Wuxiangcao is a common weed in rural areas. In addition to being used as a seasoning, it can also be used as a medicinal herb. It is mainly used to treat colds, heat stroke, and stomach pain. Let's take a look at its specific pharmacological effects and toxic side effects!
Growing Environment of Wuxiangcao
Wuxiangcao is found in Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi provinces, growing on mountain grass slopes, roadsides, and near ditches.
We can see from the pictures that there are many broken stems of Wuxiangcao. Do you know why people break it?
In fact, Wuxiangcao can be used as an ingredient to stir-fry dishes, giving the dishes a delicious and fragrant taste.
Pharmacological Effects of Wuxiangcao
1. Antibacterial Effects
In in vitro experiments, water decoctions of Wuxiangcao have certain antibacterial effects.
It has the strongest antibacterial effects against Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhi, and Proteus vulgaris. It also has good antibacterial effects against Escherichia coli, Shigella sonnei, and Salmonella paratyphi, but its effects on Bacillus dysenteriae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa are slightly weaker.
The effective antibacterial components are found in the leaves and stems, while the roots have little effect.
After oral administration of the decoction to rats, their urine has antibacterial effects in test tubes.
2. Immune Regulation Effects
Wuxiangcao can promote lymphocyte transformation in healthy individuals and patients with acute nephritis, and it has immune regulatory effects.
3. Toxicity
The LD50 of Wuxiangcao decoction injected into the peritoneal cavity of mice is 0.78±0.13ml/kg. In small doses, it has no obvious toxicity in rabbits, but at doses above 1ml/kg, it can cause symptoms of poisoning such as tremors and convulsions.
A dose of 2ml/kg can cause rabbits to have repeated convulsions, rigid body, opisthotonos, and repeated attacks until death.
Subacute toxicity tests show that feeding rabbits with 0.14ml/kg of volatile oil for 2 weeks does not cause any abnormalities in blood hemoglobin, serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), urea nitrogen, and other indicators.
The toxicity of Wuxiangcao may be related to the presence of sidebinone. Phenobarbital at a dose of 30mg/kg has a certain protective effect on rabbits in the low-dose group.
Adverse Reactions of Wuxiangcao
Subacute tests on rats and mice have shown that it has very low toxicity. The LD50 of the decoction injected into the peritoneal cavity of mice is 10.1g/kg.
