Saxifrage: A Common Rural Herb - Price, Benefits, and Can It Treat Hives and Otitis Media?
Saxifrage, also known as stone lotus leaf, golden thread hanging hibiscus, tiger ear, golden silk lotus leaf, and red ear, grows under forests, in shrublands, meadows, and shaded damp rock crevices at altitudes of 400-4500 m. It has the effects of dispelling wind and clearing heat, cooling blood, and detoxifying. So how much is saxifrage per jin? Can it treat hives and otitis media?
Saxifrage can actually be considered a fairly common wild grass in rural areas. It grows in rural areas of Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Taiwan, China, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, and most southern regions of China. Saxifrage mainly grows under forests, in shrublands, meadows, and shaded damp rock crevices. In the words of the elderly in rural areas, saxifrage is a wild grass that grows in dark ditches, so apart from experienced elderly people in rural areas, many people do not know the value of saxifrage.
What does saxifrage look like?
Perennial evergreen herb, up to 40 cm tall, covered with hairs throughout. Stolon branches are purplish red, thread-like, and can produce seedlings when touching the ground. Several leaves are clustered at the base of the stem; round or kidney-shaped, fleshy and thick, 4-9 cm wide, with a rounded tip, shallowly lobed or wavy-toothed edges, each shallow lobe sparsely bearing 3-4 serrations, base heart-shaped or truncate, green above, purplish red beneath, with small round dots; leaf stalk long, enlarged at the base. Flower stems emerge from the leaf axils, more than 2 times taller than the leaves, red; raceme 12-20 cm long, bracts ovate-elliptic, apex pointed, small flower stalks densely covered with reddish purple glandular hairs; calyx 5-parted, ovate, apex gradually pointed; petals 5, white, irregular, the lower 2 larger, the upper 3 smaller; stamens 10, unequal in length; pistil 1, ovary spherical, superior, style 2-branched, stigma slender. Capsule ovate, apex 2-deeply cleft, beak-shaped. Seeds ovate, with wart-like protrusions. Flowering period June-July, fruiting period July-November.
How much is saxifrage per jin?
It is understood that in some flower markets in the city, a good potted saxifrage plant costs about 10 to 20 yuan per pot, but if saxifrage is dried for medicinal use, the price is generally around 40 yuan per jin.
What are the benefits and effects of saxifrage? Can it treat hives and otitis media?
In fact, saxifrage is also a commonly used herbal medicine among the people. The whole plant of saxifrage can be used as medicine, and it has the effects of dispelling wind, clearing heat, cooling blood, and detoxifying. Among the people, it is also often used to treat symptoms such as rubella, eczema, otitis media, erysipelas, and coughing with blood.
Supplementary prescriptions
1. Treat otitis media: Mash fresh saxifrage leaves and drip the juice into the ear. ("Common Folk Herbal Medicines of Zhejiang")
2. Treat swollen and painful hemorrhoids: 30 g saxifrage. Decoct in water, add a little salt, place in a jar, and sit over the steam, 2 times daily. ("Folk Herbal Medicines of Jiangxi")
3. Treat lymphatic tuberculosis: Mash fresh saxifrage and apply to the affected area, use continuously for 3-5 days. (Southern Medicine "Chinese Herbal Medicine")
4. Treat profuse uterine bleeding: 30-60 g fresh saxifrage, add equal parts yellow wine and water and decoct for oral use. ("Common Folk Herbal Medicines of Zhejiang")
5. Treat coughing blood: 9 g saxifrage, 120 g lean pork. Chop together, make into meat patties. Add water, steam until cooked, and eat. ("Folk Herbal Medicines of Jiangxi")
6. Treat wind-fire toothache: 30-60 g saxifrage. Decoct in water, remove the residue, add 1 egg and cook together before eating. ("Medicinal Plant Flora of Zhejiang")
7. Treat skin rubella: 15 g each of saxifrage, Siberian cocklebur fruit, purple gromwell, and reed root. Decoct in water, take in 3 divided doses in the morning, noon, and evening. ("Selected Materia Medica of Guangxi")
8. Treat hives: 15 g saxifrage, 24 g Smilax glabra, 30 g honeysuckle stem, 15 g wild chrysanthemum. Decoct in water; take the first decoction orally, and use the second decoction to fumigate and wash the affected area. ("Medicinal Plant Flora of Zhejiang")
Small folk remedy
Treating suppurative otitis media
Take several fresh saxifrage leaves, mash for juice, filter through gauze, add an appropriate amount of borneol, and put into an eye drop bottle for later use. When using, first wash the external auditory canal with 3% hydrogen peroxide, clear away the purulent secretions, then drip the saxifrage liquid into the ear, 1-2 drops each time, 3 times daily. In treating 31 cases of suppurative otitis media, 25 acute cases healed in an average of 3 days, and 6 chronic cases showed effects in an average of 7 days.
Reminder: However, one point to note is that the whole saxifrage plant is slightly toxic, so if you are inexperienced, it is best not to use it casually.
What is the difference between saxifrage and cat ear herb
1. Morphological characteristics
Saxifrage: whip-like stolons slender, densely covered with curled long glandular hairs, with scale-like leaves. Basal leaves have long stalks, leaf blades nearly heart-shaped, kidney-shaped to flat round, lobe edges with irregular teeth and glandular eyelashes, green on the upper surface, covered with glandular hairs, usually purplish red on the underside, covered with glandular hairs, spotted, with palmate marginal venation, stem leaves lanceolate. Cyme paniculate, flowers zygomorphic; flowering and fruiting period April-November.
Cat ear herb: rhizome thick and short, obliquely ascending, densely covered with linear brown scales. Leaves nearly clustered; leaf stalk 7-15 cm tall, brown-black, glossy, pinnae on both sides 7-14 pairs, alternate, pinnae ovate to ovate-oblong, entire, lower pinnae stalked, upper ones sessile; leaves thickly papery, both surfaces densely covered with slender rust-colored hairs, especially more beneath; leaf veins fan-shaped.
2. Medicinal value
Saxifrage: dispels wind, clears heat, cools blood, and detoxifies. Treats rubella; eczema, otitis media, erysipelas, coughing blood, lung abscess, uterine bleeding, and hemorrhoids.
Cat ear herb: treats rheumatic joint pain, abdominal pain, malaria, and carbuncles.
What is the difference between saxifrage and cat ear herb? How to distinguish saxifrage from cat ear herb
3. Different families and genera
Saxifrage: the whole plant of Saxifraga stolonifera, a plant in the genus Saxifraga and family Saxifragaceae.
Cat ear herb: the rhizome or whole plant of Aristolochia mollissima, a plant in the genus Aristolochia and family Aristolochiaceae.