The traditional Chinese medicine "Nv Wan" refers to the root or whole herb of the chrysanthemum plant Nv Wan. It is distributed in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, and Inner Mongolia. Nv Wan has the effects of warming the lungs, reducing phlegm, promoting diuresis, and regulating the middle. It is mainly used to treat cough, asthma, intestinal rumbling, diarrhea, dysentery, and short and difficult urination.
Nv Wan is a perennial herb that grows to a height of 30-100 centimeters. The stem is upright, smooth in the lower half, and covered with fine soft hairs in the upper half.
The leaves are opposite, with lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate shape at the base, measuring 5-12 centimeters in length and 5-12 millimeters in width. The apex is gradually sharp, the base is narrow, and there is a short petiole. The margin is rough with sparse serrations, and the leaves fall off after flowering.
The upper leaves of Nv Wan are sessile, lanceolate to linear, smooth on the upper surface, green, and covered with fine soft hairs on the lower surface. The margin is rough.
The inflorescence is dense and umbel-like, with small flowers and a diameter of 5-8 millimeters. The involucre is tubular, about 4 millimeters long, with lanceolate bracts and fine hairs in several rows. The peripheral ray flowers are white, about 2.5 millimeters long, and the tubular disk flowers are yellow, about 3.5 millimeters long. The anther base is blunt and entire, and the style head is 2-lobed with elongated blunt tips.
The fruit of Nv Wan is elongated, about 1 millimeter long, slightly flattened, and covered with hairs. The awns are gray-white or reddish. It blooms in autumn.
Nv Wan is often used together with 60 plants of Liudan and 30 plants of Alu Dan. The top two ingredients are ground and sieved. Take 15-25 grams of the powder with wine, three times a day, to make the complexion white and beautiful, and avoid alkali substances.
Nv Wan, also known as Bai Wan, was commonly used in ancient times to whiten the skin. It is both effective when taken internally and applied externally.
The book "Ming Yi Bie Lu" records: In the Song Dynasty, there was a beautiful woman who married the scholar Wang Gongfu. Due to the disappointment in love, she became melancholic and her complexion gradually darkened.
Her mother sought medical help everywhere and eventually met a Taoist priest who claimed to be able to cure the disease. He prescribed "Nv Zhen San" and instructed her to take two qian (6 grams) with wine twice a day. After a few days of taking the medicine, her complexion gradually became white, and after a month, her beauty returned.
The mother was grateful for the cure and learned that the main ingredient in the prescription was Nv Wan. The disease was caused by long-term lung heat due to depression, which led to a dark complexion. Nv Wan can relieve lung qi and make the complexion white.
The book "Qian Jin Fang" by Sun Siyao states, "This medicine is taken with wine and is used to treat a black complexion that lasts for ten days in men and twenty days in women. The black color is excreted through the feces." Therefore, Nv Wan is commonly used in beauty treatments. Further modern research should be conducted on its application.
