Chu Zong Cao, a traditional Chinese medicine, is the whole plant of the fern plant Blechnum orientale. Chu Zong Cao has a rich medicinal value, with the effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, promoting diuresis and relieving stranguria. It can be used for symptoms such as fever and cold, lung heat cough, and snake bites. In traditional Chinese medicine, it is used to treat hemoptysis. Let's learn more about Chu Zong Cao together!
【Methods of Using Chu Zong Cao to Treat Hemoptysis】
30g of Chu Zong Cao, 30g of Wei Jing, 30g of Yu Xing Cao, 30g of Bai Mao Gen. Decoction and take orally. (From "Sichuan Medicinal Plants" 1979)
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that Chu Zong Cao has the effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, promoting diuresis and relieving stranguria. It is mainly used for fever and cold, lung heat cough, damp-heat diarrhea, dysentery, stranguria, leukorrhea, breast abscess, lymphadenitis, carbuncle, scald, and snake bites.
"Herbal Prescription": "Warm Qi and blood, tonify the lungs, stop coughing, resolve phlegm. (Treat) labor-induced damage to Qi and blood, women's blood and Qi."
【The Application Value of Chu Zong Cao】
In terms of its medicinal value, Chu Zong Cao can clear heat and detoxify, and eliminate dampness and reduce swelling. It is used for dysentery, lymphadenitis, lung heat cough, hepatitis, stranguria, snake bites, and injuries from falls and blows.
Pharmacological studies have shown that Blechnum orientale has anti-tumor, anti-cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, anti-inflammatory and analgesic, immune-regulating, hypoglycemic, antioxidant, and anti-aging effects.
Chu Zong Cao is bitter and cool in nature, with the functions of clearing heat, resolving phlegm, diuresis, and reducing swelling. It can be used for lung heat cough, hemoptysis, joint pain, leukorrhea, and various skin conditions.
In terms of its horticultural value, Chu Zong Cao prefers shade, has strong adaptability, and is easy to cultivate. It is suitable for indoor potted plants for year-round ornamental purposes.
Small potted plants can be placed on desks and coffee tables; larger potted plants can be used to decorate window sills, corridors, or living rooms in shaded rooms. The leaves of Blechnum orientale are also good materials for leaf cutting and dried flower arrangements.
【Methods of Identifying Chu Zong Cao】
Blechnum orientale is a perennial herbaceous plant that can grow up to 20-50 centimeters tall. It has a dense and pale brown rhizome. The rhizome grows horizontally and is covered with pale brown scales.
The leaves are clustered; the leaf stalks are slender and weak, with scales at the base, purple-black in color, and glossy, about the same length as the leaf blades; the leaves are 1-3 pinnate, with 3 pinnate in the lower part.
The middle part has 2 pinnate, and the upper part has 1 pinnate. There are 8-13 pairs of leaflets, alternate, with stalks, and the largest pair near the base. The leaflets of the 2-pinnate compound leaves have small stalks, and the terminal leaflets are about 3-3.5 millimeters wide.
Most of them are fan-shaped, with a wedge-shaped base, with small stalks, and the upper edge often has irregular deep lobes. The lobes are blunt, and the infertile lobes also have small teeth. The leaves are thin and grassy, light green, smooth on both sides, and the veins are obvious.
The cover of the sporangium group is formed by the folding of the edge of the leaflet, usually with 3-7 in each leaflet, rectangular, brown, with white edges, membranous, and the sporangium group is round to oblong, slightly curved, stalkless, with tiny spores, pale yellow.
Chu Zong Cao grows in rock crevices near streams or near houses and walls at an altitude of 100-2800 meters. It is distributed in East China, Central and South China, Southwest China, as well as Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, and other places.
