Fructus Lycii (Gouqizi) –Wolfberry Fruit
Origin
Wolfberry Fruit is dried ripe fruit of Lycium barbarum L.The drug is collected in summer and autumn when the fruit turns orange-red. After drying in the shade to make the pericarp shrunken, the drug is exposed to strong sunlight until the exocarp is dried and hard, and the pulp soft, the fruit stalk is then removed.
Description and Identification
Subfusiform, slightly flattened, 6 ~ 18mm long, 3 ~ 8mm in diameter. Externally scarlet of dark red, marked with a protrudent style sear at the apex, and a white fruit stalk scar at the base. Pericarp pliable and shrunken,sarcocarp fleshy,soft and viscous. Seeds flat and reniform. Odourless; taste, sweet and slightly sour.
Chemical Ingredients
7.09% amylose; lycine, atropine,hyoscyamine, zeaxanthin, physalien, etc.
Property and Channel Tropism
Property : sweet in taste, neutral in nature. Channel tropism: liver, kidney.
Action and Indications
To benefit the liver and the kidney, to replenish vital essence and to improve eyesight. General debility with deficiency of vital essence manifested by aching of the loins and knees, dizziness and tinnitus; diabetes caused by internal heat; anemia; impaired vision.
Place of Production
Ning xia is the main place of production. Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Gansu and Shan’xi also produce Gou qi.
Recipes of Medicated Diet
1. Yi Shou Yin Er Tang (Tremella Soup)
[ Ingedients]
15g tremella
15g gou qi zi, wolfberry fruit ( Fructus Lycii )
15g long yan rou, longan aril ( Arillus Longan )
150g crystal sugar
[Preparation]
Steep the tremella in warm water until it swells. Wash the swollen tremella and remove the black root. Have it instantly boiled in the boiling water, steep it in cool water, and then have it steamed. Wash gou qi zi, put it in a small bowl, and have it steamed. Cut long yan rou into cubes. Having had 1500g water boiled,add crystal sugar,and then add tremlla,gou qi zi,and long yan rou when crystal sugar melts. Have it boiled for a few minutes and pour them into the bowl.
[Effects and Indications]
Tonifying kidney and building up the body,nourishing Yin and moistening lung.
Dry cough due to lung yin deficiency, chronic consumptive cough, morbid thrist and constipation after the attack of heat.
2. Si Wei Shu Yu Gao
Huai Shan Yao, Wolfberry, Deerhorn Glue and Walnut Electuary
[Ingredients]
250g huai shan yao
120g gou qi, wolfberry fruit ( Fructus Lycii )
60g deerhorn glue
240g walnut
70g crystal sugar
[ Preparation ]
Fry the deerhorn glue with clam until it is crisp and grind it into powder. Steam the left four kinds of medical material until it becomes pappy. Add and mix and beat it up to cream and conserve it. Take thirty grams of it every time and three times a day.
[Effects and Indications]
Nourishing kidney,consolidating Yang and regulationg menstruation.
It acts on teenage girls’kidney deficiency manifested by hypomenorrhea, light-colored menstruation , and pain in lumbar, vertigo, tinnitus, pale tongue and weak pulse.
