A Detailed Guide to the Benefits, Effects and Culinary Uses of Plantain
Plantain, also known as cartwheel grass, field irrigation grass, cartwheel herb, and cartwheel round, is a perennial herbaceous plant of the Plantaginaceae family. It grows in wild mountain areas, roadsides, flower gardens, riverbanks and other damp places. The rhizome is short, thick and fleshy, densely covered with fibrous roots. The leaves all grow from the root, with smooth blades, broadly ovate, with wavy edges and occasionally inconspicuous blunt teeth; there are five main veins that bulge on the underside of the leaf, extending as ribs into the petiole, and the blade is often the same length as the petiole. In spring, summer and autumn, a spike inflorescence emerges from the center of the plant, with small flowers and an inconspicuous corolla. It bears oval capsules, with the style persisting at the tip; when ripe, the capsule splits open by a lid and releases the seeds. The seeds have the effects of promoting diuresis and treating strangury, clearing heat and detoxifying, clearing the liver and improving eyesight, resolving phlegm, and stopping diarrhea.
The benefits of plantain:
Traditional Chinese medicine holds that plantain leaf is sweet in flavor and cold in nature. It can clear heat and promote diuresis, clear the liver and improve eyesight, resolve phlegm and relieve cough, and drain dampness and stop diarrhea; it is suitable for edema caused by internal accumulation of damp-heat. It is used for frequent urination, urgency to urinate, painful urination and blood in the urine that appear with urinary tract infections; for summer-heat diarrhea and bacillary dysentery. It is also used for red, swollen and painful eyes caused by liver heat, photophobia and tearing, and blurred vision.
Plantain has been used as a medicine since ancient times. In famous traditional Chinese medicine books such as the "Shennong Bencao Jing", "Mingyi Bielu", "Diannan Bencao" and "Bencao Huiyan", plantain is recorded in detail. Plantain has the effects of promoting diuresis, relieving cough, expelling phlegm, stopping diarrhea and improving eyesight. Young and tender plantain is one of the wild vegetables commonly eaten, and also one of the best raw materials for herbal tea. Plantain is rich in mucilage, which absorbs water and swells after being eaten, can promote intestinal peristalsis, treat constipation, and gives a feeling of fullness after eating.
The effects of plantain:
1. Effects on the urinary system: Plantain has a certain diuretic effect, can increase water excretion in dogs, domestic rabbits and humans, and increases the excretion of urea, uric acid and sodium chloride.
2. Cough-relieving, asthma-relieving and phlegm-resolving effects: When plantain decoction was given to cats by gavage at both high and low doses, it significantly raised the threshold of electrical stimulation for inducing cough in cats, and the effect was strengthened as the dose increased.
3. Anti-pathogenic microorganism effects: Plantain water infusion showed varying degrees of inhibitory effect in test tubes on Trichophyton concentricum, Microsporum lanosum, Nocardia asteroides and others.
4. Effects on the stomach and intestinal tract: When Pavlov pouch dogs and dogs with stomach disease were given plantain aqueous extract or infusion by gavage at 0.5g/kg, it had a bidirectional regulatory effect on gastric juice secretion. It had antagonistic effects on both excessive gastric juice secretion caused by pilocarpine and reduced gastric juice secretion caused by adrenaline. Plantain has an inhibitory effect on the working stomach, but no effect on the resting stomach. Plantain can also temporarily increase intestinal juice secretion, while having no obvious effect on intestinal movement.
5. Anti-inflammatory effect: When rats took plantain pectin orally at 0.5g/kg or 1g/kg, it had a significant inhibitory effect on inflammatory edema caused by formaldehyde or dextran.
6. Other effects: Plantain extract has a relatively weak inhibitory effect on Ehrlich ascites carcinoma and mouse sarcoma S180. Small doses of plantain flavonoid glycosides can slow the heartbeat of domestic rabbits, increase the amplitude, and raise blood pressure; large doses can cause cardiac paralysis and lower blood pressure. It also makes breathing deeper, larger and slower, promotes secretion of the bronchi and digestive tract, and promotes the movement of the intestines and uterus.
Culinary uses of plantain:
Plantain, Bamboo Leaf and Licorice Soup
100 grams of plantain leaf, 12 grams of Lophatherum gracile leaf, 10 grams of licorice, and an appropriate amount of rock sugar. After washing the plantain leaf, Lophatherum gracile leaf and licorice, put them together into a pot, decoct in water, remove the residue and take 1 large bowl of liquid, add rock sugar, and simmer briefly in a clay pot until done. Drink it as tea, 1 dose per day, with 7 to 10 consecutive days as one course of treatment. Lophatherum gracile leaf is sweet and bland in flavor and slightly cold in nature. It can guide the damp-heat of the small intestine and bladder downward and out, and can clear the fire of the heart meridian upward to relieve restlessness, so it has the effects of promoting diuresis and treating strangury, and clearing the heart and relieving restlessness.
Plantain Leaf Porridge
50 grams of plantain leaf, 100 grams of millet, 1 stalk of scallion white, and a little salt and monosodium glutamate. Wash and chop the plantain leaf, cut the scallion white into sections, and set aside. Wash the millet clean, put it into a pot with water and cook into porridge; when nearly done, add the plantain leaf, scallion sections and salt, simmer for another 10 minutes, and mix in monosodium glutamate before serving. Eat on an empty stomach in the morning. Use for 5 to 7 consecutive days as one course of treatment. It can clear heat, resolve phlegm, promote diuresis and improve eyesight. It is suitable for difficult urination, painful dribbling urination, blood in the urine, edema, red swollen and painful eyes, cough with excessive phlegm and other conditions.
The plantain leaf can also be replaced with 25 grams of plantain seed (wrapped in cloth) and added to the millet to cook porridge. First decoct the plantain seed to obtain the liquid, then cook porridge with the millet. The effects are the same as above.
Plantain and White Tremella Rock Sugar Soup
60 grams of fresh plantain leaf or 20 grams of dried product, 10 grams of white tremella, and an appropriate amount of rock sugar. Wash and chop the plantain leaf, soak the white tremella until expanded and remove the base. Put both into a pot, boil in water for 5 minutes, add rock sugar, and simmer briefly until done. 1 dose per day, for 10 to 15 consecutive days. White tremella can nourish yin and moisten the lungs, and is good for treating heat in the lungs and cough due to lung dryness; plantain leaf clears heat and moistens dryness, and also treats cough due to lung dryness. Adding rock sugar, which clears heat and tonifies the center, moistens the lungs and promotes fluid production, produces a similar excellent effect. For cough due to lung dryness, it is an ideal medicinal dietary formula.
Side effects of plantain:
Because plantain is a diuretic medicine, it can easily cause low potassium and other electrolyte abnormalities. Plantain can be steeped in water and drunk, but it cannot be used for a long time. Regarding the side effects of plantain: "Bencao Fengyuan" states that "it is contraindicated for those with deficiency and slippage, and instability of essence." This is because it can lead to gastrointestinal dysfunction and electrolyte imbalance. Therefore, it is suggested here that patients who drink plantain should not continue to persist if the effect is very little, because this will have an impact on the patient's stomach and intestines.
Put both into a pot, boil in water for 5 minutes, add rock sugar, and simmer briefly until done. 1 dose per day, for 10 to 15 consecutive days. White tremella can nourish yin and moisten the lungs, and is good for treating heat in the lungs and cough due to lung dryness; plantain leaf clears heat and moistens dryness, and also treats cough due to lung dryness. Adding rock sugar, which clears heat and tonifies the center, moistens the lungs and promotes fluid production, produces a similar excellent effect. For cough due to lung dryness, it is an ideal medicinal dietary formula.Side effects of plantain:
Because plantain is a diuretic medicine, it can easily cause low potassium and other electrolyte abnormalities. Plantain can be steeped in water and drunk, but it cannot be used for a long time. Regarding the side effects of plantain: "Bencao Fengyuan" states that "it is contraindicated for those with deficiency and slippage, and instability of essence." This is because it can lead to gastrointestinal dysfunction and electrolyte imbalance. Therefore, it is suggested here that patients who drink plantain should not continue to persist if the effect is very little, because this will have an impact on the patient's stomach and intestines.