What is Sweetgum Resin? What Are Its Benefits and Effects? Including the Usage and Dosage of Sweetgum Resin

As a fairly commonly used traditional Chinese medicinal herb, many people are not familiar with sweetgum resin, nor with the benefits and effects of sweetgum resin. So today, the editor will give you an introduction to what sweetgum resin is? What benefits and effects does it have?

1. What is sweetgum resin?

Sweetgum resin, also known as white glue or white glue resin, is the dried resin of the sweetgum tree (Liquidambar formosana), a plant of the Hamamelidaceae family. It is mainly produced in Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Yunnan and other places. In July and August, the trunk is cut open to let the resin flow out, and it is harvested from October to April of the following year and dried in the shade. Sweetgum resin has the effects of promoting blood circulation and relieving pain, detoxifying, promoting tissue regeneration, and cooling the blood. It is mainly used for symptoms such as falls and bruises, carbuncles and swollen painful sores, vomiting blood, nosebleeds, and external bleeding from injuries.

2. What benefits and effects does sweetgum resin have?

1. Effects and indications

Dispelling wind and promoting blood circulation; detoxifying and relieving pain; stopping bleeding; promoting tissue regeneration. Used for carbuncles; sores and rashes; scrofula; toothache; arthralgia; paralysis; vomiting blood; nosebleeds; coughing blood; external bleeding from injuries; skin fissures.

2. Pharmacological effects

In vitro experiments with sweetgum resin and its volatile oil shortened the length of rabbit blood clots and reduced their weight (wet weight and dry weight), and in vivo experiments showed that it could significantly inhibit thrombus formation in rats; test-tube experiments showed that it could significantly increase plasmin activity and markedly raise the cAMP content in platelets. This indicates that the antithrombotic effect of sweetgum resin and its volatile oil is related to promoting fibrinolytic activity and increasing platelet cAMP, and suggests that the volatile oil may be the main hemostatic component of sweetgum resin.

3. Commonly used formulas

(1) To treat sores that do not heal: sweetgum resin and calomel two qian each, mix with lard and apply. (Ren Zhai Zhi Zhi Fang)

(2) To treat scrofula and all malignant sores and soft boils: sweetgum resin one liang, melt it open in a porcelain vessel, remove the residue, and after melting again, take sixty-four castor beans, make them into a paste, add into the glue and stir evenly, add half a spoonful of oil, test by dropping into water, adjust the glue and oil according to hardness and softness; when suitable, according to the size of the sore, spread the plaster on red silk and apply it; one plaster can treat three to five boils. (Ru Men Shi Qin, Yu Bing Zi)

(3) To treat chancre: transparent sweetgum resin ground into powder, add a little calomel and musk, mix with oil and apply. (Xiu Zhen Fang)

(4) To treat chronic shin ulcers: sweetgum resin powder, wrapped with indocalamus leaves and applied. (Xiu Zhen Fang)

(5) To treat ringworm and various sores in children: sweetgum resin, phellodendron, and calomel. Grind the above into fine powder, mix with sheep bone marrow and apply to the ringworm. (Ru Men Shi Qin)

(6) To treat metal wounds with severed tendons: apply sweetgum powder. (Shi Yi De Xiao Fang)

(7) To treat fractures: frankincense, sweetgum resin, and pitch in equal parts (ground). Mix with sesame oil into a dough-like preparation, cook over a double boiler into a paste, avoiding copper and iron, and lift it with a stick until it forms threads, then it becomes a paste. (Ji Feng Pu Ji Fang, Sweetgum Resin Paste)

(8) To treat long-standing toothache: sweetgum resin ground into powder, rubbed on every morning. (Shi Yi De Xiao Fang)

(9) To treat unstoppable vomiting of blood: sweetgum resin, any amount, finely ground into powder, two qian per dose, taken mixed with freshly drawn water. (Jian Yao Ji Zhong Fang)

(10) To treat nosebleeds: clam powder and sweetgum resin in equal parts. Take mixed with good pine-soot ink juice. (Bai Yi Xuan Fang)

3. Usage and dosage

External use: appropriate amount, ground into powder and sprinkled or mixed and applied, or made into a plaster and spread on; it can also be made into a fumigating smoke medicine. Oral use: decocted in water, 3-6g; generally made into pills or powders.