What are the benefits and effects of Gastrodia elata? A comprehensive guide in one article
Gastrodia elata is a commonly used and relatively precious traditional Chinese medicine. Its benefits and effects make it widely used in clinical practice. For example, Gastrodia elata can be used to treat epilepsy, convulsions, headache and dizziness, infantile convulsions, limb numbness, tetanus and other diseases, and it has great benefits for conditioning bodily ailments. Below is an introduction to some of the benefits and effects of Gastrodia elata, mainly its benefits and effects in analgesia, sedation, anticonvulsant action, lowering blood pressure, as well as improving eyesight and enhancing memory.
Effects of Gastrodia elata
1. Analgesic effect: The Gastrodia elata injection made from Gastrodia elata has a clear analgesic effect on trigeminal neuralgia, vascular neurogenic headache, cerebrovascular disease headache, toxic polyneuritis, etc. In recent years, after clinical trials by some medical units on more than 1,000 patients, the effective rate reached 90%.
2. Sedative effect: Some medical units used synthetic gastrodin (gastrodia glycoside) to treat patients with neurasthenia and neurasthenic syndrome, with effective rates of 89.44% and 86.87% respectively. It can also inhibit central excitation caused by caffeine, and has the effect of prolonging sleep time induced by pentobarbital sodium.
3. Anticonvulsant effect: Gastrodia elata has a certain therapeutic effect on facial nerve twitching, limb numbness, hemiplegia, epilepsy, etc. It also relieves smooth muscle spasms and alleviates angina pectoris and biliary colic.
4. Blood pressure-lowering effect: Gastrodia elata can treat hypertension. Long-term use can soothe the liver and replenish qi, strengthen the waist and knees, and strengthen tendons and bones. It can also increase peripheral and coronary artery blood flow, and has a protective effect on the heart.
5. Improving eyesight and intelligence: Gastrodia elata also has the effect of improving eyesight and significantly enhancing memory. Gastrodia elata has an obvious protective and regulatory effect on the human brain nervous system, and can enhance the resolving power of the optic nerve. It is currently used as a brain health food or brain health medicine for high-altitude flight personnel. Japan uses Gastrodia elata injection to treat senile dementia, with an effective rate of 81%.
What is the price of Gastrodia elata
The price of Gastrodia elata varies greatly depending on whether it is wild, whether it is genuine Gastrodia elata, spring Gastrodia elata, winter Gastrodia elata, etc.
There is now very, very little wild Gastrodia elata. Pure wild Gastrodia elata (without human interference) is now very rare, and wild Gastrodia elata exists in some remote mountainous areas.
Gastrodia elata is all well naturalized, that is, semi-wild (planted in the wild, possibly harvested once every two or three years, rather than grown indoors or cultivated without soil), and the price is not low. Some costs more than two thousand per jin, and the cheaper ones are close to one thousand per jin (these are relatively small in size).
Dietary contraindications for Gastrodia elata
1. Patients with reduced body fluids, blood deficiency, yin deficiency, etc. should use Gastrodia elata with caution.
2. Even when targeting excess patterns such as liver yang rising and phlegm obstructing the meridians, the use of Gastrodia elata still requires careful examination of the condition, grasping the pathogenesis, and modifying according to the pattern in order to achieve a good therapeutic effect.
3. Gastrodia elata is not suitable for prolonged decoction. Its main component is gastrodin, which is highly volatile when exposed to heat. Decoction of Gastrodia elata together with other medicines will cause it to lose its effective sedative and analgesic components due to heat. Therefore, Gastrodia elata is best first moistened thoroughly with a small amount of clear water, and after softening, cut into thin slices, air-dried or sun-dried and ground into powder, taken by mixing with the already decocted medicinal liquid, or ground into powder and taken in pills or powders.
4. If medication is stopped, patients with severe symptoms should promptly go to the hospital for diagnosis and treatment.
5. Gastrodia elata must not be used together with the root of Yufengcao, otherwise there is a risk of causing intestinal knotting.
How can you identify whether Gastrodia elata is good or bad?
The tuber of Gastrodia elata is elliptical or elongated, slightly flattened, wrinkled and slightly curved. It is 3-15 cm long, 1.5-6 cm wide, and 0.5-2 cm thick. The surface is yellowish-white to light yellowish-brown, slightly transparent, mostly with irregular longitudinal wrinkles, with longitudinal wrinkles and multiple whorls of transverse ring lines arranged from dormant buds, sometimes showing brown fungal strands, with dotted marks or membranous scale leaves, and sometimes brown-black fungal strands are visible. The apex has a residual stem base (spring Gastrodia), or a red-brown to dark brown parrot-beak-shaped apical bud (winter Gastrodia), and the end has a round navel-shaped scar after detachment from the mother tuber. The texture is firm and not easy to break, the cross-section is relatively flat, horn-like, yellowish-white or light brown.
Health foods with Gastrodia elata
Gastrodia elata walnut fish
1. Remove the scales, gills and internal organs of the carp, wash it clean, and place it in a container; cut Chuanxiong and Poria into slices, soak them in the second rinse water from washing rice, then put Gastrodia elata into the rice-washing water that has been used to soak Chuanxiong, Poria, etc., and soak for about 4 hours, then take it out, drain the water, and slice (shred) for later use.
2. Put the Gastrodia elata slices (shreds) and walnut kernels into the fish head and fish belly, place the fish in a basin, then add scallions and ginger, add an appropriate amount of clear water, and steam in a steamer for about 30 minutes.
3. After the fish is steamed, remove the scallions and ginger, then use water bean flour, clear broth, white sugar, refined salt, monosodium glutamate, pepper powder, and sesame oil, bring to a boil and thicken with starch, then pour over the fish and it is ready.
Place the fish in a basin, then add scallions and ginger, add an appropriate amount of clear water, and steam in a steamer for about 30 minutes.3. After the fish is steamed, remove the scallions and ginger, then use water bean flour, clear broth, white sugar, refined salt, monosodium glutamate, pepper powder, and sesame oil, bring to a boil and thicken with starch, then pour over the fish and it is ready.