What is calamus?

As various delicacies continue to infiltrate people's lives in modern society, many friends appear to have no restraint when faced with various temptations of delicacies. So they develop the habit of eating midnight snacks at night, which puts more burden on their stomachs and intestines, resulting in symptoms of abdominal pain and stomach pain. Therefore, they will take calamus to alleviate the condition well, but what is calamus? In the following time, please friends, please join me in learning about it.

[Other names of the drug] Nine-section calamus (ancient), mountain calamus, stone centipede, water sword grass. [Source] This product is the dried rhizome of Acorus tatarinowii Schott, a plant of the Araceae family. Dig it up in autumn and winter, remove the fibrous roots and mud, and dry it in the sun. [Preparation method] Remove impurities, wash, soak, cut into thick slices, and dry in the sun. [Properties] This product is flat and cylindrical, mostly curved, often with branches, 3 to 20 cm long and 0.3 to 1 cm in diameter. The surface is brown or gray-brown, rough, with unevenly distributed segments, the internodes are 0.2 to 0.8 cm long, with fine longitudinal lines, and one side has residual fibrous roots or dot-shaped root scars; the leaf scars are triangular, arranged alternately on the left and right, and some have hairy scaly leaf base remnants on them. It is hard, fibrous in cross section, off-white or slightly red, with obvious endothelial rings, and many vascular bundle dots and brown oil cells can be seen. It has a fragrant aroma and tastes bitter and slightly spicy.

【Explanation】Spicy, warm. It enters the heart and spleen meridians. This species is a poisonous plant included in the Chinese Plant Atlas Database. Its toxicity is that when mice are intraperitoneally injected with 250-1000 mg/kg of chloroform extract of the whole plant, they will experience decreased activity, increased muscle tone, erect tail, ptosis, deep and slow breathing, salivation, ataxia, abduction of limbs, disappearance of righting reflex, and paralysis and death. 【Functions and effects】 1. Phlegm obscures the orifices and causes coma. This product is pungent, bitter, dry, warm and has a penetrating aroma. It not only has the effect of opening the orifices and refreshing the mind, but also has the effects of removing dampness, resolving phlegm and eliminating filth. Therefore, it is good at treating mental confusion caused by the obstruction of the clear orifices by the evil of phlegm, dampness and turbidity. For the treatment of stroke with phlegm obscuring the mind, confusion, and stiff tongue that makes it impossible to speak, it is often used in combination with drying dampness and resolving phlegm drugs such as Pinellia, Arisaema, and Tangerine Peel, such as Di Tan Decoction (Ji Sheng Fang); for the treatment of phlegm-heat obstructing the mind, high fever, coma and delirium, it is often used in combination with Curcuma, Pinellia, and Bamboo Sap, such as Acorus and Curcuma Decoction (Wen Bing Quan Shu); for the treatment of phlegm-heat epilepsy and convulsions, it can be used with Citrus aurantium, Bamboo Shavings, and Coptis chinensis, such as Qing Xin Wen Dan Decoction (Gu Jin Yi Jian); for the treatment of epilepsy and internal phlegm and heat, it can be used with Polygala, Cinnabar, and Raw Iron, such as Raw Iron Drink (Yi Xue Xin Wu); for the treatment of dampness obstructing the mind, dizziness, drowsiness, forgetfulness, tinnitus, deafness, etc., it is often used with Poria, Polygala, Dragon Bone, etc., such as An Shen Ding Zhi Pills (Yi Xue Xin Wu).

I believe that with our understanding of the above, most of our friends have their own unique insights and more standard answers about what calamus is. Of course, I would also like to tell you that the effects of calamus are actually diverse. It can effectively promote blood circulation, dispel wind and remove dampness, and it is also effective in treating some epilepsy diseases. So I hope friends can learn more about it.