There is such a magical story circulating among the people:

A long time ago, there lived a herbalist at the foot of the historic Wuyi Mountain. He would go into the mountains every day to collect medicinal herbs. One day at noon, the herbalist was tired from walking and was sitting next to a rugged rock to rest. Suddenly, he heard a burst of rapid and shrill bird calls, and then saw a turtledove with blood dripping from its wings being chased by a ferocious hawk flying towards him. Out of instinct, the herbalist quickly picked up a stone and threw it at the hawk. The hawk was frightened and flew away. The injured turtledove staggered and struggled to fly to a tree not far from the rock, and pecked at a plant on the ground with its beak. Only half a pack of cigarettes later, a strange thing happened. The turtledove, which was originally covered with bruises, was in good shape, and the wounds on its wings seemed to have healed. It circled around the tree twice and flew away. The herbalist was very surprised and hurried to the tree and squatted down to look for it. There was a kind of wild grass growing on the ground. It was small in size, with obvious stem nodes and creeping rhizomes. The brown-green oval leaves were covered with golden net-like patterns, like golden silk threads. Later, the herbalist followed up and observed that birds often brought this grass to their injured or sick companions, and the injured would recover quickly. After research and experimentation, the herbalist found that this plant has high medicinal value and its efficacy is comparable to that of ginseng. Since this plant was discovered by the turtledove, people named it bird ginseng. Because it is thick and upright, similar to lotus, it is also called golden thread lotus in the folk.

There are records of tiger-head banana in monographs such as "Chinese Medicine Dictionary", "Xinhua Materia Medica Outline", "National Collection of Chinese Herbal Medicines", "Chinese Materia Medica", and "Fujian Pharmacopoeia". Its rhizomes and flowers and leaves can be used as medicine. It is rich in polysaccharides, steroid compounds, organic acids, terpenoids, alkaloids, volatile oils, flavonoids and glycosides, and has anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, liver protection, antioxidant, anti-HBV and other biological activities. It is used in modern times to treat type 2 diabetes, hyperuricemia in the elderly, acute and chronic hepatitis, suppurative osteomyelitis, oral ulcers, sexually transmitted diseases and other diseases.

In addition, since the leaves of the tiger-head banana are covered with clearly visible golden or silvery-white reticular patterns and the flowers are white or light red, it has extremely high ornamental value.

· Source of medicinal materials ·

Tiger-head banana, the medicinal material source is the whole herb of the orchid plants variegated lip orchid and golden thread orchid, which are mainly distributed in southern provinces of my country, Fujian, Taiwan and other places. They mostly grow in the shade and wet places of dead branches and fallen leaves under evergreen broad-leaved forests or bamboo forests at an altitude of 200-1400 meters. The whole herb is used as medicine. It is harvested in summer and autumn and used fresh or dried.

· Nature and flavor ·

It is mild in nature and sweet in taste. It enters the lung, liver, kidney and bladder meridians.

· Efficacy and indications·

It can clear away heat, cool blood, remove dampness and detoxify. It can be used for coughing up blood due to lung heat, hemoptysis due to pulmonary tuberculosis, infantile convulsions, tetanus, edema caused by nephritis, rheumatic arthralgia, snake bites, and injuries caused by falls.

· Usage and Dosage·

Internal use: decoction, 9-15g. External use: appropriate amount, mash the fresh product and apply to the affected area.

· Diet therapy recommendation ·

10 grams of tiger-head banana, half an old hen, and appropriate amount of rice wine, stewed.

· Kind tips·

The time for cooking meat soup with tiger banana should not exceed 1 hour. This can ensure the efficacy and taste, and avoid the increase of purine content in the soup due to too long cooking time, which increases the risk of gout.