Grow a Chinese lantern plant and enjoy both its ornamental and medicinal value

There is a kind of wild plant whose fruit looks very much like the lanterns of ancient times. This wild plant is also a medicinal herb for treating everyday colds, coughs and swollen, painful gums, with very good results, and as a potted plant at home it can also serve as an ornamental. So what is it?

It grows throughout the north and south of our country; its figure can be seen in the fields of the countryside and along village paths and roadsides. Its young branches are dark brown, its calyx is purplish red, its corolla is pale red or white, and its fruit is shaped like a lantern, turning deep blue when ripe and hidden inside the calyx. Many friends have surely seen this plant; it is the Chinese lantern plant, also called baobucao, denglongpao, ghost lantern and so on.

The Chinese lantern plant not only has cute-looking fruit, but the whole plant is a treasure. Its roots contain organic acids, amino acids, phenols and sugars; its leaves contain chlorogenic acid; and its fruit is rich in carotene, 89.55% water, 2.01% nitrogen, 0.28% fat, 0.69% cellulose, 0.78% ash, 0.56% organic acids and other nutrients.

So the root of the Chinese lantern plant, used as medicine, can clear heat and reduce internal heat, and taken internally it can treat colds and fever; for external use, fresh leaves pounded into a paste, or dried roots ground into powder, applied to sprains and swelling gives a therapeutic effect.

Grown on a balcony, the Chinese lantern plant can also make a very good green decorative plant, and its ripe fruit can also become a lovely ornament. How about growing one?