As a medicine, ebony has four main functions: astringing the lung to relieve cough, astringing the intestine to stop diarrhea, relieving pain, promoting fluid production to quench thirst. Correspondingly, it is mainly used in the following four aspects.
1. Chronic cough due to lung deficiency is most closely related to the lung. Lung weakness can cause patients to cough for a long time, often resulting in dry cough with little or no phlegm. According to Medication Heart Method, ebony can "collect lung qi". Mume tastes sour and is good at converging and dissipating lung qi, so it has the effect of astringing lung and relieving cough for chronic cough due to lung deficiency. However, it should be noted that ebony should not be used in the early stage of cough, and only long-term cough caused by lung weakness is where ebony comes in.
2. Prolonged diarrhea and dysentery are located in the large intestine. Mume can not only astringe lung qi, but also astringe large intestine. For patients with long-term diarrhea and weak vital qi, the astringency of dark plum can be used to stop diarrhea. In addition, patients with chronic diarrhea and dysentery are often accompanied by loss of vaginal fluid due to long-term loss of body fluids from the intestines, such as dry mouth, red and thin tongue, and little or no moss. And this is just a good opportunity for Wumei to show her talents. Mume can not only astringent intestines and stop diarrhea, prevent further loss of body fluid, but also promote fluid production and quench thirst, and supplement the body's vaginal fluid, thus killing two birds with one stone. However, like cough, dark plum is generally not suitable for those who have evil spirits in the early stage of diarrhea.
3. Abdominal pain and syncope refers to severe abdominal pain caused by ascaris, even vomiting and cold limbs. As early as Zhang Zhongjing's Treatise on Febrile Diseases in the Han Dynasty, there was ebony pill with ebony as the main medicine used to treat syncope. Ascaris has the habit of drilling holes. When Ascaris gets into biliary tract, it often forms syncope. At this time, the patient's abdominal pain is severe, and the urgent task is to reduce the activity of ascaris lumbricoides and withdraw from the biliary tract, which is called "Anquan" in Chinese medicine. "On Famous Doctors' Prescriptions" says: "If you get sour, you will be quiet." Mume tastes very sour, and has the efficacy of soothing the crickets and relieving pain, and can relieve the abdominal pain caused by syncope. Of course, after the ascaris lumbricoides is stabilized and the pain is relieved, another insect repellent is needed.
4. Body fluid injury and thirst When the body fluid is insufficient, there will be symptoms of thirst and polydipsia, which is called body fluid injury and thirst in Chinese medicine. The evil of summer heat is easy to consume body fluids, so this situation is more common in hot summer. People have the habit of eating sour plum soup in summer, which is precisely the use of the efficacy of dark plum to promote fluid production and quench thirst. In addition, fluid injury and thirst are more common in diabetic patients. Therefore, for diabetics with symptoms of thirst and polydipsia, dark plum can also be added when the prescription is used.