The Big Tailed Shake, also known as Squid Grass, Cat Tail Grass, Dog Tail Grass, and Elephant Trunk Grass, is a traditional Chinese medicine with the function of clearing heat and detoxifying. It can be used clinically to treat cancer and leukemia. Let's learn about the efficacy, function, and morphological characteristics of the Big Tailed Shake below.
【Medicinal Value of the Big Tailed Shake】
According to traditional Chinese medicine, the Big Tailed Shake has the effects of clearing heat, detoxifying, and diuresis. It is commonly used for pneumonia, empyema, sore throat, oral ulcers, bladder stones, and abscesses.
1. "Fujian Folk Herbs": "Diuretic, heat-clearing, abscess-resolving, and detoxifying. Used for fever with rashes, pneumonia, and empyema."
2. "Nanning Pharmaceutical Chronicle": "Anti-swelling, detoxifying, dispersing accumulations. Internally used to treat bladder stones; branches and leaves are boiled with lime water for fumigation to treat snakehead ulcers."
3. "Folk Herbs in Southern Fujian": "Used for sore throat, cough, initial stage of abscesses, and oral ulcers."
4. "Folk Herbs in Southern Fujian": "Used for women's dysmenorrhea, irregular menstruation, and systemic pain during menstruation."
5. "National Compilation of Chinese Herbal Medicine": "Clears heat and detoxifies. Mainly used for pneumonia, lung abscess, empyema, diarrhea, dysentery, orchitis, diphtheria, oral ulcers, and abscesses."
【Morphological Characteristics of the Big Tailed Shake】
The Big Tailed Shake, also known as Dog Tail Grass and Whole Bug Grass, is an annual herbaceous plant that grows 15-60cm tall. The root is cylindrical and becomes yellowish-brown when dried. The stem is upright, stout, and branched, covered with rough and appressed hairs.
Leaves: Leaves are opposite or nearly opposite, wrinkled, about 5-10cm long, ovate or triangular-ovate.
Flowers: Green sepals, pale blue-purple or white corolla, 5 stamens, terminal inflorescence, a unidirectional spike-like inflorescence, small flowers densely growing only on the upper side of the flower axis, bending outward at the apex and gradually opening from bottom to top. Flowering period is from May to September.
The terminal inflorescence is arranged in a forked scorpion tail shape, with a total length of 15cm, and the end curls like a caterpillar, which is the origin of the name "Ear Hook Grass."
Fruit: The fruit is a capsule formed by the fusion of two small achenes.
Uses: Edible, medicinal, and a source of nectar for bees.
