A detailed guide to the medical uses of Sichuan pepper, star anise, and fennel (Part Two)
Daily life revolves around "eating, drinking, eliminating, and sleeping, clothing, food, housing, travel, and work." This shows how important "eating" is to us. What to eat, how to eat it, and how to make better use of its nutritional and medicinal value. The medicinal value of vegetables and seasonings must never be overlooked. Today we will talk about [Sichuan pepper, star anise, and fennel]
Sichuan pepper is cultivated in all regions. Although its medicinal properties are the same, the best is dry, red, and free of stems and seeds.
[Functions and indications]
Warms the middle and disperses cold, removes dampness and induces sweating, relieves pain and kills parasites, unblocks blood vessels, warms the stomach and promotes digestion. Neutralizes fishy toxins. Treats food stagnation and retained fluids, cold pain in the heart and abdomen, vomiting, hiccups, cough with reversed qi, wind-cold-damp impediment, diarrhea, dysentery, hernia pain, toothache, ascariasis, enterobiasis, genital itching, and sores and scabies.
[Processing] Remove the fruit rind and seeds; use raw or stir-fried.
[Nature and flavor] Pungent, warm, toxic.
[Meridians entered] Enters the spleen, stomach, lung, and kidney meridians.
[Internal use] Decoct in water, 0.5-1.5 qian; or make into pills or powders.
[External use] For skin eczema and itching, it can be combined with Kochia scoparia fruit, Sophora flavescens, and alum, decocted in water for fumigation and washing, or made into pills or powders, ground into powder and applied topically, or decocted in water to wash the affected area.
[Dietary therapy] 1. Sichuan pepper and apricot kernel paste: Effect: treats scrotal itching due to kidney wind. 2. Sichuan pepper water: Effect: treats genital itching in women.
[Suitable and unsuitable people] Sichuan pepper is suitable for people with cold pain in the stomach and abdomen, poor appetite, vomiting clear fluids, and borborygmus with loose stools; suitable for nursing women when weaning; suitable for middle-aged and elderly people, women with cold-type amenorrhea and cold-type dysmenorrhea, and people with wind-cold-damp arthritis; suitable for people with abdominal pain due to ascariasis, and those with kidney yang deficiency and frequent urination.
[Cautions for use] Contraindicated for those with yin deficiency and hyperactive fire. Use with caution during pregnancy.
Star anise is the dried mature fruit of the Magnoliaceae plant star anise.
[Functions and indications]
Moistens the kidney and tonifies the kidney, soothes the liver, warms yang, disperses cold, regulates qi, treats middle burner cold with vomiting and reversed qi, cold hernia and abdominal pain, and low back pain due to kidney deficiency, and dry and damp beriberi. Mainly treats all cold qi and various hernia pains.
[Nature and flavor] Pungent and sweet, warm, qi is neutral, non-toxic.
[Meridians entered] Enters the spleen, heart, liver and kidney, stomach meridian, small intestine, and bladder.
[Usage and dosage] Decoct in water, 1-2 qian; or make into pills or powders for internal use.
Identification of true and false fennel --
Selected formulas for cases:
[Treating downward sinking of small intestine qi] Star anise and fennel each 3 qian, a little frankincense. Decoct in water and take to induce sweating.
[Treating unilateral hernia] Star anise powder 1 liang, fennel powder 1 liang. Take one pig bladder, put the two powders inside together with the urine, tie it securely in a jar, cook in wine until soft, then pound together with the bladder into pills the size of Firmiana seeds. Take 50 pills each time, swallowed with plain warm water.
[Treating heavy low back pain with piercing distension] Star anise, stir-fried, made into powder, take 2 qian with wine before meals.
[Treating low back pain like piercing] Star anise (stir-fried and ground), take 2 qian each time, swallowed with salt water before meals. Externally, take 1-2 sheng of glutinous rice, stir-fry until hot, put in a bag, and tie it to the painful area.
[Treating constipation of both urine and stool, abdominal distension like a drum, and shortness of breath] Hemp seeds half a liang, star anise 7 pieces. Make into powder, take 3-7 raw scallion whites, grind together and decoct in water, then mix with Wuling San and take.
[Treating wind toxin and damp qi that attack and cause sores, with purple broken skin and flesh and rotting pus, weakness in walking, and dry heat of skin and flesh] Imported fennel (stir-fried), earthworm (stir-fried), Sichuan aconite (prepared), Lindera aggregata (cut), and Pharbitis nil (stir-fried) each 1 liang. Grind and pound evenly and finely, cook with wine into a paste and form pills the size of Firmiana seeds. Take 15 pills each time on an empty stomach with salt water, twice a day.
[Treating piercing pain below the ribs] Combine with bitter orange, stir-fry with bran and grind into powder, take mixed with salt and wine.
[Precautions]
Those with yin deficiency and hyperactive fire should take it with caution; eating too much harms the eyes and causes sores; those with strong yang and vomiting upon exposure to heat should all avoid it.
The whole fennel plant has a special aromatic and pungent taste, with a white powder on the surface. The leaves are pinnately divided, with linear lobes. It is a commonly used vegetable seasoning. Because it can remove the rank odor of meat and restore fragrance, it is called "fennel." Medicinally, the fruit of fennel is used.
[Functions and indications]: Opens the appetite and promotes eating, regulates qi and disperses cold, and helps the yang pathway. Main indications: cold in the middle burner, reduced appetite, nausea and vomiting, cold pain in the abdomen; hernia pain, swelling and pain of the testicles; qi stagnation in the spleen and stomach, distension and pain in the upper abdomen. Used for cold hernia and abdominal pain, unilateral swelling of the testicles, dysmenorrhea in women, cold pain in the lower abdomen, distension and pain in the upper abdomen, and reduced eating with vomiting and diarrhea.
[Properties]: Warm in nature, pungent in flavor, warms the liver and kidney, warms stomach qi, disperses blockage and binds, disperses cold and relieves pain, regulates qi and harmonizes the stomach.
[Meridians entered]: Enters the kidney, liver, kidney, spleen, and stomach meridians.
[Components]: Contains volatile oil, mainly anethole, fenchone, methyl chavicol, anisaldehyde, and other components.
[Usage]: Used as a seasoning, can also be used in salads, decocted in water, or made into pills and powders.
Practical supplementary formulas
1. Fennel pills: Fennel 16 g, pepper 10 g. Grind into powder, form pills with wine paste, take 3-6 g each time, swallowed with warm wine.
Effect: This formula has relatively strong effects in dispersing cold, regulating qi, and relieving pain. Used for hernia, cold pain and fullness in the lower abdomen.
2. Fennel and bitter orange powder: Fennel 30 g, bitter orange 15 g. Slightly stir-fry and grind into powder, take 6 g each time, swallowed with warm boiled water.
Effect: Fennel combined with qi-regulating and stagnation-moving bitter orange together produces the effect of regulating qi and relieving pain. Used for liver-stomach qi stagnation with distending pain in the upper abdomen and below the ribs.
3. Fennel powder: Fennel 10-15 g. Stir-fry until scorched, grind into powder, and take infused with boiling water in 3 divided doses; or take equal amounts of fennel, tangerine seed, and hawthorn, stir-fry each separately, grind into powder, then mix evenly, and take 6 g with yellow wine in the morning and evening.
Effect: Treats menstrual pain in women; decoct 15 g of fennel 3 days before menstruation and take for 3 consecutive days. It can also treat hernia and abdominal pain.
Suitable combinations
Rose, cornflower, blue mallow, rose hip, hibiscus flower, lemongrass, verbena, raspberry leaf, peppermint leaf, yerba mate, licorice. Combining with peppermint can help remove excess water from the body.
Healthful brewing method
(1) Leaves: Just brew with boiling water.
(2) Seeds: Crush the seeds, brew with boiling water, cover and steep for about ten minutes, then add honey and drink. Take half a spoonful of fennel and crush it with the back of a spoon, steep in hot water for ten minutes. Three cups a day, recommended to drink between two meals.
[Cautions and contraindications]: Fennel may have the side effect of impairing eyesight, so it should not be used in large amounts over a short period. Not suitable for those with excess heat or deficiency fire. Friends, did you remember all this?
Keep its pharmacology and medicinal properties firmly in mind, and at critical moments you too can become an excellent barefoot doctor!