How much do you know about the effects and functions of loofah?

Nowadays, people are increasingly advocating traditional Chinese medicine for treating diseases, which can effectively cure diseases with very few side effects. The traditional Chinese medicine Loulu can clear away heat and detoxify, promote lactation, relax muscles and unclog blood vessels. There are many things to pay attention to when using the medicine, that is, pregnant women and people with qi deficiency should be cautious.

1. The efficacy and function of loofah

Clears away heat and detoxifies; promotes blood circulation and promotes lactation. It is used to treat sores, furunculosis, swelling and infection; mastitis; costitis; lymphatic tuberculosis; hemorrhoids and fistula; scabies, pruritus and rash; red and swollen eyes; dysentery; early abdominal pain caused by ascariasis; rheumatic arthralgia; sprains and cramps; injuries from falls; and postpartum milk retention. Clears away heat and detoxifies, eliminates carbuncle, promotes lactation, relaxes muscles and unclogs blood vessels. It is used for breast abscess, swelling and pain, carbuncle on the back, scrofula, milk obstruction, dampness, arthralgia and cramps.

① "Ben Jing": It is used to treat skin heat, malignant sores, carbuncles, hemorrhoids, dampness and arthralgia, and lactation.

② "Bielu": It can stop enuresis, heat sores and itching like hemp beans, and can be used as a bath soup.

③Tao Hongjing: Treats all kinds of fistulas and scabies.

④ "Medicinal Properties Treatise": Treats heat, toxicity and wind-induced sores on the body, itchy rashes on the skin and muscles.

⑤ "Bencao Shiyi": It can be used to kill insects and wash sores and scabies.

⑥ "Bencao Gangmu" (Bencao Gangmu): Treats high fever in children, clears the small intestine, (treats) spermatorrhea, hematuria, conjunctivitis caused by wind, breast abscess, back rash, scrofula, intestinal wind, discharges pus, replenishes blood, treats injuries from blows, repairs tendons and bones, applies to wounds, stops bleeding and grows flesh, and clears the meridians.

⑦ "Shanxi Chinese Materia Medica": Clears heat and cools blood, treats heat-toxic bloody dysentery, epistaxis, bloody hemorrhoids, febrile epidemics, etc.

2. Precautions

People with Qi deficiency, sores that cannot be healed, and pregnant women should not take it.

① "Bencao Gangmu" (Bencao Gangmu): Forsythia suspensa is the messenger.

② "Bencao Jingshu": For sores and ulcers of Yin syndrome, which are flat and do not break out, this medicine is not suitable. Contraindicated during pregnancy.

③ "Depei Materia Medica": It is forbidden to use by those with qi deficiency.

3. Additional prescription

① Treat carbuncle two days later, to remove poison and discharge pus: Astragalus (raw), Forsythia suspensa 1 liang each, Rhubarb 1 fen (slightly fried), Lophatherum gracile 1 liang (with white velvet), Licorice root 0.5 liang (raw), Agarwood 1 liang. Grind the above ingredients into powder and take with ginger and jujube soup. (Loulu Decoction from the Collection of Prescriptions for Treating Back Ulcers)

②For treating obstruction of Qi and blood vessels in nursing mothers, milk secretion, stagnation of meridians, swelling and pain in breasts, retention of evil toxins, or carbuncle: 2.5 liang of Lophatherum gracile, 10 pieces of Trichosanthes kirilowii (burned over high heat until charred), 10 snake skins (roasted). The above medicine should be finely powdered. Take 2 qian of it each time, mixed with warm wine, at any time. Take it with hot soup after a long time. (Loulusan from the Bureau of Prescriptions)

③ Treat scrofula, discharge pus, relieve pain and promote tissue regeneration: equal parts of smilax china, forsythia suspensa, viola yedoensis, fritillaria thunbergii, honeysuckle, licorice and self-pollution. Decoction in water. (Compendium of Materia Medica)

④ Treat skin itching, genital rash, wind poison, sores and scabies: one liang each of elopodii, schizonepeta, white mulberry bark, duckweed, Achyranthes bidentata, angelica, Agkistrodon acutus, and wolfberry, six qian of licorice, and two liang of Sophora flavescens. Soak in wine and steam to drink. (Compendium of Materia Medica)

⑤Treatment of mumps: 1 qian of Isatis root, 1.5 qian of Lophatherum gracile, 4 fen of Burdock seed, and 5 fen of Licorice root. Decoction in water. (Handbook of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Xinjiang)

⑥For treating rheumatism, muscle spasm, and pain in joints: 0.5 liang of Lophatherum gracile (remove the reed head and stir-fry with bran), 0.5 liang of Pheretima diffusa (remove the soil and stir-fry). Grind the above two ingredients into powder. First use two taels of ginger to extract the juice, and two taels of honey, boil them together for three to five times, add five he of good wine, and serve in a porcelain container. Use seven-tenths of a cup of medicine powder and mix it into one and a half qian of powder. Take it warm at any time. (Ancient Saints’ Powder from Shengji Zonglu)

⑦ To treat innocent malnutrition and dysentery in children, weakness, loss of appetite, movement of worms in the abdomen, and frequent vomiting of clear water: 2 liang of Lophatherum gracile, 1 liang of pig liver (steamed and dried), 1 liang of white bark of paper mulberry root (filed). Grind the above medicines into powder, mix with refined honey and pound one to two hundred times, then make into pills as big as marbles. For each dose, grind 19 grams of the powder into powder with warm water and take it at any time. According to the size of the child, take it in small portions. (Loulu Pills from Shenghuifang)