Earth Ox is a perennial herb, also known as Ganlu'er, Baota vegetable, and Earth Silkworm. Its main use is for deficiency of lung yin, dry cough with little phlegm. What are the applications of Earth Ox and what does it look like in pictures?
Picture of Earth Ox
Morphological characteristics of Earth Ox
Earth Ox is a perennial herb. The rhizome is creeping, with dense root hairs and swollen tuberous rhizomes at the top with spherical bulbs. The stem is 30-120cm tall, with hard hairs on the edges and nodes.
The leaves are opposite; the petiole is 1-3cm long; the leaf blade is ovate or oblong-ovate, 3-12cm long and 1.5-6cm wide, with a slightly acute or gradually pointed apex, a flat or shallowly heart-shaped base, and regular rounded serrated edges. Both sides are covered with short hairs;
The umbel inflorescence usually has 6 flowers, most of which are arranged in a distant manner to form a pseudo-spike inflorescence at the top;
The bracts are linear with slightly soft hairs; the calyx is narrowly bell-shaped, about 9mm long, covered with glandular soft hairs, with 10 veins, 5 triangular teeth with pointed tips;
The corolla is pink to purple-red, about 1.2cm long, with a hairy ring inside the tube, an erect upper lip, and a 3-lobed lower lip with a nearly circular middle lobe.
The nutlet is ovoid, blackish-brown, with small tubercles; flowering period is from July to August, and fruiting period is in September.
Picture of Earth Ox
Medicinal value of Earth Ox
Main functions and indications
It soothes liver and extinguishes wind, relieves fever and spasm, detoxifies and eliminates putrefaction, and reduces swelling.
It is used for hypertension, stroke, high fever in children, convulsions, malaria, abdominal masses, scrofula, tuberculosis, urinary tract infections, foreign bodies or splinters embedded in the flesh, and fractures;
Externally, it is used to treat otitis media, boils, and unknown swellings.
Application of affiliated formulas
① Treat malaria
Take eleven Earth Ox and swallow with wine. Take one dose half an hour before the onset of malaria. For chronic malaria, take for one week.
② Treat malaria in children
Take seven Earth Ox, fry and grind into powder, and swallow with boiling water.
③ Treat carbuncle and abscess
Take seven Earth Ox. Use six of them to make a poultice and apply it to the top of the carbuncle. Do not grind the remaining one and place it on the carbuncle head. Wrap it with cloth. (Formula ① is from "Secret Formulas of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Guizhou Province")
④ Treat scrofula and ulcers
Mix Earth Ox with Borax and a little borneol, crush and apply to the wound, cover it with adhesive plaster. ("Essential Characteristics of Medicinal Herbs")
⑤ Treat splinters and iron sand embedded in the flesh
Use Earth Ox together with pumpkin pulp to apply to the affected area. ("Sichuan Materia Medica")
