The pinyin of Gua Piper is guā lóu.

Gua Piper is the name of the Chinese medicine. It is the fruit of Juniperus communis, family Cucurbitaceae. It is harvested at the end of fall when the fruit becomes yellowish, and hanged in a ventilated place to dry. Functions and Indications: Clearing away heat and phlegm, relaxing the chest and dispersing knots, and moistening the intestines. It is used for lung-heat cough, phlegm and yellowish thick, chest paralysis and heart pain, breast carbuncle, lung carbuncle, intestinal carbuncle and swelling pain.

Perennial herbaceous vine. Stem angular, tendrils 2 to 3 manifold. Leaves alternate, leaf blade broadly ovate-cordate, similar in length and width, 5-14cm, 3-5 lobed to y divided, margin often re-divided, lobules more rounded, both surfaces slightly hairy.

Staminate flowers are borne in the upper 1/3, 3～8 in racemes, sometimes solitary, sepals linear, corolla white, lobes flabellate obtriangular, apex fringed 1.5～2cm; female flowers solitary, pedicel about 6cm. fruit ellipsoid to globose, 7～11cm long, fruit flesh orange-yellow. The seeds are flat-ellipsoid, 11-16mm long and 7-12mm wide, flowering from June to August and fruiting from September to October.

This product is the fruit of Juniperus communis, family Cucurbitaceae. It is harvested at the end of fall when the fruit becomes yellowish, and then hanged in a ventilated place to dry. Functions and Indications: Clearing away heat and phlegm, relaxing the chest and dispersing knots, and moistening the intestines. It is used for coughing with lung-heat, phlegm with yellowish consistency, chest paralysis and heart pain, breast carbuncle, lung carbuncle, intestinal carbuncle and swelling pain.

Traits of the herb

The fruit is ovoid or globose, 7-15cm long, 6-10cm in diameter, with a deep orange-yellow to orange-red surface, wrinkled or smooth, with remnants of the stylopodium at the tip and remnants of the fruiting peduncle at the base; brittle and easy to break, with the pericarp a little thicker, yellowish-white on the inner surface, and the pith an orange-yellow color and bonded to the majority of the seeds. The flesh is orange-yellow, and it is bonded with most of the seeds into clusters.

Air like caramel; taste slightly sweet and sour. The root name of smallpox pollen, containing smallpox pollen protein, can clear away heat and produce fluids, eliminate pus and drain the swelling. Smallpox pollen protein pure product is used for mid-term labor induction, anti-early pregnancy. The fruit contains triterpenoid saponins, amino acids, sugars, organic acids; seeds contain oleic acid, linoleic acid and sterols.