When we were young, we all loved to eat wild fruits from outside, but do you know their names? "Today, the editor brings you vinegar willow fruit, also known as sea buckthorn fruit, jujube, and da er bu xing. It is produced in North China, Northwest China, Sichuan, Tibet, and other places. It has the effects of stopping cough and eliminating phlegm, promoting digestion, and activating blood circulation."
[Botanical Characteristics of Vinegar Willow Fruit]
Sea buckthorn, also known as vinegar willow or sour thorn, is a deciduous shrub or tree that grows 5 to 10 meters tall. It has thick and strong thorns, and when the branches are young, they are densely covered with brown rusty scales.
The leaves are opposite, linear or lanceolate, 2-6 cm long, 0.4-1.2 cm wide, blunt at both ends, and the lower side is densely covered with pale white scales; the petiole is very short.
The flowers open before the leaves, and they are dioecious; the short cyme inflorescences are axillary and grow on the branches of the previous year. The flowers are small, pale yellow, with 2-lobed perianths; the male flowers have a tendency to drop off and have 4 stamens; the female flowers open later than the male flowers, and the perianth is tubular and 2-lobed at the top.
The fruit is surrounded by fleshy perianth tube, nearly spherical, orange-yellow, with a diameter of 0.5-1 cm. The flowering period is from March to April, and the fruiting period is from September to October.
[Taste and Meridian Tropism]
"The Common Tibetan Medicinal Herbs": "Warm in nature, sour and astringent in taste."
"The Handbook of Tibetan Medicinal Herbs for Plateau": "Enters the liver, stomach, and large and small intestines."
[Effects and Functions of Vinegar Willow Fruit]
Vinegar willow fruit has the effects of stopping cough and eliminating phlegm, promoting digestion, and activating blood circulation. It is often used for cough with excessive phlegm, indigestion, abdominal pain due to food stagnation, bruises and swelling, and stagnant blood causing amenorrhea.
① "The Common Tibetan Medicinal Herbs": "Activates blood circulation, disperses blood stasis, transforms phlegm, relieves chest congestion, strengthens the spleen and stomach. It is used to treat injuries from falls, bruises and swelling, cough with excessive phlegm, difficulty in breathing, and indigestion."
② "The Handbook of Tibetan Medicinal Herbs for Plateau": "Generates body fluids, relieves thirst, clears heat, and stops diarrhea. It is used to treat high fever injuring yin, bronchitis, enteritis, and dysentery."
