This invention that shocked China and the world is actually a traditional Chinese medicine

When it comes to the Four Great Inventions, almost no Chinese people don’t know about them, and they have always been a source of pride and honor to them. If you say that traditional Chinese medicine is one of the four great inventions, it may cause netizens to question: Are you deceiving people again? Who are you trying to fool? Aren’t the four great inventions: movable type printing, compass, papermaking, and gunpowder? Yes, that’s right! The problem is that saltpeter, the main ingredient of gunpowder, is a very good Chinese medicine!

As we all know, gunpowder is made from a mixture of saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal. The most important ingredient is saltpeter, which was used to treat diseases more than two thousand years ago. So one of the four great inventions is Chinese medicine, right?

In "Golden Chamber", Zhang Zhongjing used saltpeter and alum powder to treat black jaundice, also known as female tuberculosis jaundice. Zhongjing's "Golden Chamber" says: Huang's family has fever in the evening but feels cold, which is female labor jaundice. The disease is caused by bladder urgency, fullness in the lower abdomen, blackness on the forehead, and heat in the feet, which leads to black jaundice. Her abdomen is swollen like water, her stool is black and sometimes loose. This is a disease caused by fatigue in women, not water. Abdominal distension is difficult to treat. This is the main method. …

Saltpeter, also known as saltpeter, fire saltpeter, and tooth saltpeter (also known as Mangxiao or Beidi Xuanzhu, Yanxiao, etc. in ancient books), is a natural mineral whose main component is potassium nitrate.

Nature and flavor: bitter and salty, warm in nature. Slightly poisonous. It enters the heart and spleen meridians.

Indications and functions: It can eliminate filth and turbidity, break up accumulations, promote diuresis and purge, detoxify and reduce swelling. It is mainly used to treat summer heat stroke, vomiting and diarrhea due to cold and heat, lumps and masses, scrofula in the neck, abdominal pain due to blood stasis, jaundice and black jaundice, pain caused by sand and stone stranguria, headache, throat congestion, red eyes, and sores and swelling.

Single prescription: 1. It can treat cold caused by late summer heat, the mixing of two Qi, fullness and stuffiness in the middle abdomen, or headache and nausea. Saltpeter and sulfur in equal parts. Grind it into powder, stir-fry it in a silver or stone container over a gentle or strong fire until it turns goose yellow, then grind it into fine powder, and make it into pills with glutinous rice, as big as walnuts. Take 40 pills each time with freshly drawn water, at any time. (Erqi Dan from Jisheng Fang)

2. It is used to treat gynecological diseases, mass lumps, and leucorrhea and infertility. 90 grams of saltpeter, 120 grams of rhubarb, 30 grams each of ginseng and licorice. Grind the above ingredients into powder, add 600 ml of aged vinegar in a copper container, add rhubarb and boil for several times until it is 70% done, add the remaining ingredients and boil into a paste, then make into pills as big as walnuts. Take 30 pills each time with rice water, 3 times a day. (Big Saltpeter Pills from Qianjin Fang)

3. Treats wind-induced headache, stagnation in the upper part of the body, heat in the heart and diaphragm, and migraine. One fen each of saltpeter and asarum (without seedlings and leaves). Grind the above ingredients into fine powder. Use half a word each time, and when it is emitted, twitch it into the nostril on the side that doesn't hurt. If it hasn't stopped yet, twitch it into the nostril on the side that hurts again. (Ersheng Powder from Imperial Pharmacy)

4. Treats all kinds of stranguria. Saltpeter (white). Grind the above into fine powder. Take 6 grams each time. For hematuria, take it with Gardenia seed decoction. For heat stranguria, red and dripping urine with acute pain below the navel, take it with fresh water or Scutellaria baicalensis decoction. For stranguria due to qi, abdominal distension and residual urine after urination, take Akebia decoction. For stranguria due to stone, pain and cutting inside the penis, inability to urinate, sand and stones in the urine, causing suffocation, fry saltpeter through paper until the paper is burnt, then grind it into powder, add 30 hibiscus seeds (opened), and take it with decoction. (Saltwater powder from Renzhai Zhizhi Fang)

5. Treats lung heat, phlegm and sore throat. Saltpeter and Pinellia (soaked in water seven times, remove the peeling agent, and roast) 15 grams each. First, pound the pinellia into powder, then add saltpeter, grind them together until fine, then add 30 grams of white flour, mix well, and add water to make pills as big as mung beans. Take 20 pills each time, with ginger soup. (Puji Fang, Nitrate and Pinellia Pills)

9. Treats wind-heat throat congestion and throat rheumatism. One and a half liang of saltpeter, half a liang of borax, one word of brain, and one fen of white silkworm. Grind the above ingredients into powder and grind evenly. Use a bamboo tube to blow about half a penny into the throat. (Jade Key from "San Yin Fang")