The efficacy and function of chard

Capsicum annuum is a traditional Chinese medicine with high medicinal value and good health-care effects for some diseases. In our lives, many medicines use Chard as the main ingredient, but there are still many taboos that need to be paid attention to when taking Chard.

[Other names] Beet (Bielu), beet (Rihuazi Materia Medica), Swiss chard (Diannan Materia Medica), stone vegetable (Bencao Qiuyuan), ladle vegetable, pigweed (Flora of Guangzhou), and light vegetable (Chinese Vegetable Cultivation Science).

[Source] The stems and leaves of the Li plant Capsella oleracea .

[Original form] It is an annual or biennial herb, smooth and hairless, with a stem 30 to 100 cm high that only emerges when it blooms. Leaves are alternate and have long petioles; radicular leaves are ovate or oblong-ovate, up to 30-40 cm long, obtuse at apex, cuneate or cordate at base, with wavy edges; cauline leaves are rhombic, ovate, obovate or oblong, smaller, and the top ones become linear bracts; leaves are fleshy and smooth-edged, light green or dark green, and also purple-red. Flowers are small, bisexual; green, sessile, solitary or in clusters of 2-3 in a long, weak, spreading panicle; bracts are interdigitated, with short tips; perianth is 5-lobed, with lobes oblong, obtuse at the apex, and thickened at the base when fruiting; 5 stamens. Located around the ovary; ovary semi-inferior, with 2 to 3 styles. The fruit is usually aggregated, formed by the fusion of the receptacles of two or more flowers, and forms a very irregular dry body (often mistakenly called a seed): each seed is contained in a hard shell formed by the disk and perianth. Seeds are horizontally borne, round or kidney-shaped. Flowering period is from May to June. Fruiting period is July.

[Habitat distribution] It is commonly cultivated in southern and southwestern my country. In Sichuan, the red-stemmed and leafed caltrop is used as medicine, also known as red caltrop.

【Nature and flavor】 Sweet, cool.

【Meridian】 ① "Southern Yunnan Materia Medica": "enters the Yangming meridian."

【Functions and indications】 Clears away heat, detoxifies, removes blood stasis and stops bleeding. It is used to treat measles with slow outbreak, dysentery caused by heat toxins, amenorrhea, stranguria, carbuncles, swellings and fractures.

[Usage and Dosage] For oral use: decocted in water, 0.5-1 liang (2-4 liang for fresh); or mashed into juice. For external use: mash and apply.

【Note】 People with spleen deficiency and diarrhea should not take this product.

[Additional prescription] ① To treat measles in adults and children that has not yet fully developed: 3 grams each of red oxalis, coriander seeds, and cherry pits, decocted in water and taken orally. (Sichuan Traditional Chinese Medicine Records)

【Excerpt】 《*Dictionary》

【Source】 From "Jiayou Materia Medica"

Through the introduction in this article, we can learn some relevant knowledge about Capsicum annuum. Whether from the perspective of food health or traditional Chinese medicine, the role of caltrops cannot be underestimated.