Why is Lophatherum gracile called a magical food and medicinal herb?

Lophatherum gracile

It is the dried stems and leaves of the grass family plant Lophatherum gracile. It is mainly produced in the Yangtze River basin: down to various parts of South China. It is harvested at the end of summer before the flowering spikes emerge, dried in the sun, cut into sections, and used fresh.

[Medicinal properties] Sweet, bland, cold. Enters the Heart, Stomach, and Small Intestine meridians.

[Effects] Clears heat and drains fire, relieves restlessness, promotes urination.

[Applications]

1. Febrile disease with restlessness and thirst

This product is sweet and cold, mainly entering the Heart meridian to clear heart fire and relieve restlessness, and entering the Stomach meridian to drain stomach fire and quench thirst. To treat damage to fluids from febrile disease with heart vexation and thirst, it is often combined with gypsum, reed root, and other medicinals; or combined with Scutellaria baicalensis, Anemarrhena asphodeloides, Ophiopogon japonicus, and other medicinals, as in Lophatherum Decoction (Medical Insights).

2. Oral ulcers, dark urine, painful strangury with heat

This product is cold in nature and can clear and drain excess fire of the Heart and Stomach, and being sweet and bland, it can leach out dampness and promote urination. To treat exuberant Heart and Stomach fire, sores in the mouth and tongue, and heat shifted to the Small Intestine with painful strangury, it can be combined with talc, Imperata cylindrica rhizome, Juncus effusus pith, and other medicinals.

[Usage and dosage] Decoct and take, 6-9g.

[Summaries from ancient texts]

1. Compendium of Materia Medica: "Removes vexing heat, promotes urination, clears the heart."

2. Essential Materia Medica of Fresh Herbs: "Dissolves phlegm and quenches thirst, removes upper burner fire, brightens the eyes, promotes urination, treats white turbidity, reduces fever, and dissipates hemorrhoid toxin."

[Modern research]

1. Chemical composition

This product contains triterpenoids, such as arundoin, cylindrin, taraxerol, and steroidal substances such as beta-sitosterol, stigmasterol, campesterol, taraxasterol, and others.

2. Pharmacological effects

1) The water infusion of this product has an antipyretic effect;

2) This product has a relatively weak diuretic effect but a relatively strong effect in increasing the excretion of chloride in urine;

3) Its crude extract has an antitumor effect;

4) Its water decoction has an inhibitory effect on Staphylococcus aureus and hemolytic streptococcus.

5) In addition, it also has a blood sugar-raising effect.

[Editor's note]

Traditional Chinese medicine has had the theory of "medicine and food from the same source" (also called "medicine and food from the same origin") since ancient times. This theory holds that many foods are both food and medicine, and that food, like medicine, can also prevent and treat disease. Starting today, Meiling Nutrition will introduce ingredients that are both medicine and food, so that everyone can better understand the ingredients and achieve scientific health preservation. In the next issue, we will introduce ingredients in the heat-clearing and fire-draining medicine category -Commelina communis。