Yujiu Chuan: from a harmful weed farmers hated to a top-grade wild vegetable worth 10 yuan per jin

Friendly reminder: Hemu Report aims to share and popularize information about various plants and their uses, for reference only. If medicinal use is needed, it is advisable to consult a professional physician to avoid problems!

In rural areas there are all kinds of wild grasses, and quite a few of them are very popular among farmers, because some can be eaten as wild vegetables and others can be used as herbal medicine to treat illnesses, such as dandelion, houttuynia cordata and plantain. But did you know? Some wild grasses have these uses too, yet they were once harmful weeds in farmland that many farmers disliked, and now they have become top-grade wild vegetables that everyone loves. Below, the author will share one of them with you.

In the morning, when the author was about to pick vegetables in the vegetable garden, I found a patch of "chrysanthemums" beside the garden. I had thought that no chrysanthemums or the like seemed to have been planted here. Looking closer, it turned out that these were not "chrysanthemums" but a very popular wild vegetable now, namely "Yujiu Chuan", also called Niqiu Chuan (mudfish string). Speaking of the wild grass Yujiu Chuan, friends who have lived in rural areas should be fairly familiar with it. It is a very popular wild vegetable in spring, and quite a few friends have probably eaten it in March and April.

But did you know? This wild grass Yujiu Chuan was actually disliked by many farmers in the past, because it likes to grow near or inside vegetable gardens and farmland, and Yujiu Chuan has strong vitality, grows fast and adapts easily, often snatching nutrients from crops and causing a certain impact on crops. Therefore, in the past, Yujiu Chuan was once regarded as a harmful weed in farmland and vegetable gardens, and farmers often pulled it out as soon as they saw it, so as not to affect the growth of crops and vegetables.

But now, this Yujiu Chuan, once treated as a harmful weed, has turned things around and become a famous top-grade wild vegetable.

In March and April, when Yujiu Chuan has just grown out, its tender leaves are an excellent wild vegetable, and its tender leaves are also called "malantou" (Indian aster). Many friends are surely familiar with it; this wild vegetable is quite rich in nutritional value.

According to records, malantou contains abundant nutrients. Every 100 grams of malantou contains 26 mg of vitamin C, 0.72 mg of vitamin E, 67 mg of calcium, 38 mg of phosphorus, 285 mg of potassium, 15.2 mg of sodium, 14 mg of magnesium, 2.4 mg of iron and many other vitamins and mineral elements, among which the potassium content is 20 times that of ordinary vegetables, making it a very good health-care wild vegetable.

Besides its tender leaves being edible as a wild vegetable, Yujiu Chuan can also be used as medicine. According to the "Chinese Materia Medica", the whole plant and root of Yujiu Chuan can be used as medicine, with the effects of clearing heat, cooling blood, detoxifying and draining dampness, and can be used to treat hematemesis, epistaxis, acute pharyngitis, tonsillitis, mumps, dysentery, abnormal uterine bleeding, infantile malnutrition, carbuncles and swellings and many other symptoms.

It is precisely because Yujiu Chuan has edible and medicinal value that it has changed from a harmful weed into a "treasure". In the rural area where the author lives, the tender leaves of Yujiu Chuan sell for 10 yuan per jin, while its whole plant used as medicinal material sells for 12 yuan per jin, which makes it a rather good wild grass.

Dear friends, have you ever eaten the tender leaves of Yujiu Chuan? You are welcome to leave comments and share!

Text/Hemu Report, images/Internet. If you like Hemu's articles, you are welcome to follow.