After tooth extraction, if the bleeding continues, traditional Chinese medicine teaches you to use a disinfectant cotton swab dipped in powdered purple bead leaves to stop the bleeding. What are purple bead leaves? Purple bead leaves are the dried leaves of the plant Houttuynia cordata, which are harvested during the summer and autumn seasons when the branches and leaves are lush, and then dried.
Image of purple bead leaves
Purple bead leaves have the effects of cooling the blood, constricting and stopping bleeding, dispelling blood stasis, detoxifying, and reducing swelling. They are commonly used for bleeding, hemoptysis, hematemesis, bloody stools, menorrhagia, bleeding from external injuries, and heat-toxin sores and burns.
"Handbook of commonly used Chinese herbal medicines in clinical practice": This product has a cooling but not cold nature, and also has a blood-activating effect. Therefore, it can constrict and stop bleeding without leaving blood stasis, activate blood circulation without dissipating, and cool the blood without obstructing. It is an excellent product for stopping bleeding and is widely used for various internal and external bleeding caused by various reasons.
Purple bead leaves are deciduous shrubs. The twigs are covered with yellowish-brown star-shaped hairs.
The leaves are opposite, and the leaf blades are ovate-elliptic or elliptic, with rounded or broadly wedge-shaped bases. They have fine coarse hairs on the upper surface and yellowish-brown star-shaped hairs on the lower surface. The lateral veins are 8 to 12 pairs, and the edges have teeth and fine serrations;
The leaf stalks are densely covered with yellowish-brown star-shaped hairs. The umbel inflorescences are axillary; the calyx is bell-shaped, with 4 lobes, and the lobes are bluntly triangular. Both the calyx and the stalk are covered with star-shaped hairs; the corolla is short-tubular, with 4 lobes, purple in color, and hairless; there are 4 stamens, longer than the corolla;
There is 1 pistil, the ovary has 4 chambers, and the stigma is slender and higher than the stamens, with a single stigma head. The small achene is purple-red. The flowering period is in summer and autumn.
