The efficacy and function of chicken claw taro

Chinese medicine has different effects on our body and can regulate our body. Today we will introduce a Chinese medicine: Chicken Claw Taro. What are its specific effects and functions? Let’s take a look.

[Other names] Shoe taro, Nanxing head, Nan taro

[Source] Medicinal material source: The tuber of the Araceae plant Colocasia esculenta.

[Original form] The tuber of the tuber is oblate, about 20cm in diameter and about 10cm in height. The leaves are single (rarely 2); the petiole is 50-80cm long, dark green with pale spots; the leaf blade is 3-partite, the lobes are dichotomously divided or pinnately divided, the lobes are oblong, triangular or ovate-triangular, abruptly pointed, and decurrent; the lateral veins are nearly parallel and connected to form collective veins near the edge. The inflorescence stalk is short and thick, cylindrical, 3-5cm long and 2-3cm thick. The spathe is about 20 cm long, 25 cm wide at the throat, oval in shape, green on the outside, decorated with purple stripes and green-white patches, warty on the inside, dark purple, funnel-shaped; the eaves are wide, green, and have wavy edges. The spadix is ​​extremely smelly; the flowers are unisexual and without perianth; the female inflorescence is 5-7cm long, cylindrical, purple-brown; the male inflorescence is obconical, yellow-green, 3-5cm long, less than 2cm at the base, and 4-5cm thick at the top; the appendages are conical, obtuse, bluish-purple, 7-12cm long, and spongy; the filaments of male flowers are 5mm long; the ovary is spherical, and the stigma is 2-lobed. The infructescence stalk is bright brown, cylindrical, with inconspicuous three edges, 25-37cm long, 2.5-3cm thick, with wart-like protrusions of the same color on the surface; the infructescence is 16-20cm long, cylindrical, and up to 7cm thick. The berry is oval, 2.5-3cm long, 1.7-2cm in diameter, orange-red, with a round black residual style, 2 chambers, and 1 seed in each chamber. The seeds are oblong, smooth, with a fleshy, brown exotesta and a thin, white endotesta. The flowering period is April-May, and the fruiting period is October-November.

[Habitat distribution] Ecological environment: Grown in tropical areas below 750m above sea level, commonly found on riverside grass slopes, thickets or wastelands.

【Nature and flavor】 Spicy; sweet; slightly warm

【Functions and indications】 Soothes the liver and strengthens the spleen; detoxifies and resolves stagnation. Chronic persistent hepatitis

[Usage and Dosage] Oral administration: Make the water extract into granules, 1 packet each time (equivalent to 75g of crude drug), twice a day; or make into pills.

[Clinical Application] Yigan Pills: 150g of chicken claw taro and 3g of licorice. Add water to chicken claw taro and licorice and boil twice, combine the decoctions, filter and concentrate into a thick paste. Assuming that each gram of pill contains 0.5g of dry paste, add appropriate amount of starch and mix well. Dry, grind into fine powder, sieve, make pills with water, dry, coat, and package. Each bottle weighs 3g. This product is a small black pill with a sweet taste. Take this product, add water and grind slowly, filter, add activated carbon to the filtrate, heat to a slight boil, keep warm for 5 minutes, filter, put in evaporating blood, evaporate on a water bath to a thick paste, cool, add 50% ethanol, stir to dissolve, filter, and use the filtrate as the test solution. Also, dissolve aspartic acid in water as the reference solution. According to the thin layer chromatography test, the above two solutions were taken and spotted on the same silica gel G thin layer plate, phenol-water (3:1) was used as the developing solvent, and the plate was developed to 18 cm, taken out, dried, and sprayed with hydroxytrione test solution. After heating at 105℃ for 5 minutes, the test solution will show the same purple-red spots at the positions corresponding to those of the reference solution. Functions: nourishing Qi and liver, strengthening spleen and appetite, removing dampness and detoxifying. Used for chronic persistent hepatitis. Oral administration, 3g each time, twice a day. (Guangdong Provincial Drug Standards, 1987)

【Excerpt】 Chinese Materia Medica

The above describes some ways to eat chicken claw taro. Although many medicinal herbs can be eaten, we must remind everyone that Chinese medicines generally cannot be taken indiscriminately and should be used according to your own situation.