Medicinal value of leeches

Leech is the common name for leeches. I don’t know if you have seen leeches. This is a creature that often appears in paddy fields in the countryside. It likes to live in warm waters, so it can usually only be seen in summer. Leeches are a kind of creature that everyone finds a little scary. Yes, they like to suck blood. Their bodies are soft and smooth, and they have some mucus. After attaching to the human body, they will use their mouths to suck your blood. Just imagine how scary it is. However, this terrifying creature is full of treasures and has high medicinal value.

Leech, a traditional Chinese medicine, is the dried whole body of the leech, leech or willow leaf leech of the Hirudinidae family. It lives in paddy fields and ditches and sucks the blood of humans and animals. Catch them in summer and autumn, kill them with boiling water, and then dry them in the sun or at low temperature. It has a wide distribution range and can be found in most parts of my country.

The efficacy and function of leeches:

1. Anti-hemagglutination effect. Hirudin prevents blood from clotting and therefore has an anti-thrombotic effect.

2. Thrombolytic effect. Hirudin has the effect of resisting platelet aggregation and dissolving thrombus caused by thrombin. Hirudin is a methanol extract that activates the fibrinolytic system both in vitro and in vivo; the salivary gland secretions of leeches have a strong antithrombotic effect after intravenous injection into rats.

3. Anti-platelet effect. Hirudin can inhibit the binding of thrombin to platelets, promote the dissociation of thrombin from platelets, and inhibit the release of platelets stimulated by thrombin and the reaction induced by thrombin.

4. Impact on blood rheology. Giving animals 0.45 g/kg of leech extract by gavage can reduce blood viscosity and shorten red blood cell electrophoresis time. Oral administration of leech decoction can also reduce the whole blood viscosity, plasma viscosity, hematocrit and fibrinogen content in rats with abnormal blood rheology.

5. It has the effect of lowering blood lipids. For rabbits with dietary hyperlipidemia, daily administration of leech powder at a rate of 1 gram per rabbit, whether for prevention or treatment, can reduce the cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the blood. At the same time, it can make the aortic and coronary artery lesions lighter than those in the control group, with obvious regression of plaques, visible collagen fiber proliferation and reduced cholesterol crystals.

6. Impact on cardiovascular function. Intraperitoneal injection of 30 g/kg of hirudin can significantly increase the ability of mouse myocardium to absorb 86Rb, indicating that it has the effect of increasing myocardial nutrient blood flow.

7. Termination of pregnancy. The wide-bodied golden leech can terminate the early, middle and late pregnancy of mice. Using 2.5-3 g/kg of leech decoction, subcutaneously injecting the above dose twice on the first, sixth or tenth day of pregnancy has a very significant effect on terminating pregnancy in mice.

8. Effects on experimental cerebral hematoma and subcutaneous hematoma. Leech extract has the effect of promoting the absorption of experimental cerebral hematoma in rabbits. Experiments have shown that leeches can promote the absorption of cerebral hematomas and subcutaneous hematomas, reduce peripheral inflammatory reactions and edema, relieve increased intracranial pressure, improve local blood circulation, protect brain tissue from necrosis and promote the recovery of neurological function.

9. Effects on experimental renal damage. Using 15 ml/kg of 30% leech fluid, gavage twice, has a significant preventive and therapeutic effect on the initial acute tubular necrosis of rats caused by intramuscular injection of glycerol, and the increase in blood urea nitrogen and blood creatinine values ​​is significantly lower than that in the control group. The morphological changes of renal tissue were significantly improved. Its mechanism of action may be related to improving blood rheology and hypercoagulable state, thereby improving renal blood circulation.

10. Other functions. Leeches also have an inhibitory effect on decidual tumors. Low concentration of leech fluid has a significant contraction effect on the isolated rabbit uterus. Hirudin can also inhibit thrombin-induced fibroblast proliferation and thrombin's stimulation of endothelial cells.

Medicinal value of leeches

It can break up blood and unblock meridians, remove blood stasis and eliminate symptoms. Used for amenorrhea due to blood stasis, lumps and masses in the abdomen, hemiplegia caused by stroke, and injuries caused by falls.

1. For women with menstrual problems, and for men with bladder fullness and blood stasis: 30 leeches (boiled), 30 horseflies (remove wings and legs, boiled), 20 peach kernels (peeled and tip removed), 3 liang of rhubarb (soaked in wine). Grind the above four ingredients into powder, add five liters of water, boil and take three liters, remove the residue, and take one liter while warm. (Di Dang Tang from the Golden Chamber)

2. Women with blood stasis in the abdomen, irregular menstruation, or menstruation that stops or comes again, and fullness and anxiety in the heart and abdomen: 3 liang of peach kernels (soaked in soup, peeled, tip and kernels removed, fried with bran until slightly yellow), 40 horseflies (fried until slightly yellow, wings and legs removed), 40 leeches (fried until slightly yellow), 3 liang of Sichuan rhubarb (crushed and slightly fried). Grind the above ingredients into powder, mix with refined honey and pound for more than a hundred times, then make into pills as big as sycamore seeds. For each dose, take 15 pills on an empty stomach with hot wine. (Tao Ren Wan from Sheng Hui Fang)

3. Irregular menstruation, or lochia after childbirth, and pain in the navel and abdomen: 4 liang of Rehmannia root, 50 each of horsefly (remove the head and wings and fry), 50 leeches (fry together with glutinous rice until it turns yellow, remove the glutinous rice), and peach kernels (peeled and tip removed). Grind the above ingredients into powder, make into pills with honey, the size of tung nuts. Take five to seven pills each time, on an empty stomach with warm wine. (Dihuang Tongjing Pills from "Good Prescriptions for Women")

4. If bleeding does not stop: Use leeches to treat the lower sieve, take about one qian with wine, twice a day, the bad blood will disappear and the disease will heal. (Qianjin Fang)

5. Fracture: Dry leeches on new tiles, grind them into fine powder, mix with hot wine and take one coin of the powder. Eat for a while, the pain will subside. Repeat the dose to stop the pain. Then he sealed the bone-breaking medicine and clamped it in place. (Experience Prescription)

6. Wounds caused by wounds, injuries from blows, falls from heights, crushing by wood or stone, internal damage and blood stasis, pain in the heart and abdomen, obstruction of urination and defecation, and suffocation: 0.5 liang of red leeches (fry with lime over low heat until brown), 2 liang of rhubarb, and 2 liang of black morning glory. Grind the above ingredients into fine powder, take 3 qian each time, and mix with hot wine. If a person walks 4 or 5 miles, mix 2 qian of morning glory powder with hot wine to stimulate the passage of blood. The bad blood must be expelled from the internal organs in the form of lumps or flakes. The patient will recover when all the bad blood is gone. (Dumingsan from Jishengfang)