Cowpea:
Scientific name: Vigna unguiculata (Linn.) Pinyin: jiāng dòu English name: Cowpea
Family name: Leguminosae
It is also known as the Chinese pea or the black-eyed pea. Fabaceae (Fabaceae) annual plant Vigna unguiculata cultivated type. Believed to be native to India and the Middle East, but long cultivated in China. Leaves compound, leaflets 3. Flowers white, purple, or yellowish, often borne in pairs or threes at the end of the slender stalk of the rachis. Pods long, cylindrical. The pods of the short-podded rice bean (V.u. catjang) are 7.5?12.5 centimeters (3?5 inches) long. Shakuhachi cowpea (V.u. sinensis) pods are 20?30 centimeters long. Cowpeas are widely cultivated in the southern United States as a hay crop, green manure, or for eating the pods.
Annual twining herb, glabrous. Leaflets 3, terminal leaflet rhombic-ovate, 5-13 centimeters long, 4-7 centimeters wide, apically acute, base subrounded or broadly cuneate, glabrous on both surfaces, lateral leaflets obliquely ovate; stipules ovate, ca. 1 centimeter long, inserted decurrently into a short spur. Racemes axillary; calyx campanulate, glabrous; corolla lavender, ca. 2 cm, with yellowish whiskers inside distal part of style. Pods linear, pendulous, up to 40 cm long. Flowering and fruiting period June-September.
It is widely cultivated throughout the country.
There are many varieties of cowpea for vegetable consumption, according to the different skin color of the pods are divided into white skin cowpea, green skin cowpea, flower skin cowpea, red skin cowpea, etc., according to the different responses of each variety to the length of light, the varieties that are not sensitive to the length of light response are red beak swallow, etc., and the ones that are sensitive to the length of light response are the Maoyao cowpea of Shanghai, Yangzhou, and the Peking cowpea cultivated in Suzhou, Wuxi, and so on; the seeds are used in medicine to nourish stomach and tonify the qi, The seeds are used in medicine, which can strengthen the stomach and tonify the qi, nourish and eliminate food.
Cowpea
("Salvation of the Materia Medica")
Synonyms goat's horn, bean horn ("Medical Forest Compendium"), horned beans, rice beans, kidney beans, long beans, skirted beans ("China's major plants illustrated - Leguminosae"), pulp beans ("Guizhou folk medicine collection"). Ancient name: Jiang Dou.
The source is the seeds of cowpea, Fabaceae.
Collected in the fall when the fruit is ripe.
Chemical composition The seeds contain large amounts of starch, fatty oil, protein, niacin, vitamins B1, B2. fresh cowpeas contain 22 mg% ascorbic acid.
Taste sweet, flat. ① "Yunnan Materia Medica": "Flavor flat." ② "Compendium": "Sweet and salty, flat, non-toxic." ③ "Materia Medica from the new": "Sweet and astringent, flat."
It enters the spleen and kidney meridians. (1) "Getting the Match": "Entering the qi portion of the foot taiyin meridian." (2) "The Materia Medica Seeking Truth": "Entering the kidney, and also the stomach."
Functions: Strengthening the spleen and tonifying the kidneys. Treating weakness of the spleen and stomach, diarrhea, vomiting, thirst, spermatorrhea, leucorrhea, white turbidity, frequent urination.
① "Yunnan Materia Medica": "Treating weakness of the spleen and soil, appetizing and strengthening the spleen."
② "Compendium": "Regulate the middle and benefit the qi, tonifying the kidney and stomach, and the five viscera, regulating the camp and guards, and generating essence. Stop thirst, vomiting, dysentery, urination, antidote to rat manganese poisoning."
③ "Materia Medica from the new": "Dispersing blood and eliminating swelling, clearing heat and removing toxins."
④ "Medical Forest Compendium": "tonifying the heart and diarrhea of the kidneys, seepage of water, facilitate urination, descending turbid and ascending clear."
⑤ "Sichuan Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine": "Nourishing Yin and tonifying the kidney, strengthening the spleen and stomach, eliminating food. It can be used to treat food accumulation and abdominal distension, leucorrhea, leucorrhea and spermatorrhea of kidney deficiency."
Usage and dosage for internal use: decoction or boiled food.
Contraindications "Getting and Matching Materia Medica": "It is forbidden for those who have stagnation of qi and constipation."
Recipes ① Treatment of food accumulation and abdominal distension, belching: raw cowpea appropriate amount, chew and swallow, or pounded velvet bubble cold boiled water. (Chengdu, "Manual of Commonly Used Herbal Treatments")
② treatment of leukorrhea, white turbidity: cowpeas, vine vine vegetables. Stewed chicken service. ("Sichuan Chinese Medicine Journal")
③ Treatment of snake bites: cowpea, mountain cucumber, cherry leaves, soybean leaves. Pound the fleece and apply externally. (Chengdu Manual of Commonly Used Herbal Treatments)
[Edit Paragraph]Nutritional Analysis
1. Cowpea provides high quality protein which is easy to be digested and absorbed, moderate amount of carbohydrates and many kinds of vitamins and trace elements, etc., and it can replenish signature nutrients of the organism.
2. Cowpea contains B vitamins which can maintain normal secretion of digestive glands and function of gastrointestinal peristalsis and inhibit cholinesterase activity, which can help digestion and improve appetite.
3. Vitamin C contained in cowpea can promote the synthesis of antibody and improve the body's anti-virus effect.
4. The phospholipids of cowpea have the effect of promoting insulin secretion and taking part in sugar metabolism, which is the ideal food for diabetics.
[edit]Suitable for the crowd
The general population can eat.
1. especially suitable for diabetes, kidney deficiency, urinary frequency, spermatorrhea and some gynecological functional diseases patients eat more;
2. but the person who has stagnation of qi and stool should be cautious to eat cowpeas.
[edit]Cooking guide
Long cowpeas should not be cooked for too long, so as not to cause nutritional loss.
[Edit Paragraph]Therapeutic effects
Cowpea is flat in nature, sweet and salty in taste, and belongs to the spleen and stomach meridians;
It has the effects of regulating the middle and benefiting the qi, strengthening the stomach and tonifying the kidneys, and harmonizing the five viscera, tonifying the face and nourishing the body, generating the marrow and quenching thirst;
It is the main treatment for vomiting, dysentery, and urinary frequency.
[edit]Other related
The Arabs often regard cowpeas as a symbol of love; a young man proposing marriage to a girl always takes a handful of cowpeas with him, and when a bride arrives at a man's house, cowpeas are included in her dowry.