Peony: Benefits, Effects and Contraindications: Root Bark Can Fight Cancer and Stop Bleeding, Use with Caution If You Have Heart Disease
Peonies are very common in daily life. Many people grow potted peonies at home; they are not only beautiful but also do a great job of beautifying the environment. The uses of peonies go far beyond ornamentation: their flowers can also be brewed as tea, and their medicinal value is very broad. Their root bark can be used as medicine to fight cancer and stop bleeding. These are all benefits and effects of peonies. Let us take a look together at the benefits, effects and contraindications of peonies.
I. Benefits and Effects of Peony: Root Bark Can Fight Cancer and Stop Bleeding
The peony is a very common potted plant in daily life, and many households have grown one. Earlier we discussed how to grow peonies; now let us look at the benefits and effects of peonies. When it comes to the uses of peonies, there are truly too many to count. They not only have medicinal value but can also beautify the environment well, and they also have edible uses. Below we explain one by one the benefits, effects and contraindications of peonies.
1. Ornamental value
Peonies have high ornamental value and can be enjoyed as a single plant or grown as multiple potted plants. Placed at home, they can beautify the environment very well. Peonies have always given people a feeling of elegance and generosity; placing them in the living room can make the home appear wealthy and grand, elevating the home's style.
2. Edible benefits
Besides being enjoyed for their beauty, peonies can also be eaten by humans. As early as in ancient Chinese books, there are records that peonies are edible. There are many ways to eat peonies: they can be soaked in honey before eating, or made into peony wine, or steamed before eating. Peonies contain a variety of vitamins and amino acids; after people eat them, they can play an important role in beautifying the skin and promoting blood circulation.
3. Regulating menstruation and promoting blood circulation
Not only can the root bark be used as medicine; the peony flower can also be used as medicine. This flower contains a large amount of astragalin, a natural blood-activating component. After entering the human body, it can promote blood circulation and regulate menstruation. It is especially suitable for women to consume, and its therapeutic effect on irregular menstruation in women is particularly obvious.
4. Fighting cancer and stopping bleeding
Peonies not only have beautiful flowers; their root bark is also a very unique substance that can be used as medicine. It is a Chinese medicinal material with outstanding effects, and can enter the kidney and liver meridians. Activating blood and dissolving stasis and clearing heat and cooling blood are its most important effects. It is usually used to treat traumatic bleeding and bruises and swelling. In addition, the peony root bark contains natural anti-cancer substances; after human use, the incidence of cancer can be significantly reduced.
5. Feng shui effects
Peony flowers have very good symbolism, representing completeness and wealth. Placing them at home can endow the space with a fine cultural atmosphere and elevate its style; completeness and fullness can even improve the family's feng shui. If you feel your home has too strong a petty bourgeois atmosphere, you might as well put a pot of peonies to lift its tone.
II. Contraindications of Peony
1. Peony flower tea is suitable for people with irregular menstruation, blood deficiency, or anemia, but pregnant women and women during their menstrual period should use it with caution and had best not drink it. Because peony flower tea is cold in nature and has a certain blood-activating function, it is not recommended for people with spleen deficiency or weak constitutions.
2. People with heart disease and a rapid heart rate, patients with kidney deficiency, those with weak constitutions, those with severe high blood pressure, those with severe constipation, those with neurasthenia, those with anemia, and so on should use it in moderation.
3. The elderly generally have weaker constitutions, and ordinary adults should also keep their daily intake to 5 grams.
From the answers above, do you feel that the benefits and effects of peonies are very broad? Friends who like peonies can try growing a pot of peonies at home. The above is the complete analysis of the benefits, effects and contraindications of peonies; we hope it helps you.
Peony: Benefits, Effects and Contraindications
The profundity of traditional Chinese medicine lies in using local materials and understanding the properties and effects of all animals and plants, so that their effects can be brought into play at the right time. As a kind of plant, the peony is beautiful and full, the most noble of flowers. Like other plants, besides its ornamental value, the peony should also have other effects.
Peony: Benefits, Effects and Contraindications
I. Benefits and Effects of Peony
1. Peony has the effects of nourishing blood and soothing the liver, dispersing stagnation and removing stasis. It is suitable for facial chloasma and skin aging; regular drinking can make qi and blood abundant, the complexion rosy, and the spirit full.
2. Peony can relieve physiological pain and lower blood pressure, and is helpful for improving anemia and for beauty and skincare.
3. Peony can relieve pain, relieve cough, stop diarrhea, promote blood circulation, and prevent high blood pressure, etc.
4. Peony has beauty and skincare effects; it can lower blood pressure, tonify the liver, reduce menstrual pain, smooth the blood, and alleviate anemia in women.
II. Contraindications of Peony
1. People with heart disease and a rapid heart rate, patients with kidney deficiency, those with weak constitutions, those with severe high blood pressure, those with severe constipation, those with neurasthenia, those with anemia, and so on should use it in moderation.
2. The elderly generally have weaker constitutions, and ordinary adults should also keep their daily intake to 5 grams.
How to Make Peony Dishes
Method One: Peony and White Fungus Soup
Ingredients: peony flowers, white fungus, clear soup, and appropriate amounts of refined salt, monosodium glutamate, cooking wine, and white pepper powder.
Method:
1. First wash the white peony petals clean, put the white fungus into a basin and soak it in boiling water until it expands, then pick it clean, wash it, and drain it for later use.
2. Pour the clear soup into a clean pot, add refined salt, cooking wine, monosodium glutamate, and white pepper powder, bring to a boil, and skim off the foam.
3. Put the white fungus into a bowl and pour in the prepared clear soup.
4. Steam in a steamer until the white fungus is soft and has absorbed the flavor, then take it out and sprinkle with fresh white peony petals.
Edible value: The soup is clear and delicious, light and refreshing. It has the effects of clearing lung heat, benefiting the spleen and stomach, nourishing yin, promoting fluid production, boosting qi and activating blood, moistening the intestines and strengthening the heart, benefiting the brain, tonifying the kidney, and detoxifying.
Method Two: Peony Porridge
Ingredients: peony flowers, japonica rice, brown sugar.
Method:
1. Remove the petals from the peony flowers and rinse them clean. Wash the japonica rice clean.
2. Take a pot, add clean water and the peony flowers, boil for about 10 minutes, and strain out the petals.
3. Add the japonica rice and cook until the porridge is done, then add brown sugar to season and eat.
Edible value: The porridge is thick and fragrant, with the effect of activating blood and regulating menstruation.
How to Harvest Peony Petals
1. Before the new shoots of the peony tree have sprouted, prune the crown of the peony tree into a flat harvesting surface;
2. Lay a flower-harvesting net over the harvesting surface of the peony crown;
3. Carry out fertilization and spray pesticides according to normal garden management, and remove diseased and pest-damaged peony petals;
4. When the new shoots of the peony tree have grown to the harvesting standard, roll up the flower-harvesting net together with the peony shoots that have extended above the net;
5. Open the flower-harvesting net to collect the shoots that have separated from the peony tree body, and lay the net back over the harvesting surface of the peony crown.
6. This method is simple. Through the movement of the harvesting net, or the pulling force generated upward, to the left, or to the right, the petals are shaken off and then collected. This does not damage the petals, and the petals collected in this way are suitable for making traditional Chinese medicine, improving harvesting efficiency.
Grafting Techniques for Peonies
1. Grafting time. Peonies can be grafted from late September to early October, with the period from White Dew (September 7-8) to the Autumn Equinox (September 23-24) being suitable. Grafting around White Dew especially has the highest survival rate. This may be a response of peony grafting to specific temperature and humidity: around White Dew, the air temperature is 20-25°C, and the ground temperature at a depth of 30 cm is 18-23°C, so the graft union heals quickly and produces callus tissue, resulting in a high survival rate.
2. Selection of rootstock. The rootstock is usually peony root or herbaceous peony root. When peony root is used as the rootstock, because it is relatively thin and hard, grafting is not convenient; the propagated plants grow relatively slowly at first, but the base of the scion is relatively easy to root and produces many suckers, which is good for later division, and its lifespan is also relatively long. When herbaceous peony root is used as the rootstock, because its lignification is relatively weak, it is more convenient to work with, and the survival rate is also relatively high. However, the scion develops relatively few roots at its base, produces few suckers, and has a shorter lifespan. The rootstock should be dried in the sun for 1-2 days and grafted after it has lost water and become soft; in this way the cut is not easy to split, making it easier to work with.
3. Scion. It is best to use branches grown from soil buds as the scion; their tissues are full and their vitality is vigorous, new roots and new branches are easily produced at the base, and the survival rate after grafting is high. If there are very few sucker branches, one can only use one-year-old branches from the upper part of the crown as the scion. The scion length is generally 5-10 cm, the thickness is 0.5 cm or more, and it carries 2-3 full, plump buds.
4. Grafting. After cleft grafting or cut grafting, bind with hemp rather than plastic film strips, coat with mud slurry, and plant in a deep, wide pot. The potting soil should be moist; generally do not water after planting, and cover with soil to retain moisture.
Peony flowers are gorgeous and full-bodied, and dishes made from peony flowers are just as strong and full of spirit as the flowers themselves. Eating them refreshes the mind and boosts the spirit, and can effectively improve one's complexion. However, they may be too overpowering, so people with weak constitutions or long-standing depletion should not eat them, otherwise the loss will outweigh the gain.
Moutan Cortex: Benefits, Effects and Contraindications - What You Must Know Before Consuming Moutan Cortex
China's traditional Chinese medicine culture is broad and profound, and today the influence of traditional Chinese medicine is no longer limited to within China. With its spread, traditional Chinese medicine has already had a certain influence on world medicine. Many foreigners have begun to believe in and study traditional Chinese medicine. In the eyes of traditional Chinese medicine, many plants can be used as medicine, serving as medicinal materials to treat diseases and save people. There is a medicine called Moutan Cortex; it is not a natural product, but is made by digging up the roots of the peony flower and drying them in the sun as medicine. Today we will talk about the effects, therapeutic benefits and contraindications of consuming Moutan Cortex.
Effects on the cardiovascular system
Moutan Cortex can increase coronary blood flow, reduce cardiac output, and lower left ventricular work in anesthetized dogs. It has a clear protective effect on experimental myocardial ischemia, and this effect lasts for a relatively long time, while also reducing myocardial oxygen consumption. Intravenous injection of moutan decoction, decoction with paeonol removed at 1.0-3.0 g/kg, or paeonol at 80-120 mg/kg, all have a blood pressure-lowering effect in anesthetized dogs and rats.
Effects on the central nervous system
Paeonol has an antipyretic effect on fever in mice caused by oral typhoid and paratyphoid vaccine, and lowers the body temperature of normal mice. Oral paeonol can inhibit the writhing response caused by intraperitoneal injection of acetic acid and the tail-pressure pain response in mice, and can counteract caffeine-induced hyperactivity in mice. It can significantly prolong sleep time caused by sodium cyclobarbital in mice; at large doses it can make the righting reflex disappear in mice, and can significantly counteract convulsions caused by pentylenetetrazol, strychnine, nicotine, and electroshock.
Anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects
When paeonol is given by gavage, it has an inhibitory effect on paw edema in rats caused by dextran, acetic acid, or carrageenan, and can inhibit the increased capillary permeability in the abdominal cavity of mice or the skin of guinea pigs caused by acetic acid or 5-hydroxytryptamine, and inhibit the occurrence of stress ulcers in mice. In vitro experiments show that moutan decoction has relatively strong antibacterial effects on Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, Salmonella paratyphi, Proteus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus, hemolytic Streptococcus, Pneumococcus, Vibrio cholerae, and so on. Peony leaf decoction has a significant antibacterial effect on Shigella, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus.
Medication contraindications：
(1) Those with blood deficiency and cold, pregnant women, and those with excessive menstruation should use it with caution.
(2) Ben Jing Feng Yuan: Those who sweat spontaneously and profusely should not use it, because it can drain and leak body fluids. Those with chickenpox or measles at the initial stage should not use it, because its nature specifically disperses blood, and there is no avoiding concern that the root and base may spread too widely.
(3) De Pei Ben Cao: Those with cold from stomach qi deficiency and those with declining ministerial fire should not use it.
The medical use of Moutan Cortex can be traced back to very long ago, and many books on medicine have records of it. Moutan Cortex is a common medicinal material that can be combined with many other medicinal materials to produce different effects and treat different diseases, so for us humans its role is still quite significant. Moutan Cortex is made from peony flowers. Growing peonies is somewhat difficult, because peonies require a certain growing environment and a suitable combination of soil, water, and sunlight, so flower growers must put a certain amount of effort into caring for them.