What are the differences between Cao Kou and Cao Guo? A quick guide to telling them apart

Cao Kou and Cao Guo are both medicinal herbs used to resolve dampness, and they look very similar, so people often confuse them. So what are the differences between Cao Kou and Cao Guo?

1. What are the differences between Cao Kou and Cao Guo?

1. Morphology

Cao Kou: roundish spherical clusters, 1.5-2.7cm in diameter, with a brown surface; a white membrane in the middle divides the seed mass into 3 segments, each segment containing 22-100 seeds that adhere tightly together; slightly smooth, and not easy to scatter.

Cao Guo: elongated oval, with three blunt ridges, 2-100px long, 1-62.5px in diameter. The surface is grayish brown to reddish brown, with longitudinal grooves and ridge lines, a rounded protruding stylopodium at the top, and a fruit stalk or fruit stalk scar at the base.

2. Main indications

Cao Guo: used for internal obstruction by cold-dampness, abdominal distension and pain, stuffiness and vomiting, malarial cold and heat, and pestilential fever.

Cao Kou: dries dampness and strengthens the spleen, warms the stomach and stops vomiting. Used for internal obstruction by cold-dampness, abdominal distension with cold pain, belching and vomiting, and loss of appetite.

3. Places of origin

Cao Guo: mainly produced in Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou and other places.

Cao Kou: mainly produced in Guangdong, Taiwan, China, Hainan and Guangxi.