The Chinese medicinal plant, Zhu Jie Cao, also known as Bamboo Node Herb, has both medicinal and culinary value. It is not only an excellent remedy for clearing heat and reducing swelling, but also a delicious ingredient for maintaining health. Let me take you to understand Zhu Jie Cao!
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that Zhu Jie Cao has the effects of clearing heat, detoxifying, diuresis, reducing swelling, and stopping bleeding. It is used for treating ulcers, boils, sore throat, dysentery, turbid urine, and external bleeding.
Zhu Jie Cao is an annual spreading herb. The stem is creeping, can reach over 1 meter long, and branches out with some branches having sub-branches. It is either hairless or has a row of short, hard hairs, or covered with short, hard hairs.
The leaves are lanceolate or elongated oval in the lower part of the branches, measuring 3-12 cm long and 0.8-3 cm wide. The apex is usually gradually pointed, rarely acute, and can be hairless or covered with stiff hairs.
There are often red spots on the leaf sheath, only the margin and one side have stiff hairs, or covered with stiff hairs. The inflorescence is usually solitary in the axil of the upper part of the branches, sometimes appearing pseudo-terminal, and each branch generally has only one inflorescence.
The bracts have a stalk of 2-4 cm long, folded, and become lanceolate when expanded, with a gradually pointed or shortly pointed apex, heart-shaped or rounded base, hairless or covered with short, hard hairs on the outside.
The inflorescence branches into two from the base; one branch has a peduncle of 1.5-2 cm long, perpendicular to the bracts, forming a straight line with the stalk of the bracts, with 1-4 flowers extending far beyond the bracts, but they are all sterile.
The other branch has a much shorter peduncle, forming a right angle with the bracts, and in the same direction as the bracts, with 3-5 fertile flowers hidden inside the bracts; the bracts are extremely small and almost invisible.
The flower stalk is about 3 mm long, elongating to 5 cm during fruiting, thick and curved; the sepals are elliptical, shallowly boat-shaped, about 3-4 mm long, persistent, and hairless; the petals are blue.
The capsule is rectangular and trihedral, about 5 mm long, 3-loculed, with two seeds in each locule on the ventral side that splits open, and only one seed in the dorsal side that does not split open.
The seeds are black, ovoid-oblong, about 2 mm long, with coarse reticulate patterns, and fine reticulate patterns within the coarse ones. The flowering and fruiting period is from May to November.
1. "Essential Medicinal Properties of Medicinal Herbs": "Treats turbid urine, clears heat and detoxifies, promotes urination."
2. "Compilation of Ethnic Medicines in Guangxi": "The stem can induce childbirth."
