This "hateful" fruit is actually a miracle cure

When I was a child, the wasteland at the door was full of various weeds, one of which I still remember vividly. After this plant blooms, the fruit it produces is spherical with a lot of hairs on the ball, which are in the shape of barbed thorns. If you pick this fruit and throw it on someone, it will stick to them immediately, so we jokingly call it a sticky seed.

Later I learned that this so-called sticky fruit is actually a traditional Chinese medicine. It is the dried mature fruit of the biennial herb burdock of the Asteraceae family. It has aliases such as burdock, rat sticky fruit, and evil fruit. Most of them grow wild on mountain roadsides, ditches, wastelands, sunny grasslands on hillsides, and forest edges. Of course, some people also cultivate burdock.

The leaves of burdock don’t look very attractive, but the small red-purple flowers are very beautiful. Its fruit is generally used as medicine. When the fruits are ripe in autumn, harvest the inflorescences, dry them in the sun, beat the fruits, remove impurities, and dry them again before using them as medicine.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, burdock seed tastes pungent and bitter, is cold in nature, and belongs to the lung and stomach meridians. It has the effects of dispersing wind-heat, promoting lung function and relieving rash, detoxifying and relieving sore throat. It is suitable for wind-heat colds, coughs with sputum, measles, rubella, sore throat, mumps, erysipelas, carbuncles, ulcers and other symptoms. However, burdock seed is generally classified as a wind-heat dispersing drug among antipyretic drugs.

When using burdock seeds, they are used in combination with other Chinese medicines. By adding or subtracting one ingredient, the effects can be varied. For example, the combination of burdock seeds and duckweed has the wonderful effects of dispersing wind-heat, clearing out rash toxins, and dispelling wind and relieving itching. It is suitable for exogenous wind-heat, sore throat and other symptoms. It can also be used for symptoms of measles that are not cleared up smoothly, as well as wind-heat rash and itching.

The combination of burdock seeds and yam is wonderful, one tonic and one clears, and the tonic and clearing effects complement each other. They can promote lung qi, clear lung heat, strengthen the spleen and stomach, and enhance the power of removing phlegm and relieving cough. It is suitable for symptoms such as chest fullness and stuffiness, cough, shortness of breath, watery voice in the throat, fatigue and weakness caused by weak spleen and stomach, weak lung qi, endogenous phlegm and dampness, and obstruction of the airway.

Burdock seeds and Forsythia suspensa are used together, and the two should be used in parallel, so that the power of clearing away heat and detoxifying, relieving inflammation and pain, dispelling wind and relieving itching, and expelling rash toxins is enhanced. It is suitable for symptoms such as mouth and tongue ulcers, swollen and painful gums, and sore throat caused by heat accumulation in the upper part of the body. It can also be used for carbuncles, sores, and ulcers, as well as wind-heat itching, rashes, and macules.

Burdock seeds can be used in combination with Scrophularia, Licorice, Mint, Platycodon and other medicines to solve throat related problems. The use of burdock seeds and Scrophularia ningpoensis together can double the power of detoxification and relieving sore throat, and can be used for symptoms such as red, swollen and painful throat caused by exogenous fever. It can also be used for modern acute tonsillitis, pharyngitis, etc.; the use of burdock seeds and licorice can solve the sore throat caused by wind-heat in the lung meridian or stagnation of fire and heat toxicity in the lung meridian. Modern acute pharyngitis, tonsillitis and other diseases can also be treated accordingly; burdock seeds and mint are compatible, which has the effects of dispersing wind, clearing heat and relieving sore throat, and can treat exogenous wind-heat; the use of burdock seeds and platycodon can greatly increase the power of dispersing wind and ventilating the lungs, and can be used to treat exogenous wind-heat, cough and sputum, and sore throat.

Burdock has a wide range of uses, but it also has its contraindications. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that burdock seeds can lubricate the intestines, so people with qi deficiency and loose stools should avoid using it. The record in "Bencao Jingshu" is more detailed, "For smallpox, it is only suitable for symptoms of blood heat and constipation. If the patient has qi deficiency, pale stool, spontaneous bowel movements or diarrhea, do not take it. Measles does not have to avoid diarrhea, so it can be used. It is not suitable for carbuncle that has already ulcerated unless it is constipation."