Seaweed

Also known as: Luoshou

Meridians of nature and flavor: salty taste, cold in nature; returns to liver, stomach and kidney meridians.

An important medicine for treating galls and scrofula

Seaweed is an important medicine for treating galls and scrofula. "Shen Nong's Materia Medica" records that seaweed can "treat galls, tumors, and nuclei under the neck, break up qi, and eliminate carbuncles..." "Famous Doctors" records that seaweed can "treat skin problems such as accumulation, ulceration, and retention. Qi, heat, and urination." Galls in traditional Chinese medicine refer to neck lumps, such as thyroid disease; tumors refer to tumors formed in human tissues, such as benign tumors on the body surface; scrofula mostly refers to chronic inflammatory diseases that occur in the neck, such as cervical cancer. Lymph node tuberculosis, etc.

Seaweed profile

Seaweed belongs to the family Sargassum and is mainly produced in Fujian, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Shandong, Liaoning and other places. The medicinal parts are the dried algae of Artemisia or Sargassum. Generally, it is harvested in summer and autumn, washed, dried for a while, cut into sections, and dried in the sun. Modern research has found that seaweed mainly contains essential proteins, fats, polysaccharides, mannitol, alginic acid, multivitamins, iodine, potassium, etc.

Effects and Indications

Efficacy: eliminate phlegm, soften hardness, diuresis and reduce swelling.

Indications 1. It is used for scrofula caused by liver and kidney yin deficiency, stagnation of liver fire, and accumulation of phlegm fire. 2. It is used for galls caused by liver and spleen stagnation, qi stagnation, phlegm coagulation, and poor blood circulation. 3. Used for athlete's foot (a vitamin deficiency disease characterized by numbness, soreness, and weakness in the shins, not athlete's foot caused by fungal infection in Western medicine), edema, edema, etc.

Authenticity identification

1. Seawort is wrinkled and curled, dark brown, with a cylindrical trunk and side branches growing from the axils of main branches and leaves, with short thorn-like protrusions. Primary leaves are lanceolate or obovate, entire or coarsely serrated. Secondary leaves are strip-shaped or lanceolate. There are strip-like twigs between the leaf axils. The air sacs are dark brown, spherical or oval, with blunt tops, and some have thin and short tips. The texture is crispy, soft when moist, expands after being soaked in water, and the meat is sticky and slippery.

2． Sargassum varnai has a brown algae body, disc-shaped fixation device, short cylindrical stalk, and residual traces of algal branches. The lower part of the main branch is flat, and the leaves are long lanceolate with mid-ribs, but some disappear at the top. The air sac is spherical, dome-shaped, asymmetrical, the stalk is often flat, sometimes leaf-shaped, and the genital receptacle is cylindrical.

Notes

1. There are reports that seaweed supplements should be used with caution. Some experts point out that some seaweed supplements have limited nutritional value, and some algae can even cause diseases. 2. Seaweed cannot be used together with licorice and is a taboo.