Ji Min, a perennial herbaceous plant, also known as Xing Ye Sha Shen, Gan Ju Geng, Tian Ju Geng, Bai Mian Gen, and Xing Ye Cai in Northeast China. The tender leaves are a good spring wild vegetable and can be eaten. The roots can be used for making fruit preserves, with a delicious taste, and also used as a medicinal herb, known as Sha Shen (or Nan Sha Shen).
[Distribution Environment]
Ji Min is a plant of the subfamily Asteroideae, family Campanulaceae, and genus Codonopsis. It is found in Guizhou (Kaili), Guangxi (Yangshuo, Xing'an), Guangdong (Liannan, Ruyuan, Renhua), southern Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan (Chengkou, Wuxi, Fengjie, Xiushan), Shaanxi (south of Tongchuan), western Henan, southern Shanxi, and southern Hebei.
It grows in mountainous grasslands, and the roots are used for medicinal purposes, with similar effects as Codonopsis Pilosula. It is generally harvested from spring to late autumn. After digging up the roots, they are washed with water, peeled, and dried. When used fresh, the harvested roots are stored in soil at a moderate temperature indoors and taken as needed. It is propagated by seeds and prefers loose and fertile soil.
[Characteristics]
The roots are cylindrical and can reach up to 30 cm in length. The stem is unbranched and 50-90 cm tall. The stem bears alternate leaves that are sessile or nearly sessile. The leaf blades are narrowly ovate, rhomboid-ovate, or elongate-ovate, 3-8 cm long and 1-4 cm wide, with a gradually pointed or acute apex and a wide wedge-shaped or wedge-shaped base. The margins have irregular serrations, the upper surface is hairless, and the lower surface is sparsely hairy along the veins. The inflorescence is a narrow raceme, slightly branched in the lower part, with sparse or slightly dense short hairs. The calyx has short hairs, with 5 lanceolate lobes measuring 6-8 mm long and 1-1.5 mm wide, shallowly divided into 5 lobes. The corolla is purple-blue, bell-shaped, 1.5-1.8 cm long, shallowly divided into 5 lobes. There are 5 stamens. The filament base is wide, with dense soft hairs along the edges. The disk is broadly tubular, and the style is nearly as long as the corolla. The capsule is nearly spherical, hairy, and blooms from September to October.
[Medicinal Uses]
1. For strengthening vitality and treating excessive thirst (if a man's penis remains erect after ejaculation, it is called "strengthening vitality"; if there are symptoms of excessive thirst and frequent urination, it is considered "excessive thirst," which can lead to the formation of abscesses). Take one pig kidney, one liter of black soybeans, and one and a half liters of water, boil until half is left. Remove the residue and keep the juice. Add three taels each of Ji Min and gypsum, and two taels each of ginseng, poria, magnetite, anemarrhena, kudzu root, scutellaria, codonopsis, and licorice, and cook until three liters. Divide into three doses and take. This formula is called "Shi Zi Ji Tang."
Another formula: Take one tael each of Ji Min, soybeans, poria, magnetite, codonopsis, cooked rehmannia, cortex eucommiae, radix scrophulariae, dendrobium, and deer antler, and half a tael each of ginseng and agarwood. Grind them together, add crushed pig stomach cooked until soft, and mix well to form pills the size of a wu zi. Take seventy pills per dose on an empty stomach, and swallow with saltwater. This formula is called "Ji Wan."
2. For treating boils and swollen abscesses. Mash fresh Ji Min roots for internal consumption, and apply the residue to the affected area; it can be cured in three treatments.
3. For treating dark spots on the face. Grind one tael each of Ji Min and cinnamon into fine powder. Take one teaspoon per dose and swallow with vinegar.
4. For treating poisoning from eating Hooke's hemlock (a plant with leaves similar to celery; eating it by mistake can be life-threatening). Take eight taels of Ji Min and six liters of water, boil until three liters are left. Take five he (1 liang = 50 grams) per dose, five doses per day.
