Plum blossom, also known as white plum blossom, green calyx plum, and green plum blossom, is mentioned in "Compendium of Materia Medica". It refers to the flower bud of Armeniaca mume Sieb.f.viridicalyx (Makino) T.Y.Chen, a plant in the Rosaceae family. It is harvested before the flowers bloom in January and promptly dried at low temperatures.
[Processing Method] Take the original medicinal material and remove impurities and stems.
[Appearance of the medicinal slices] They are spherical with a short handle at the bottom. The bracts are scale-like and brown, and the inner sepals are grayish-green. There are 5 or more petals, which are white or yellowish-white. The texture is light. It has a fragrant aroma, a mild taste, and a slight astringency.
[Processing effects] Plum blossom has a bitter, slightly sweet, slightly sour, and cooling taste. It belongs to the liver, stomach, and lung meridians. It has the functions of soothing the liver, relieving depression, stimulating appetite, generating fluids, and resolving phlegm. It is used for liver and stomach pain, chest tightness, restlessness, summer heat and thirst, loss of appetite, plum pit qi, pregnancy vomiting, scrofula, tuberculosis, and smallpox. When combined with rose flowers steeped in boiling water and consumed as a substitute for tea, it can treat foreign body sensation in the throat and upper esophageal spasms. When prepared alone by steeping in boiling water as a substitute for tea, it can treat pregnancy vomiting (Zhejiang Medicinal Plant Monograph). Plum blossom is commonly used in clinical practice, and after processing, it can clean the medicinal material, making it easier to adjust and formulate preparations.
