The fruit I used to play house with when I was a kid turned out to be a great anti-cancer drug

Every autumn, you can see a lot of wild grasses with small red fruits on the roadside, hillsides, and field edges. The red fruits, which are not much bigger than soybeans, are always very popular. Children will pick them to play house. For little girls, picking a handful is like a "ruby" in their hands. In fact, it's not just children who enjoy these fruits. In the autumn when many grasses are withering, seeing these bright red fruits is still very refreshing.

Children may not know this, but I definitely know that this is the fruit of the white sedge. Of course, white sedge is a traditional Chinese medicine, and its name is white-haired vine. It is a widely distributed medicinal material, distributed in East China, Central South, Southwest China, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu and other places. It is also a relatively niche medicinal material. It is not as aristocratic as ginseng and Panax notoginseng, nor as old as licorice, the "oldest Chinese medicine". But small medicinal herbs also have their uses.

The whole herb of White-haired Thunbergia is used as medicine. The whole herb can be harvested from July to October and can be used fresh or dried. The nature of Scutellaria baicalensis is sweet, bitter and cold, and it is slightly toxic. It enters the liver, gallbladder and kidney meridians, and has the effects of clearing away heat and dampness, detoxifying and reducing swelling. It is mainly used to treat damp-heat jaundice, cholecystitis and gallstones, nephritic edema, rheumatic joint pain, damp-heat diarrhea in women, high fever and convulsions in children, carbuncles, scrofula, eczema itching, and herpes zoster.

The Kaibao Materia Medica notes: "The stems and leaves are cooked into porridge, which can effectively relieve heat and toxicity." The Shennong Materia Medica gives it a very high evaluation: "It can cure cold and heat, jaundice, thirst, replenish the middle and benefit the qi, and long-term consumption can make the body light and prolong life." The Baicao Jing records: "The wine soaked in the stems of the vine can eliminate rheumatic pain in the joints."

But in fact, modern research has shown that Scutellaria baicalensis is a "holy anti-cancer product". The extract of Scutellaria baicalensis contains steroidal saponins, which have very clear anti-cancer effects and have a significant inhibitory effect on human cervical cancer cells. Hubei Chinese Herbal Medicine Records: "It clears away heat and detoxifies, promotes diuresis and reduces swelling, and is anti-cancer and analgesic. It is used for colds and fevers, icteric hepatitis, dysentery, nephritic edema, cholecystitis, cholelithiasis, lymphatic tuberculosis, esophageal cancer, intestinal cancer, cervical cancer, uterine erosion, leucorrhea, carbuncle, herpes zoster, eczema, etc."

Additional recipe:

For the treatment of cholecystitis: 60g of Scutellaria baicalensis, 24g of Gardenia jasminoides, 30g of Herba Lysimachiae, decocted in water and taken orally.

——"Fujian Pharmacopoeia"

For treating rheumatic joint pain: Soak 30g of Scutellaria baicalensis, 20g of Honeysuckle, 30g of Acanthopanax acanthopanax, and 500g of wine.

——"Guiyang Folk Medicinal Herbs"

To treat red eyes caused by wind and fire: Mash the fresh leaves of Scutellaria baicalensis, mix with human milk and apply on the eyelids.

——《Fujian Chinese Medicinal Herbs》