Chinese medicine believes that pigweed can treat sprains, muscle contractions, and pain. Now let's learn about the pigweed picture and its plant morphology.
【Morphological Characteristics】
Pigweed is an annual herbaceous plant, 20-150 cm tall; the stem is erect, with conical branches in the upper part, with edges, and sparsely hairy. The lower leaves are opposite, with short petioles, secondary pinnate, with narrow lanceolate to inverted lanceolate lobes, entire margins, obvious midrib, deep green on the upper side, with fine short hairs or nearly hairless, gray-green on the back, with dense short rough hairs; the upper leaves are alternate, without petioles, pinnately divided.
The male head inflorescence is hemispherical or ovate, 4-5 mm in diameter, with short pedicels, drooping, densely clustered into a terminal cymose inflorescence. The involucre is broadly hemispherical or disciform; the involucral bracts are fused, without ribs, with wavy rounded teeth on the edges, and slightly rough hairs. The receptacle has bristle-like receptacle bracts; each head inflorescence has 10-15 sterile flowers; the corolla is pale yellow, 2 mm long, with a short tubular part, bell-shaped in the upper part, with wide lobes; the anthers are oval; the style does not split, and the top is enlarged into a brush-like structure.
The female head inflorescence has no inflorescence stalk, solitary in the leaf axils below the male head inflorescence, or clustered in groups of 2-3, with one fertile female flower without involucres, closed involucre, fused involucral bracts, inverted ovate or ovate-lanceolate lobes, 4-5 mm long, about 2 mm wide, with a conical mouth wrapped around the style, and 4-6 spines below the top, slightly rough hairs; the style is deeply divided into 2, filamentous, extending out of the mouth of the involucre.
The fruit is inverted ovate, hairless, hidden in the hard involucre. Flowering period is from August to September, fruiting period is from September to October.
【Applications of Pigweed in Traditional Chinese Medicine】
1. Treatment of urinary tract infections
Take 6-10 grams of fresh pigweed (4-6 grams of dried pigweed) and decoct in water, take before meals, once a day. (Fujian Folk Herbal Medicine)
2. Treatment of sprains, muscle contractions, and pain
Take a handful of fresh pigweed and a handful of hair, decoct and use the liquid to fumigate and wash the affected area once a day, it can be done frequently. (Fujian Folk Herbal Medicine)
3. Treatment of abscesses in the popliteal fossa
Take two liangs of fresh pigweed, stew with alcohol and water, take orally; mash the residue and apply it to the affected area. (Fujian Traditional Chinese Medicine)
【Pigweed Picture】
Pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus) Picture
