Kapok

Kapok

(essential preparation of raw herbs)

[source] it is the flower of kapok.

[plant morphology] kapok (Yang Fu's foreign body records), also known as Gubei (Nanzhou foreign body records), Banzhihua (Wang Youcheng Collection), Panzhihua (Gangmu), qiongzhi (Wuxun zapei), hero tree.

Large trees, up to 25 meters high. Stems and branches with short large conical spines; branches spreading. The leaves are palmately compound, petioles 8-12 cm long; leaflets 5-7, petiolate, thin leathery, oblong to elliptic, oblong, 10-20 cm long, 5-7 cm wide, apex acuminate, base broad or narrower, entire, both sides bare. The flowers are large, red, about 12 cm in diameter or more, open in front of leaves, gathered near the top of branches; calyx thick, leathery, 3.5-4.5 cm long, bare outside, covered with silky hairs inside, splitting into broad and blunt lobes; petals 5, fleshy, oblong, 8-10 cm long, stellate pilose on both sides, but slightly sparse on the inside; stamen tube short, multiseriate, the innermost 5 forked at the top, each 1 minute There are 1 anther, 10 shorter in the middle, most of the outermost, united into 5 bundles; ovary 5-locular, ovule many, stigma 5-lobed. The capsule is large, oblong, woody, 10-15 cm long and 4.5-5 cm wide, with woolly hairs in the petals; the seeds are mostly obovate. The flowering period is March. The fruiting period is May.

Wild or cultivated. Distributed in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Taiwan, Yunnan and other places.

The root or root bark (kapok root) and bark (kapok bark) of this plant are also used for medicine. Please refer to the special section for details.

[collection] the flowers are harvested in spring, dried or dried.

[medicinal material] the dried flowers are mostly shrunken, without ovary and petiole. Calyx cup-shaped, 3-5-lobed at the top, thick leathery and brittle, brownish black on the outside, with irregular longitudinal wrinkle and grayish yellow short villi on the inside; petals 5 pieces, separated, wrinkled and broken, brownish yellow or dark brown on the outside, with longitudinal stripes, stellate hairs on the inside, reddish brown on the inside and a few stellate hairs on the inside; stamens many, filaments reddish brown, twisted, with thick longitudinal stripes, anthers mostly falling off. It tastes light and slightly sweet.

It is produced in Guangxi and Guangdong.

Kapok recorded in ancient books is often confused with cotton plants of Malvaceae. The collection of kapok strips in the compendium includes the plants belonging to the genus Gossypium of Malvaceae, and the said "jiaoguang kapok" belongs to the family of kapok.

[nature and taste] The Handbook of commonly used Chinese herbal medicine of Guangzhou Army: "sweet, cool. "

Functions and indications: clearing heat, removing dampness, detoxifying and hemostatic. It is used to treat diarrhea, dysentery, blood collapse, sore poison and bleeding of Jinchuang.

① "To cure dysentery, the white one is better. "

② "Seeking the source of Materia Medica" says: "red people get rid of red dysentery, white people get rid of white dysentery, and they often drink the same Wu Yi tea. "

③ In the collection of herbs in the south of the five ridges: "relieving summer heat. "

④ New edition of traditional Chinese medicine: "diuresis and strengthening stomach. "

⑤ "Removing dampness and heat". It's a good way to cure blood avalanche. "

⑥ "To remove dampness and toxin, to treat malignant sores" in Guangxi Traditional Chinese medicine annals. "

⑦ "Clearing heat and removing dampness, treating enteritis and bacillary dysentery" is a common Chinese herbal medicine manual of Guangzhou army. "

[usage and dosage] oral: decoction, 2-3 yuan.

Chinese PinYin : Mu Mian Hua