Diding grass is a wild herbaceous plant with strong vitality. It can be used as a vegetable or as a medicine. Let's learn about the efficacy and effects of diding grass!
【Morphological characteristics of Diding Grass】
Diding grass is shriveled and wrinkled, with a brownish-yellow or yellowish-white surface. It is rough and has longitudinal grooves and wrinkles. It is often twisted in two branches and has adventitious roots and fibrous roots. It is hard in texture, easily broken, with a flat yellowish-white cross section and a brown center.
The rhizome is short, 2-5mm long, with nodes and visible leaf scars. It is hard in texture, with a yellowish-white cross section and a white medulla or hollow center.
The stem is slender, with 5 ridges and longitudinal stripes. It is grayish-green or yellowish-green, 5-20cm long and 1-2.5mm in diameter. The internodes are relatively long. It is soft in texture, easily flattened, with a hollow cross section and a fibrous appearance.
The leaves are wrinkled and broken, dark green or grayish-green, with long petioles. The leaf blade is pinnately or bipinnately lobed, with slender lobes and a soft texture. The flowers are pale purple, rarely seen or already broken.
The fruit of diding grass is grayish-green or yellowish-green, elongated and elliptical. The fruit skin is brittle and often broken or split into 2 pieces, leaving two brownish-yellow seed frames. The seeds are flat and heart-shaped, black and glossy. The odor is grassy and the taste is bitter and long-lasting.
【Efficacy and Effects of Diding Grass】
1. Reducing swelling and detoxification
Diding grass has the effects of clearing heat and detoxification, reducing swelling and relieving high fever and restlessness. It has a good effect on influenza, upper respiratory tract infection, tonsillitis, and mumps.
2. Antibacterial and anti-inflammatory
Modern pharmacology has shown that diding grass can treat bacterial infections such as enteritis, nephritis, hepatitis, acute appendicitis, conjunctivitis, dysentery, and other suppurative infections.
3. Reducing swelling and relieving pain
Diding grass has a swelling and pain-relieving effect on various infections that cause swelling and pain. It can treat swollen abscesses, mastitis, malignant ulcers, and carbuncles.
4. Treating snakebites
Drink the juice of fresh diding grass or apply a paste made from fresh diding grass and realgar externally.
【Medicinal Uses of Diding Grass】
1. Treating carbuncles and swollen abscesses: Crush diding grass, white part of green onion, and raw honey and consume.
2. Treating acute infectious hepatitis: Boil 1 liang of bitter diding grass in water and consume.
3. Treating enteritis or dysentery: Boil 1 liang of bitter diding grass, 1 liang of red rattan vine, 2 liang of ant plant, and 3 qian of golden thread. Consume as a decoction.
4. Treating suppurative infections:
① Boil half a liang each of bitter diding grass, dandelion, and half a liang of half-leaf lotus. Consume the decoction and apply the dregs externally.
② Crush 2 liang each of fresh diding grass and wild chrysanthemum separately, and consume the juice in two doses. Apply the dregs externally.
③ Crush an equal amount of fresh diding grass and fresh hibiscus flower, add a little salt, and apply the paste to the affected area. At the same time, boil 2-3 liang of diding grass in water and consume.
