Can Plantain Treat Gout? A Detailed Guide to How to Eat It and How It Differs from Dandelion
Plantain, also known as hound's tongue, is a plant whose every part is a treasure. Because it has effects such as relieving cough and phlegm, treating mumps and chronic bronchitis, it is widely used as a medicinal herb and is now widely cultivated. So can plantain treat gout? How do you eat it? How does it differ from dandelion?
1. Can plantain treat gout?
Plantain can treat gout. Gout is a group of diseases caused by long-term purine metabolism disorder and elevated blood uric acid that leads to tissue damage. Its clinical features are hyperuricemia and recurrent attacks of characteristic acute arthritis, seen in the small joints of the fingers and toes, and over time it may be accompanied by gout stones. Plantain has traditionally been a commonly used medicine for diuresis and stone expulsion. It can promote uric acid excretion and inhibit and clear urate crystals, and can serve as one of the auxiliary measures for treating gout.
2. How do you eat plantain to treat gout?
1. Plantain drink
Take 30-60 grams of dried plantain, or double the amount if fresh, decoct twice in water and take it, 1 dose per day, taken continuously. After taking the medicine, symptoms are relieved within 12-15 days of use.
2. Plantain seed porridge
Use 100 grams of japonica rice and 25 grams of plantain seeds. First wash the japonica rice clean and set aside; wrap the plantain seeds in gauze, put them in a pot, add an appropriate amount of water, boil for 15 minutes, then remove the plantain seeds; then put the washed japonica rice into the pot and cook until done. After cooking, you can add a small amount of sugar and it is ready to eat.
3. Plantain seed tea
Use 10 grams of plantain seeds, pick out impurities, then wash them clean, dry them in the sun, and set aside. When needed, put the plantain seeds in a pot and boil for 5 minutes, and drink when slightly warm.
4. Smilax glabra and plantain drink
Smilax glabra is a specialized medicine for preventing and treating gout and has relatively good effects. When used together with plantain, the effect is even better.
When drinking it, use 15 grams each of plantain and Smilax glabra, add water, boil, and drink it as tea.
5. Lysimachia and plantain tea
Lysimachia has effects such as promoting diuresis and treating strangury, clearing heat and detoxifying, and dispersing stasis and reducing swelling. It can be called a good medicine for stones, and when paired with plantain, it is also a good match for gout. In addition, plantain can also be boiled in water to soak the feet.
3. What is the difference between plantain and dandelion?
1. Difference in family and genus:
Plantain: Plantain is an annual or biennial herbaceous plant in the plant kingdom, angiosperms, dicotyledons, sympetalous subclass, Plantaginales, Plantaginaceae, Plantago.
Dandelion: Dandelion is a perennial herbaceous plant in the plant kingdom, angiosperms, dicotyledons, sympetalous subclass, Campanulales, Asteraceae, Liguliflorae, Cichorieae, Taraxacum.
2. Difference in morphology:
Plantain: Plantain has a long taproot with many lateral roots, more or less fleshy, and a short rhizome. The leaves are basal and rosette-like, lying flat, slanting outward, or upright; the leaf blades are papery, elliptical, elliptically lanceolate, or ovate-lanceolate, and the petiole base expands into a sheath. The inflorescence stalk has longitudinal stripes and sparsely grows short white soft hairs, and the spike is slender and cylindrical. The capsule is ovate-elliptical to conical-ovate, with 4-5 seeds, elliptical, flat on the ventral side, yellow-brown to black, and the cotyledons are arranged dorsiventrally. The flowering period is May-July, and the fruiting period is July-September.
Dandelion: The dandelion root is conical, brown on the surface, shrunken; the leaf margin sometimes has wavy teeth or pinnate deep lobes, and the base gradually narrows into a petiole; the petiole and main veins often have a red-purple color; the upper part of the scape is purple-red and densely covered with spiderweb-like white long soft hairs; the capitulum is head-like, the involucre is bell-shaped, the achene is dark brown, and the long pappus is white. The flowering and fruiting period is April-October.
3. Difference in production areas:
Plantain: In China, the main production areas of plantain are Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan, Xizang, and other places. It is also distributed in Korea, Russia, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Kashmir, and India.
Dandelion: Dandelion grows widely in hillside grasslands, roadsides, fields, and river beaches in middle and low altitude areas. It is distributed in China in Jiangsu, Hubei, Henan, Anhui, Zhejiang, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Shandong, Zhejiang, northern Fujian, Taiwan, China, Hunan, northern Guangdong, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, and other areas. It is also distributed in Korea, Mongolia, and Russia.
4. Difference in effects:
Plantain: Plantain is sweet in taste and cold in nature, and enters the liver, kidney, and bladder meridians. It has the effects of clearing heat, promoting diuresis, eliminating phlegm, cooling blood, and detoxifying. It is used for edema with little urine, painful heat strangury with rough urine, summer-damp diarrhea and dysentery, phlegm-heat cough, vomiting blood and nosebleeds, and swollen sores and toxic swellings, but it is contraindicated for those with kidney deficiency and insecure spermatorrhea.
Dandelion: Dandelion is bitter and sweet in taste and cold in nature, and enters the liver and stomach meridians. It has the effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, reducing swelling and dispersing nodules, and promoting diuresis and treating strangury. It mainly treats boils and toxic swellings, breast abscess, scrofula, red eyes, sore throat, lung abscess, intestinal abscess, damp-heat jaundice, and painful heat strangury with rough urine, but when using it, note that it is contraindicated for those with yang deficiency and external cold, and weak spleen and stomach.
4. How long should plantain be boiled in water?
Plantain should be boiled in water for 5 to 10 minutes. Plantain is actually a kind of wild grass by the roadside. Plantain is cold in nature but non-toxic, and after taking it, it easily has the effects of clearing heat, promoting diuresis, and clearing the liver and improving eyesight. For most people, drinking plantain soaked in water is very beneficial.