The efficacy and function of red wormwood

There are many customs during the Dragon Boat Festival, all of which are to commemorate Qu Yuan. Washing your face with red wormwood is one of them. Washing your face with red wormwood has a good wish, wishing you to be healthy in the future. Red wormwood also has the effect of repelling mosquitoes. Soaking your feet in red wormwood frequently can also drive away the cold. Red wormwood grows in large areas on the mountains in rural areas. Here I will introduce to you the effects of red wormwood.

In ancient times, when the winter wind suddenly blew, people living in caves could only make fire by using flint to make fire. Some people who suffered from joint pain, back pain and leg pain found that their symptoms were relieved or even cured when they kept warm. People began to consciously use wooden sticks and grass stems to smoke the affected areas. After continuous attempts, they found that mugwort had the best effect. Thus began the history of traditional Chinese medicine moxibustion treatment.

Mugwort is mainly distributed in eastern Asia, such as the Korean Peninsula, Japan, and Mongolia. It is distributed in Northeast, North, East, South, Southwest my country, Shaanxi and Gansu. It has strong adaptability and commonly grows in roadside wilderness and grasslands. It can grow anywhere with good drainage and sunshine, but it grows better in moist and fertile soil.

1. Nutritional value of mugwort

Modern pharmacology has discovered that mugwort contains a lot of volatile oil, including 1.8-cineole (accounting for more than 50%), and others include α-thujone, sesquiterpene alcohols and their esters. The air-dried leaves contain 10.13% minerals, 2.59% fat, 25.85% protein, and vitamins A, B1, B2, C, etc. When using moxa leaves for moxibustion, generally speaking, the older the leaves, the better. Hence, there is a saying that “a seven-year illness requires three years of treatment with moxa” (Mencius).

Mugwort is bitter, pungent and warm in nature, and enters the spleen, liver and kidneys. "Compendium of Materia Medica" records: Mugwort leaves are used as medicine, which are warm in nature, bitter in taste, non-toxic, purely yang in nature, and can pass through the twelve meridians. It has the effects of restoring yang, regulating qi and blood, expelling dampness and cold, stopping bleeding and stabilizing the fetus, and is also commonly used in acupuncture. Therefore, it is also called "medicinal herb". Most of the "herbal baths" that are popular in Taiwan use mugwort.

(II) The efficacy of mugwort

Mugwort is bitter, dry and pungent in nature. It can regulate qi and blood, warm the meridians, expel cold and dampness, and relieve cold pain. It is an important medicine for gynecology. It is used to treat cold pain in the abdomen, irregular menstruation, uterine cold and infertility, such as Ai Fu Nuan Gong Pills. Stir-fried charcoal can stop bleeding and can be used to treat excessive menstruation due to deficiency and cold, metrorrhagia, leukorrhea, and fetal bleeding during pregnancy, such as Jiao Ai Decoction. This product can be pounded into moxa sticks and moxa cones. External moxibustion can dispel cold, relieve pain, and warm Qi and blood. The decoction can be used for external washing to treat eczema, scabies, and eczema, and to relieve itching.

Regarding the properties of mugwort, "Compendium of Materia Medica" records: "Mugwort can cure all diseases." "Compendium of Materia Medica Congxin" says: "Mugwort is bitter and pungent, warm when raw, hot when cooked, and has a purely yang nature. It can restore the lost yang, connect the twelve meridians, run through the three yin meridians, regulate qi and blood, expel cold and dampness, warm the uterus... Using it for moxibustion can penetrate all meridians and cure all diseases." This shows that using mugwort as a moxibustion material has the effects of dredging blood vessels, eliminating yin and cold, reducing swelling and dispersing nodules, and restoring yang and rescuing from adverse conditions.

(III) The role of mugwort

Mugwort has been used to prevent plague for thousands of years. Chinese herbal medicine can be obtained locally, and modern medical pharmacological research has shown that mugwort is a broad-spectrum antibacterial and antiviral drug. It has inhibitory and killing effects on many viruses and bacteria, and has a certain preventive and therapeutic effect on respiratory diseases. The method of fumigation with mugwort leaves for epidemic prevention is a simple and easy method of epidemic prevention.

Mugwort, also known as Artemisia selengensis and Artemisia argyi. Its stems and leaves contain volatile aromatic oils, which produce a unique fragrance that can repel mosquitoes, flies, insects and ants and purify the air. In traditional Chinese medicine, mugwort is often used as a medicine, which has the functions of regulating qi and blood, warming the uterus, and removing cold and dampness. In traditional Chinese acupuncture, the moxibustion method is to place "moxa wool" processed from mugwort leaves on acupuncture points and burn it to treat diseases.