What are the functions and effects of silkworm leaves

In the mountains of our country, there are many families raising silkworms. They plant mulberry trees themselves and pick mulberry leaves to feed the silkworms. After the silkworms spin silk, they sell it to make a living. In fact, mulberry leaves are also a kind of plant that can be used to make tea. For patients with hypertension, if they don’t want to take antihypertensive drugs frequently, they can make tea with mulberry leaves every day. So what are the functions and effects of mulberry leaves?

It is cold in nature; bitter and sweet in flavor; and enters the lung and liver meridians.

Efficacy: Dispel wind-heat, clear the lungs and moisten dryness, calm the liver and improve eyesight, cool blood and stop bleeding.

Contraindications: Not suitable for use by menstruating women and pregnant women

Mulberry leaves are the dried leaves of the mulberry plant of the Moraceae family, also known as domestic mulberry, mulberry, mulberry tree, yellow mulberry, etc. Mulberry leaves are best harvested after frost, and are called frost mulberry leaves or winter mulberry leaves. Mulberry leaves have a wide range of uses. They can be eaten or used to make medicine. They are found in many places in my country and have the effects of lowering blood pressure, blood lipids, and anti-inflammatory. In addition to its pharmacological and cosmetic effects, mulberry leaves can also be eaten as a good food, and using them to make tea is more beneficial to health.

The efficacy and function of mulberry leaves

1. The efficacy of mulberry leaves

Mulberry leaves have the effects of dispersing wind-heat, clearing the lungs and moistening dryness, calming liver yang, clearing the liver and improving eyesight, cooling blood and stopping bleeding. Used for wind-heat cold, lung heat and dry cough, dizziness, headache, red and blurred eyes.

Dispel wind-heat: used for wind-heat colds and red and swollen eyes, often with chrysanthemum.

Clears the liver and improves eyesight: used for eye diseases caused by wind and fire (such as acute conjunctivitis). It is made of Sang Ma Wan with black sesame seeds and is used to treat dizziness and blurred vision caused by liver-yin deficiency and liver-yang hyperactivity.

Clearing the lungs and moistening dryness: used for lung heat and dry cough: this product is bitter and cold, clearing lung heat, sweet and cold, nourishing yin, cooling and moistening the lungs, so it can be used for dry heat damaging the lungs, dry cough with little sputum. In mild cases, it can be used together with apricot kernel, adenophora, Fritillaria, etc., such as Sangxing Decoction; in severe cases, it can be used together with gypsum, Ophiopogon japonicus, donkey-hide gelatin, etc.

It has the effect of cooling blood and stopping bleeding. For vomiting blood due to blood heat, boil 30 grams of mulberry leaves in water and drink it, or use it in combination with other blood-cooling and hemostatic drugs.

Mulberry leaves are rich in amino acids, cellulose, vitamins, minerals, flavonoids and other physiologically active substances. They are a very good Chinese medicinal material and health food.

In the "Shennong Bencaojing" of the Han Dynasty in China, mulberry leaves are called "immortal grass", which has the effects of nourishing blood, dispersing wind, dissipating heat, benefiting the liver and ventilating, lowering blood pressure and promoting diuresis. It can be seen that ancient medical scientists have realized that mulberry leaves are a good medicine for removing heat and stopping sweating.

According to the Compendium of Materia Medica, "it can be taken as a substitute for tea and stop sweating if taken regularly";

It is clearly recorded in Compendium of Materia Medica: "The decoction can be used instead of tea to quench thirst."

According to Zhu Danxi's "Danxi Xinfa" in the Yuan Dynasty, it was recorded: "Grind frost-covered mulberry leaves into powder and take with rice water to stop night sweats." Fu Qingzhu, a famous doctor in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, was particularly good at using mulberry leaves to stop sweating. He successively formulated several prescriptions such as "Sweat-stopping Magic Pills", "Sweat-stopping Pills", and "Sweat-stopping and Calming Pills", all of which used mulberry leaves as the main medicine and praised mulberry leaves as "a wonderful product for stopping sweating."

Modern medicine has proven that mulberry leaves are excellent functional foods. They can lower blood pressure, lower blood lipids, resist aging, increase endurance, lower cholesterol, inhibit fat accumulation, inhibit thrombosis, inhibit the reproduction of harmful bacteria in the intestines, and inhibit the production of harmful oxides. Its most prominent function is to prevent diabetes.

(II) The role of mulberry leaves

According to research, dry mulberry leaves contain 25% to 45% crude protein, 20% to 25% carbohydrates, 5% crude fat, as well as rich potassium, calcium and vitamin C, as well as various trace elements such as copper, zinc, boron and manganese. Mulberry leaves contain ecdysterone, lupenone, as well as various amino acids, vitamins, cyanogenic acid, folic acid, fumaric acid, meso-creatine, phytoestrogens and other substances needed by the human body. They have the effects of anti-stress, anti-aging, enhancing body endurance, and regulating adrenaline function.

The fourth national census found that there are many centenarians in a county in Xinjiang Autonomous Region. One of the main reasons is that mulberry trees are widely planted here. Local people are accustomed to drinking mulberry leaves instead of tea and eating mulberries all year round. Mulberry leaves contain more folic acid, with each gram of mulberry leaves containing 105 micrograms of folic acid. As a pharmaceutical raw material, folic acid participates in the synthesis of nucleic acids, has the effects of resisting various anemias and promoting growth, and can treat gastric cancer, gastrointestinal disorders, loss of appetite, malnutrition and eczema, etc., and is of great significance to human health.

Anticoagulant effect

Mulberry leaf extract can significantly prolong the whole blood coagulation time in mice and significantly prolong the activated partial thromboplastin (APTI) time, prothrombin (PT) time and thrombin (TT) time of rabbit plasma. Since the initiation of the coagulation process is divided into two links: exogenous and intrinsic. APTI reflects the activity of the intrinsic coagulation pathway, PT reflects the activity of the extrinsic coagulation pathway, and TT reflects the common pathway of the two, namely, thrombin activity. This shows that mulberry leaves have a direct inhibitory effect on thrombin-fibrinogen reaction.

Blood pressure lowering effect

Rutin, quercetin and quercetin in mulberry leaves can increase the contractility and output of isolated and in situ frog hearts, and reduce heart rate. Rutin causes the blood vessels in the toad's lower limbs and rabbit's ears to constrict, while quercetin can dilate coronary blood vessels and improve myocardial circulation. γ-Aminobutyric acid, rutin, and quercetin have the effect of lowering blood pressure. GABA is a neurotransmitter that can promote the metabolism of brain tissue and restore brain cell function. At the same time, it can improve blood flow in the brain, enhance the activity of angiotensin converting enzyme I, and promote the reduction of blood pressure.

Lowering blood lipids, cholesterol, anti-thrombotic and anti-atherosclerotic effects

Mulberry leaves can inhibit the formation of fatty liver, reduce serum fat and inhibit the formation of atherosclerosis. Active ingredients include DNJ, phytosterols, flavonoids, etc.

Mulberry leaves contain flavonoids that strengthen capillaries and reduce blood viscosity. In addition, mulberry leaf tea contains ingredients that resist the oxidation of LDL-lipoprotein in the body. Therefore, mulberry leaves can not only lose weight and improve hyperlipidemia, but also prevent myocardial infarction and cerebral hemorrhage. Japanese expert Kayo Doi confirmed that mulberry leaf extract has an inhibitory effect on increased serum lipids in hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis. Mulberry leaf tea can significantly increase serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL-C) and HDL-C/TC in hyperlipidemia rats (p<0.05), significantly reduce total cholesterol (TC), LDL-C, and triglycerides (TG) (p<0.05), and significantly reduce lipid peroxides (LPO) (p<0.001), indicating that mulberry leaf tea can lower blood lipids, soften blood vessels, and remove peroxides in the body, thereby inhibiting the increase of serum lipids in hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis (Huang Daiqing et al., 1995).