How to use soap nuts

We can take soap beans as a medicinal material orally or apply them externally. For external application, we soak and crush them, then use them for washing hair, which can protect hair and kill bacteria. For internal use, we grind them into powder and take them directly, which can clear bacteria in the intestines. It is very good for stimulating gastrointestinal mucus secretion and relieving symptoms of poisoning. You can learn about some uses of soap beans.

The dosage and usage of Gleditsia sinensis are: For oral administration: grind into powder or make into pills, 3 to 5 fen. For external use: decoct in water for washing, mash, burn and grind into powder and blow into nose to induce sneezing or grind into powder and apply to affected area. It may also be used in conjunction with other medications without specific consultation with a pharmacist or physician.

Gleditsia sinensis has the following pharmacological effects:

① General characteristics of saponins: There are many plants containing saponins, including at least 400 species of plants from 50 different families. It reduces surface tension. When the solution (1:10000) is shaken, the surface of each bubble in the solution can be surrounded by saponin to form a thin film, so the foam lasts for a long time. Similarly, when encountering oily substances, saponin films can also form emulsions. It can change the permeability of the cell surface and become a general protoplasmic toxin. It has a special affinity for cholesterol and has a strong hemolytic effect (acting on lipids on the surface of blood cells), and cholesterol can counteract its hemolytic effect. It is highly toxic to fish, but is rarely absorbed by higher animals. Therefore, its main effect is to stimulate local mucous membranes, increasing secretion, etc.

However, if the dose is too large or the gastrointestinal mucosa is damaged or the drug is administered by injection, it may cause systemic toxicity and hemolysis; in particular, it may affect the central nervous system, causing spasms first and then paralysis. Paralysis of the respiratory center may lead to death. There have been people in China who died of poisoning after taking a decoction of soapberry (200 grams plus 1 cup of old vinegar). The saponins contained in a large amount of soapberries not only irritate the gastrointestinal mucosa, causing vomiting and diarrhea after 10 minutes; they also corrode the gastric mucosa, causing absorption poisoning.

② Expectorant effect: Drugs containing saponins can stimulate the gastric mucosa and reflexively promote the secretion of respiratory mucus, producing an expectorant effect (nausea expectorant). In cats, Gleditsia sinensis can indeed increase respiratory secretion, but it is less effective than Platycodon grandiflorum and Peucedanum chinense, and the duration is shorter.

③Antibacterial effect: In test tubes, saponin has an inhibitory effect on certain Gram-negative intestinal pathogens. Its aqueous extract (1:3) also has an inhibitory effect on certain skin fungi in test tubes.

④ The sapodilla alkaloids contained in American soap beans have papaverine-like effects and can treat hypertension, bronchial asthma, peptic ulcers and chronic cholecystitis.