What is the difference between horsetail and ephedra? A quick guide to tell them apart

Horsetail is a grass that grows in segments, commonly seen along roadsides and hillsides, with some landscaping value and medicinal uses. So what is the difference between horsetail and ephedra?

1. What is the difference between horsetail and ephedra?

Horsetail is a perennial herbaceous plant with a plant height of 20-60cm. It is widely distributed and is a common weed among autumn-harvested crops such as corn, sweet potato and cotton. Ephedra is a small herbaceous shrub of the Ephedraceae family, with a plant height of more than one meter, some reaching as high as eight meters. It produces red fruits and is mainly distributed in desert or Gobi regions.

2. What effects and uses does horsetail have?

1. Dispelling wind and clearing heat

“Ben Cao Qiu Zhen”: “Its form is somewhat similar to ephedra, and its ascending and dispersing nature is also quite similar, but its qi is not pungent and hot, and it enters the Foot Shaoyang Gallbladder and Foot Jueyin Liver meridians. It can disperse wind-heat in the blood aspect of these two meridians, enabling blood to reach the eyes, and is therefore an important formula for removing eye films and improving vision.”

2. Improving vision and removing eye films

Horsetail is sweet and bitter in flavor and neutral in nature. Its body is light and hollow, and it has the effect of dispersing wind pathogens and clearing heat. As stated in “Compendium of Materia Medica”: “Horsetail has the same form and nature as ephedra, and can therefore also induce sweating and release the flesh, and ascend and disperse fire stagnation and wind-dampness.” It treats sore throat and carbuncle swelling.

3. Cooling blood and stopping bleeding

Horsetail is sweet and bitter in flavor and neutral in nature. Sweetness can tonify and moisten dryness, while bitterness can drain and reduce fire. It enters the Liver and Gallbladder meridians and has the effect of cooling blood and stopping bleeding. As stated in “Compendium of Materia Medica”: “Horsetail stops bleeding.” “Ben Cao Jing Shu” says: “Horsetail treats intestinal wind, stops dysentery, and treats incessant menstruation in women, flooding and spotting with red and white discharge, and bleeding hemorrhoids. All of these are the effects of entering the blood and benefiting the liver and gallbladder, because the liver stores blood.”

4. Incessant menstruation

Incessant menstruation is mostly caused by a constitution with yin deficiency or excessive childbirth and lactation, which depletes yin blood. Yin deficiency generates internal heat, and heat disturbs the Chong and Ren meridians, making the sea of blood restless, so that menstruation either does not stop when it should or stops and then returns. Horsetail can be used to cool blood and stop bleeding. As recorded in “Sheng Hui Fang”: “To treat incessant menstruation, take horsetail (stir-fried) three qian, decoct in one cup of water down to seven fen, take warm, once a day.”

5. Treating hemorrhoids

Hemorrhoid bleeding is mostly caused by dampness and heat binding together, pouring downward into the large intestine, with the sinews and vessels running transversely, qi and blood congealing, and accumulation that does not disperse. This manifests as blood in the stool, protruding hemorrhoid masses, prolapse or swelling and pain. Horsetail has the effect of cooling blood and stopping bleeding. For example, the horsetail powder in “Ren Zhai Zhi Zhi Fang”: “Treats intestinal wind and bloody stool.”