After tooth extraction, if the bleeding doesn't stop, traditional Chinese medicine teaches you to use sterilized cotton dipped in crushed purple bead leaves to stop it. What is purple bead leaf? Purple bead leaf refers to the dried leaves of the herbaceous plant Du Hong Hua, also known as Verbena officinalis. It is harvested during the summer and autumn when the branches and leaves are lush, and then dried.
Image of purple bead leaf
Purple bead leaf has the effects of cooling blood, contracting and stopping bleeding, dispersing stasis, detoxifying, and reducing swelling. It is commonly used for hemorrhage, hemoptysis, hematemesis, bloody stools, excessive menstrual bleeding, external bleeding from injuries, and hot poisonous sores and burns.
"Handbook of Commonly Used Chinese Medicinal Herbs in Clinical Practice": This herb is cool but not cold, and it also has a blood-activating effect. Therefore, it can contract and stop bleeding without leaving stasis, activate blood circulation without dissipating, and cool the blood without obstructing. It is an excellent herb for stopping bleeding and is widely used for various internal and external bleeding.
Purple bead leaf is a deciduous shrub. The small branches are covered with yellow-brown star-shaped hairs.
The leaves are opposite, ovate-elliptic or elliptic in shape, with a blunt round or wide wedge-shaped base. The upper surface has fine coarse hairs, and the lower surface has yellow-brown star-shaped hairs. There are 8 to 12 pairs of lateral veins, and the edges have teeth and fine serrations.
The leaf stalk is densely covered with yellow-brown star-shaped hairs. The flowers are in compound umbels in the leaf axils. The calyx is bell-shaped, 4-lobed, with blunt triangular lobes, and both the calyx and the peduncle are covered with star-shaped hairs. The corolla is short-tubular, 4-lobed, and purple, without hairs. There are 4 stamens, longer than the corolla.
There is 1 pistil, the ovary has 4 chambers, the style is slender and higher than the stamens, and the stigma is single. The small fruit is purple-red. The flowering period is in summer and autumn.
