Winter is a season when influenza is prevalent, and traditional Chinese medicine recommends using "Da Tou Chen" to prevent influenza. Da Tou Chen is the whole plant of the Xuan Shen family plant, with flowers and hairy musk. It is also known as Qian Chui Cao, Wu Tou Feng, and Jia Bohe. It has the effects of dispelling wind, releasing the surface, eliminating dampness, and resolving stagnation. Let us learn about the methods of using Da Tou Chen in traditional Chinese medicine to prevent influenza!
【Methods of using Da Tou Chen to prevent influenza】
Prevention of influenza: 15g of Da Tou Chen. Boil it as a tea. (National Compendium of Chinese Herbal Medicine)
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that Da Tou Chen has the effects of dispelling wind, releasing the surface, eliminating dampness, and resolving stagnation. It is used for symptoms such as headache, fever, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and indigestion associated with the common cold.
1. "Lingnan Materia Medica": "It dispels wind and treats headache caused by external factors."
2. "Guangdong Chinese Medicine": "It dispels wind, relieves heat, and detoxifies. It is used for wind-heat external invasion, typhoid fever, summer heat invasion, and skin heat-toxin, as well as water and soil intolerance."
【Medicinal value of Da Tou Chen】
Da Tou Chen is an annual herbaceous plant. It is not easy to find this plant, and its rhizome is very thick and strong. Da Tou Chen also has certain therapeutic effects for skin inflammation. Compared with common symptoms such as abdominal pain and diarrhea, it has good therapeutic effects.
Da Tou Chen is a beneficial plant with good therapeutic effects for various diseases. If a person experiences symptoms of wind-cold type cold or headache, they can be treated with Da Tou Chen as a traditional Chinese medicine. It can also be used to treat symptoms such as indigestion. If a person experiences symptoms of skin inflammation, they can apply crushed Da Tou Chen to the affected area. This method has good therapeutic effects. Da Tou Chen can be boiled into a tea and consumed to effectively prevent influenza and other diseases.
【Identification of Da Tou Chen】
The roots of Da Tou Chen are fibrous, and the above-ground parts are hairy. The stems are cylindrical, branched, 15-60cm long, and 0.1-0.3cm in diameter. The surface is brown or black-brown, with fine longitudinal stripes and slightly swollen nodes. The texture is tough, and the cross-section is yellow-white, hollow. The leaves are opposite, with leaf stalks.
Most of the leaf blades fall off or shrink, and when flattened, they are ovate or oblong-ovate, 1.5-6cm long and 0.5-1.5cm wide. The apex is blunt, the base is wedge-shaped, and the edges are serrated.
The spike-like inflorescence is terminal or axillary, spherical or elongated. The calyx is tubular and 5-lobed. The corolla often falls off. It has a fragrant smell and a slightly cool, bitter taste. Leaves with more flowers and stronger fragrance are preferred.
