Rhubarb, born on slopes, crevices, and grasslands, is distributed in Northeast China, North China, and Hubei. It is a plant with thick rhizomes, yellow-brown surface, thick and erect stem without branches, and basal leaves with long petioles. The leaf blades are ovate to ovate-round, heart-shaped at the base, wavy at the edges, and slightly hairy on the underside. Stem leaves are short-stalked or stalkless, and the sheaths are long and ovate, brown, and enclose the stem.
[Effects and Functions of Rhubarb]
Rhubarb can clear heat and detoxify, cool blood and promote blood circulation. It is used for treating jaundice due to damp-heat, dysentery, amenorrhea with abdominal pain, vomiting blood, nosebleed, bruises and pain from falls or blows, boils, abscesses, oral ulcers, and burns.
1. "Handbook of Commonly Used Medicinal Herbs in Northeast China": It can clear heat, dissolve accumulations, and promote blood circulation. It is used to treat jaundice, constipation, amenorrhea, boils, abscesses, and burns.
2. "Medicinal Herbs in Inner Mongolia": It can clear heat, promote bowel movements, dissolve accumulations, and promote blood circulation. (When used raw, it has a laxative effect; when stir-fried, it has a mild laxative effect; when stir-fried into charcoal, it can stop bleeding.) It is used to treat heat accumulation in the intestines, mumps, various internal and external abscesses, injuries from falls or blows, scalds, bruises and pain from blood stasis, vomiting blood, and nosebleed.
[Pharmacological Actions of Rhubarb]
1. Antioxidant effect: The water extract of rhubarb has a strong effect in scavenging superoxide anions, which is stronger than three authentic rhubarb species and other non-authentic rhubarb species. The edible rhubarb glycosides (i.e. upper rhubarb glycosides) also have a strong antioxidant effect.
2. Antiplatelet aggregation effect: The water extract of rhubarb has a weak inhibitory effect on collagen-induced human platelet aggregation, with an IC50 of 30mg/ml.
3. Other effects: Rhubarb does not have a laxative effect. It contains anthraquinone components.
