Burdock fruit is a very nourishing medicinal herb for all of us. It can be used to relieve throat pain, dispel wind, and clear heat, providing good health benefits to our bodies. Let's explore the healing effects of burdock fruit together.
1. Used for wind-heat cold
Burdock fruit has a pungent and bitter taste and can dispel wind and clear heat. It is effective in dispersing wind-heat, promoting lung function, and relieving throat pain. It is commonly used in combination with honeysuckle, forsythia, wild chrysanthemum, and balloon flower, such as in Yin Qiao San.
If wind-heat is excessive and there is severe throat pain and intense heat toxins, it can be used in combination with rhubarb, peppermint, wild chrysanthemum, and saposhnikovia root, such as in Burdock Fruit Decoction. If wind-heat cough is accompanied by excessive phlegm, it is often combined with wild chrysanthemum, balloon flower, Chinese thorowax root, and licorice.
2. Used for measles not dispersing
Burdock fruit can disperse wind-heat and promote the dispersing of heat toxins, helping the measles to disperse. It is commonly used in combination with peppermint, wild chrysanthemum, cicada slough, and lithospermum, such as in Tuo Zhen Tang.
3. Used for abscesses, swellings, and sores
Burdock fruit has a pungent and bitter taste and a cold property. It can disperse wind-heat externally and expel its toxins internally. It has the effects of clearing heat, resolving toxins, reducing swelling, and promoting throat function. It also has a lubricating and smooth property that can promote bowel movements. Therefore, it can be used to treat wind-heat invasion, internal fire toxins, painful swelling, and constipation. It is often used in combination with rhubarb, mirabilite, gardenia, forsythia, and peppermint.
Burdock fruit can be combined with melon seed, forsythia, gypsum, and orange peel to treat breast abscess caused by liver depression transforming into fire and stomach heat blocking the collaterals, such as in Melon Seed and Burdock Fruit Decoction. It can also be combined with scrophularia, Chinese skullcap, coptis, and dendrobium to treat epidemic toxins erupting on the face, mumps, and throat obstruction caused by heat toxins, such as in Pu Ji Xiao Du Yin.
