What are the benefits and effects of creeping woodsorrel?

Creeping woodsorrel, also known as sour grass, spotted dove sorrel, three-leaf sorrel, etc., is the whole plant of the wood sorrel family plant creeping woodsorrel (Oxalis corniculata). Used as medicine, it has the effects of clearing heat and draining dampness, cooling blood and dispersing stasis, and detoxifying and reducing swelling. It has therapeutic effects on damp-heat diarrhea, dysentery, jaundice, strangury, leukorrhea, hematemesis, epistaxis, hematuria, irregular menstruation, traumatic injuries, sore throat, carbuncles and boils, erysipelas, eczema, and snake and insect bites. Now let us take a look at the benefits and effects of creeping woodsorrel!

Medicinal Effects of Creeping Woodsorrel

[Nature and Flavor] Sour in flavor, cold in nature.

[Meridian Entry] Liver, lung and bladder meridians.

[Effects] Clearing heat and draining dampness, cooling blood and dispersing stasis, detoxifying and reducing swelling. It mainly treats damp-heat diarrhea, dysentery, jaundice, strangury, leukorrhea, hematemesis, epistaxis, hematuria, irregular menstruation, traumatic injuries, sore throat, carbuncles and boils, erysipelas, eczema, scabies, hemorrhoids, measles, scalds and burns, and snake and insect bites.

Related Discussions on Creeping Woodsorrel

1. "Bencao Tujing": To treat blood stasis and obstruction in women, wash clean and grind finely, then take it warmed with wine.

2. "Diannan Bencao": To treat chronic diarrhea with intestinal slackness and chronic dysentery with red and white discharge, decoct it with granulated sugar and take it.

3. "Yilin Zuanyao": Tonifies the lung and drains the liver, removes heat qi, dispels blood stasis, and astringes yin.

4. "Luchuan Bencao": Reduces swelling and relieves pain, removes necrotic flesh. Treats ulcerated sores and carbuncles.

Clinical Applications of Creeping Woodsorrel

1. Treating insomnia: Take 10 jin of creeping woodsorrel and 2 jin of pine needles, add 8000 mL of water, decoct for 1 hour, filter and remove the residue. Separately take 1 jin of jujube, crush it, add 2000 mL of water, decoct for 1 hour, filter and remove the residue. Mix the two liquids, add an appropriate amount of sugar and preservative, and set aside. Take 15 to 20 mL each time, 3 times a day. In observations of more than 5000 cases, there was a certain sedative and sleep-inducing effect.

2. Treating infectious hepatitis: Take 1 liang of creeping woodsorrel and 1 liang of lean pork, stew and take. 1 dose per day, taken continuously for 1 week. In the treatment of more than 20 cases (some cases were treated in combination with Chinese herbal compound formulas), a certain therapeutic effect was achieved in all.

Medicinal Supplementary Formulas for Creeping Woodsorrel

1. To treat watery diarrhea: Take three qian of creeping woodsorrel, steep it, add brown sugar and steam, then take it.

2. To treat dysentery: Grind creeping woodsorrel into powder, take five qian each time, and take it with boiled water.

3. To treat damp-heat jaundice: Take one to one and a half liang of creeping woodsorrel. Decoct twice in water and take the liquid in divided doses.

4. To treat blood strangury and heat strangury: Take the juice of creeping woodsorrel, add honey and take it together.

5. To treat urinary obstruction and urinary strangury: Take two liang of creeping woodsorrel and two liang of sweet wine. Decoct them together in water and take, 3 times a day.

6. To treat obstruction of both urine and stool: Take a large handful of creeping woodsorrel and a handful of plantain herb. Pound them to extract juice, add one qian of granulated sugar, mix and take one cup; if there is still no relief, take again.

7. To treat urinary obstruction with fullness and oppression in the chest: Take a handful of creeping woodsorrel. Grind it to obtain the natural juice, mix it with an equal half of mellow wine, and take it. If one does not drink alcohol, use three cun of licorice and a piece of fresh ginger the size of a jujube, chop them, grind them together, use five fen of a cup of well flower water, filter to obtain the juice, and take it mixed as well.

8. To treat red and white leukorrhea: Take three-leaf sorrel, dry it in the shade and make it into powder, and take three qian spoons with warm wine on an empty stomach.

9. To treat measles: Take two to three qian of sour grass each time. Decoct in water and take.

10. To treat nasal bleeding: Pound fresh creeping woodsorrel into a paste, knead it into small pills, and insert them into the nasal cavity.

11. To treat hematemesis and epistaxis: Take four qian of creeping woodsorrel and several grains of table salt. Decoct in water and take.

12. To treat malaria: Take three qian of creeping woodsorrel, decoct in water and take.

13. To treat putrefaction of the gums: Take fresh creeping woodsorrel and a little table salt, pound them into a paste and squeeze out the juice, use sterilized cotton to dip in the juice, and wipe and wash the affected area, three to five times a day.

14. To treat sore throat: Take one to two liang of fresh creeping woodsorrel and a little table salt. Pound them together into a paste, wrap them in gauze, and hold in the mouth, or decoct them into a decoction for gargling. It also treats stomatitis.

15. To treat wheezing and coughing: Take one liang of fresh creeping woodsorrel, add a little rice, cook and take, continuously for three doses.

16. To treat boils: Take fresh creeping woodsorrel, add a little brown sugar, pound into a paste, and apply to the affected area.

17. To treat breast carbuncle: Take five qian of creeping woodsorrel. Decoct in water and take, and apply the residue externally after mashing it.

18. To treat abdominal carbuncle and swelling: Take two liang of fresh creeping woodsorrel. Put it in a bowl and pound it to extract the juice, mix it with hot sweet wine, remove the residue, and take.

19. To treat ringworm sores with itching: Rub with creeping woodsorrel, and after several times it will heal.

20. To treat hemorrhoids: Take a large handful of creeping woodsorrel and cut it coarsely. Use two large sheng of water, boil down to one sheng, take it all at once, and repeat the dose after three days.

21. To treat recent and old traumatic injuries: (1) Take three qian of creeping woodsorrel root and decoct it with sweet wine, then take it. (2) Take four parts fresh creeping woodsorrel, two parts scallion heads, one part fresh ginger, and five parts fermented glutinous rice mash. Pound them together, stir-fry until hot, wrap in cloth and iron the area, and when warm apply to the injured area.

22. To treat bruises with blue swelling: Take two liang of fresh creeping woodsorrel. Rub it on the injured area, and also take two liang of fresh herb, add five qian of brown sugar. Stew in boiled water and take.

23. To treat scalds and burns: Wash fresh creeping woodsorrel clean, pound it into a paste, mix with sesame oil, and apply to the affected area.

24. Urinary bleeding strangury. Pound creeping woodsorrel to extract juice, decoct with Wuling San and take.

25. Swelling and pain of the teeth. Take a handful of creeping woodsorrel, wash it clean, add forty-nine seeds of Sichuan pepper (with the pits removed), pound them together, and shape into bean-sized pills. Insert one pill each time into the painful area, and it is effective.