What are the effects and benefits of Phryma leptostachya? Get to know this amazing medicinal herb
It is well known that in folk medicine Phryma leptostachya is used as a drug to treat colds and traumatic injuries, and applied externally to treat toxic sores, eczema and scabies. The fresh juice or water decoction of its roots and leaves is strongly toxic to the larvae of the cabbage white butterfly, the housefly and Culex tritaeniorhynchus. The roots contain phrymarolin and leptostachyol acetate, the latter being the insecticidal component. In folk practice the whole plant is boiled in water to kill fly maggots and cabbage caterpillars. Phryma leptostachya truly has many uses; below, the editor will introduce its main effects and benefits.
1. Dispelling wind and removing dampness. This product is pungent and warm; pungent can promote movement and dispersion, and warmth overcomes cold-dampness. It enters the liver meridian, so it can dispel wind and remove dampness. As the Compendium of Materia Medica says: Phryma leptostachya "treats all wind-dampness pain and contracture of the sinews and bones." If pain, numbness and difficulty in flexion and extension of the limbs are caused by wind-cold-dampness pathogens invading the meridians of the limbs, this product can be selected to dispel wind, scatter cold and overcome dampness; once the pathogenic factors are gone, all the symptoms resolve on their own.
2. Relaxing the sinews and activating the collaterals. This product is pungent, dispersing, warm and unblocking, and enters the liver meridian, while the liver governs the sinews. Therefore this product has the effect of relaxing the sinews and activating the collaterals. For cases where external wind-cold pathogens cause the meridian qi to fail to disperse, with symptoms of contraction and tension of the sinews and vessels of the limbs and inability to stretch and turn freely, Phryma leptostachya can be selected to dispel wind, scatter cold, relax the sinews and activate the collaterals. For example, Selected Chinese Herbal Medicines of Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai uses this product to treat contracture of the sinews and bones.
3. Activating blood and relieving pain. This product is pungent, dispersing, warm and unblocking, and enters the blood aspect of the liver meridian, so it can activate blood and relieve pain. For all kinds of pain throughout the body, in the heart and abdomen, waist and knees, internal and external, this product can be selected for treatment, taking advantage of its pungent and warm nature and its ability to move and its effects of activating blood and promoting the flow of qi; once blood and qi flow freely, there is no pain.
4. Removing toxicity and resolving rashes. The Lingmi Danyao Jian says: "It treats heat toxicity." Yang Cheng's Experiential Formulas selects this product to treat swelling and toxicity in the early stage. Selected Chinese Herbal Medicines of Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai uses this product to treat scrotal eczema and sores and swellings from toxicity. Thus one can infer that Phryma leptostachya treats sores, tinea and swelling from toxicity and scrotal eczema, generally by decocting it in water for external washing. This is because external washing with this medicine also has the characteristics of guiding the medicine to penetrate into the meridians and blood vessels, thereby dispelling wind, activating blood and relieving pain.
The above is the editor's related introduction to the effects and benefits of Phryma leptostachya. It prefers a warm and humid climate, is not choosy about soil, and can generally be cultivated in ordinary soil, with loose, fertile sandy loam being especially good for cultivation. It likes light and fertilizer and fears waterlogging; these are its characteristics. We might as well try growing it, for in this way we can both cultivate our character and protect our health.