cucumber

cucumber

(notes on materia medica)

[synonyms] Cucumis melo (Qianjin Shizhi), Wang Gua (Diannan materia medica), and CI Gua (textual research on the name and reality of plants).

[source] it is the fruit of Cucumis sativus.

[plant morphology] cucumber

Annual climbing herbs, all hirsute. Stem slender, spiny. With tendrils. Leaf blade triangular broadly ovate, length and width about 12-18 cm, palmately 3-5-lobed, lobes triangular, apex acute, both sides have coarse hairs, leaf margin serrate; petiole thick, with coarse hairs. Flowers unisexual, monoecious, with short stalks; male flowers 1-7, axillary; female flowers 1, single, or several; calyx 5-lobed, lobes subulate, 8-10 mm long, with long hairs; corolla yellow, 5-lobed, lobes elliptic lanceolate, apex sharp; stamens separated, inserted in calyx tube; filaments short, anthers long elliptic; ovary inferior, style short, stigma 3, ovules many . The bottle gourd is cylindrical, greenish when young and yellowish when old, with sparse short spines and prominent protuberances on its surface. Seeds elliptic, flat, white. The flowering period is from June to July. The fruit period is from July to August.

It is cultivated all over the country.

The root, stem and leaf of this plant are also used for medicine. Please refer to the special section for details.

[collection] fruits were collected from July to August for fresh use.

[chemical constituents] cucumber contains glucose, rhamnose, hemiporose, mannose, xylose, fructose and glucosides of rutin, Isoquercitrin and arginine. It also contains caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid, various free amino acids, vitamin g (riboflavin) and vitamin c-10.3 mg%. It also contains 1 mg% volatile oil, 60% of which is 2,6-nonadienol and 10% is 2,6-nonadienal. Cucurbitacin a, B, C and D are the bitter components of cucumber head.

The seed contained 58.49% oleic acid, 22.29% linoleic acid, 6.79% palmitic acid and 3.72% stearic acid.

[pharmacological action] cucurbitacin C has anti-tumor effect in animal experiments with low toxicity.

Sweet and cool.

① Qianjin Shizhi: "it tastes sweet, cold and poisonous. "

② "Daily use Materia Medica": "bitter taste, cool, non-toxic. "

③ Yilin zuanyao: "sweet and sour, cold. "

[meridian tropism] 1. In the book of Materia Medica, it goes into the spleen, stomach and large intestine. "

② Summary of materia medica: "start with the Taiyin meridian. "

Functions and indications: remove heat, promote diuresis and detoxify. Treatment of thirst, sore throat, eye fire, soup fire injury.

① Daily use materia medica: "in addition to heat in the chest, relieve thirst, benefit water channel. "

② "Diannan Materia Medica": "relieve sore ringworm, heat and toxin, eliminate vexation and thirst. "

③ Lu Chuan materia medica: "it can cure fever, body heat, thirst and scald; dried melon for a long time can tonify spleen qi and stop diarrhea. "

[usage and dosage] oral: cooked or raw. External use: soak juice, make cream or grind without adjustment.

[taboo] "dannan Materia Medica" says: "move cold phlegm, stomach cold people eat, abdominal pain vomiting and diarrhea. "

[formula selection] 1. Treatment of infantile dysentery: more than ten fresh cucumbers are eaten with honey. (name of the sea)

② To cure water sickness, stomach distension to swelling of limbs: a melon, broken into two pieces, not out of, half cooked in vinegar, half boiled in water, all rotten, hollow meal, instant water. (Qian Jin Sui Fang)

③ Treatment of sore throat: an old cucumber, to the son, into the nitrate filled, dry at the end. Blow a little at a time. (Yilin Jiyao)

④ Treatment of traumatic ulcer and swelling: in June, take cucumber and put it into a porcelain bottle and soak it in water. Every time with water sweep on the sore. (Yilin Jiyao)

⑤ Cure red eye pain: take an old cucumber in May, open a small hole on it, remove the flesh, fill it with Glauber's salt, hang it in the shade, wait for the Glauber's salt to come out, scrape it off, and leave some eyes. (Shouyu shenfang)

⑥ Treatment of soup burn: May pinch cucumber into the bottle, sealed, hanging eaves, water brush, good. (medical abstract)

Chinese PinYin : Huang Gua