CHINESE FOOD

Origin
Common Fennel Fruit is the ripe fruit of Foeniculum vulgare Mill.The plant is collected in autumn when fruit nearly ripe and dried in the sun,then the drug is tapped off or removed from foreign matter.

Description and Identification
Cremocarp, sylindrical, some slightly curved,4 ~ 8mm long, 1.5 ~ 2.5mm in diameter. Externally yellowish-green or pale yellow,tapering slightly towards hoth ends,apex bearing remains of yellowish-brown projecting stylopodium, sometimes having a small fruit stalk at the base. Mericarp elongated-ellipitical, with each dorsal surface bearing five ribs and commissural surface flattened and broad. Transversely cut surface showing a pentagonal outling,the four sides of dorsal surface nearly equal in length. Odour, characteristically aromatic; taste, slightly sweet and pungent.

Chemical ingredients
Anisole, a -fenchone methylchavicol, anisaldehyde, etc.

Property and Channel Tropism
Property: acrid in taste; warm in nature. Channel tropism: liver, kidney, spleen, stomach.

Action and Indications
To dispel cold and relieve pain,to regulate the stomach funcion.
Scrotal hernia with pain and cold extremities; dysmenorrhea with lower abdominal pain and cold sensation; distending pain in the epigastrium with anorexia, vomiting and diarrhea; hydrocele of tunica vaginalis.

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Warming Interior Drugs and Recipes beef, dietetic therapy, Dou kou, seasoning, Warming Interior Drugs and Recipes, Xiao hui xiang

Origin
Clove is the dried flower of Eugenia caryophllata Thunb. The drug is collected when it turns from green to brick-red, and dried in the sun.

Description and Identification
Pestle-shaped, 1 ~ 2cm long. Corolla globular,0.3 ~ 0.5cm in diameter, petals 4,imbricated, dark brown to brownish—yellow,enclosing stamens and style. After rubbing,showing numerous yellow, granular anthers. Calyx tube cylindrical,slightly flattened,sometimes slightly curved,0.7 ~ 1.4cm long,0.3 ~ 0.6cm in diameter,reddish-brown or dark brown,sepals 4,triangular,occurring at the upper part, separating in cruciform. Texture hard,oily. Odour,strongly aromatic; taste,pungent and numb.

Chemical ingredients
It has naphtha which is clove oil.In the oil,there are mostly eugenol,acetyleugenol, (3 -caryophyllene, Eugenone, Eugenin, etc.

Property and Channel Tropism
Property : pungent in taste .warm in nature. Channel tropism: splleen,stomach,kidney.

Action and Indications
To warm the spleen and stomach, to regulate the adverse flow of the stomach qi,and to restore the kidney yang.
vomiting,hiccup,poor apptite and diarrhea due to stomach cold; impotence,prospermia and soreness of waist due to kidney Yang deficiency.

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Origin

Sword bean is dried ripe seed of Canavalia gladiate( Jacg. ) DC. The fruit is collected in autumn when ripe, and the drug is gathered, and dried in the sun.

Description and Identification

Flattened-ovoid or flattened-reniform,2 ~ 3.5cm long, 1 ~ 2cm wide,0.5 ~ 1.2cm thick. The outer surface pale red to reddish-purple, slightly shrunken, somewhat lustrus. The edge with a black wyebrow-shaped hilum,about 2cm long,exhibiting 3 white fine striations. Texture hard,uneasily broken. Testa coriaceous, the inner surface brownish-green, lustrous; cotyledons 2, yellowish-white oily. Odourless; weak in taste, bean-like on chewing.

Chemical Ingredients

It has canavaline,etc.

Property and Channel Tropism

Property: sweet in taste, warm in nature.
Channel tropism: stomach, kidney.

Action and Indictions

To warm the stomach and check its upward adverse movement. Hiccup and vomiting of deficiency-cold type.

Place of Production

Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Sichuan, shaanxi, etc.

Recipes of Medicated Diet

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Origin
Tokay is the dried body of Gekko gecko Linnaeus. The drug is captured all the year round; remove from the viscera, wiped, opened with bamboo piece to make the whole body flattened and straight, and dried at a low temperature.

Description and Identification
Flattened slice in shape, head, neck and trunk 9 ~ 18cm long. Head and neck about one third as long as snout-vent; the dorsum and abdomen 6 ~ 11cm wide; tail 6 ~ 12cm long. The head somewhat flat triangualr.two eyes sunken deeply,forming holes. Tiny teeth present in the mouth,located at the margin of the jaw,heteromorphic large tooth lacking. The snout semirounded at tip,rostral not con-tactin nostril,but in contact with nasal; lsupranasal at each side, 12 to 14 pairs of upper labials,21 lower labials mental included. The trunk elliptic,the abdomen thin,the dorsum greyish-green spots scattered or concentrated to indistinct patterns. The vertebrae and ribs of both sides projecting. Four limbs all having 5 digits,bearing scansors at the base, and trace of web between the digits. Tail narrow and stong,the caudal vertebrae barely visible. Grund colour of the tail similar to that of the dorsum, with 6 ~ 7 distinct silver-grey circular band. Whole body densely covered with rounded or polygonal, somewhat lustrous,tiny scales. Odour,stinking; taste, slightly salty.

Chemical Ingredients
carnosine, choline, carnitine, guanine, protein, cholesterol, some kinds amino acid and phospholipid , etc.

Property and Channel Tropism
Property: salty in taste, neutral in nature. Channel tropism: lung,kidney.

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Yang-Nourishing Drugs and Recipes Chinese Caterpillar Fungus, Chinese drugs, dietetic therapy, Fructus Lycii, Gecko, Ginseng, Radix astagali, Yang-Nourishing Drugs and Recipes, Yin yang huo

Origin
Chinese Caterpillar Fungus is a composile consisting of the stroma of the fungus, Cordyceps sinensis ( Berk. ) Sacc. ( Fam. Hypocreceae ), parasitzed on the larva of some species of insects ( Fam. Hepialidae ), and the dead caterpillar.

Description and Identification
A dead caterpillar jointed with a stroma growing in the head of the larva The caterpillar resembling a silkworm, 3 ~ 5cm long, 3 ~ 8mm in diameter, externally deep yellow to yellowish-brown, with 20 ~ 30annulations, some of those near the head relatively fine; head reddishbrown, feet 8 pairs, the 4 pairs in the middle relatively conspicuous; texture fragile,easily broken,fracture slightly even,yellowish-white. Stromata slenderly cylindrical, 4 ~ 7cm long, about 3mm in diameter; externally deep brown to brown, with fine longitudinal wrinkles,slightly swollen above. Texture flexible,fracture whitish. Odour,fleshy; taste, slighdy bitter.

Chemical Ingredients
Glutamic, Phenylalanine, Proline, Histidine, Valine, Oxy valine, Arginine, Alanine, D-Mannitol and vitamin.

Property and Channel Tropism
Property: sweet in taste and neutral in nature Channels: lung, kidney

Action and Indication
To tonify the lung and the kidney,arrest bleeding,and dispel phlegm.
Chronic cough and asthma; hemoptysis in phthisis; impotence and seminal emissions with aching of loins and knees

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Yang-Nourishing Drugs and Recipes Chinese Caterpillar Fungus, Chinese drugs, dietetic therapy, Yang-Nourishing Drugs and Recipes