Cuscuta australis

Cuscuta is actually a plant. If you are in the wild, you will easily see dodder. Field dodder is actually a parasitic plant that mainly grows on some fruit trees. Although field dodder is a harmful plant in nature, you may not know that it actually has many medicinal values. It is especially effective in improving women's endocrine system.

Cuscuta australis

Cuscuta australis is also known as silk-spinning seed, motherless vine, rootless vine, and rose seed. Dodder is a parasitic plant with a special physiological structure. Its cells do not have chloroplasts. It uses a vine-like structure to cling to other plants. It extends sharp spines from the part where it contacts the host and pierces the host directly into the phloem, absorbing nutrients to survive, and further storing them as starch granules in the tissues. The Chinese medicine Cuscuta is the seed of the dicotyledonous plants Convolvulaceae, including Cuscuta australis, Cuscuta australis, and Cuscuta australis. It has the effects of nourishing the kidney and essence, nourishing the liver and improving eyesight, and consolidating the fetus and stopping diarrhea.

Cuscuta australis is also known as eel vine. Common species include Japanese dodder and Chinese dodder. The former is more common. It is distributed in Guangxi, Guangdong, Hainan, Fujian, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Hunan, Taiwan and other provinces and regions. In addition to parasitizing longan, it can also parasitize many fruit trees and trees such as lychee, citrus, pomelo, butterfly fruit, tea, oil tea, tung oil, Taiwan acacia, neem, Dalbergia, willow, etc. Dodder parasitizes on fruit trees, sucking water and nutrients from the trees. Its vines grow rapidly, often entwining branches and even covering the entire crown. This not only affects the photosynthesis of the leaves, causing them to turn yellow and fall off, weakening the tree, but in severe cases the fruit trees cannot grow, bloom or bear fruit, and can even cause the branches to dry up or the entire plant to die.

Dodder cannot carry out photosynthesis on its own and must rely on other plants to provide nutrients in order to survive. Cuscuta is mainly spread by seeds and broken stems, and is also "parasitic". It parasitizes a wide range of plants. In Xinjiang alone, there are more than 100 species of field dodder plants that it can parasitize. When plants are parasitized, not only will their yield and quality decrease, but they may also be infected with plant viruses.

Due to the tonic effect of Cuscuta australis, there is a large demand for it in pharmaceutical and clinical applications, but its production is low, resulting in an imbalance between supply and demand. Therefore, Cuscuta australis is one of the varieties with the highest rate of unqualified inspections in various medicinal materials markets. Confusing products and counterfeits emerge in an endless stream. Experiments have shown that Cuscuta can enhance the sexual vitality of fruit flies and significantly increase their mating rate. The strength of its effect is positively correlated with the dosage concentration. For the "yang deficiency" model of mice caused by hydrocortisone, the use of Cuscuta can have a certain effect on the recovery of its yang deficiency symptoms.

Its fruit has very good effects on both men and women, and it also has a good effect on women's endocrine system. Gavage of Cuscuta australis water extract to female rats can increase the weight of the anterior pituitary, ovaries and uterus of rats, but has no effect on the level of luteinizing hormone in plasma. It also has very good effects on some pregnant women, can fix the placenta, and can also treat some symptoms such as fetal movement disorder. However, it is forbidden for those who suffer from yin deficiency, hyperactivity of fire, strong yang and impotence, and dry and hard stools.