Luffa has the effect of clearing away heat, resolving phlegm and dredging collaterals. Loofah sponge is often used to treat chest pain and breast pain caused by qi stagnation and blood stasis.
Loofah enters the stomach when it is tender, and it is used as medicine when it is old, and it connects the meridians.
Promote the absorption of calcium. Luffa can be eaten in a vegetarian way, and can be eaten with foods containing vitamin D, such as shrimp skin, cod liver oil, cream, pig liver and so on. It can promote the absorption of calcium by human body and has a good effect on the prevention and treatment of rickets in children.
Treat jaundice and bloody stool. Fresh and tender towel gourd 1 strip, cut into sections; 50 grams of japonica rice, porridge with japonica rice, towel gourd and proper amount of sugar for breakfast. If you have fever, polydipsia, excessive phlegm, asthma and cough, add 25 grams of mung bean.
Treat bronchitis. Frosted loofah vines can be decocted in water to treat chronic bronchitis and bronchitis.
Treat sinusitis. Take a proper amount of Luffa vine and yellow wine, take Luffa vine beside the root, dry it in the sun, grind it into fine powder, take 10g each time, and send yellow wine 2-3 times a day. Treat urinary tract infection. When you have frequent urination or painful urination, you can use tender loofah to boil water, but you can't use an iron pot when boiling water. When the loofah is cooked, add sugar, and then rinse with water 1 week. Symptoms can be alleviated or disappeared.
Treat pruritus vulvae. Chopped pulp of melon and garlic can be decocted with water and taken by sitz bath, which can treat scrotal eczema and vulvar itching.
Treat irregular menstruation. Bake the loofah seeds, decoct them in water, add a little brown sugar and warm them with yellow wine to treat irregular menstruation.
Treat low back pain. Stir-fry the loofah seeds, serve them with wine, or grind them into residue, and apply them to the sore spot after frying.
Luffa (1 black hair; Luffa (Cucurbitaceae) is an annual climbing herb, belonging to two cultivated species of Luffa. Genus name Luffa L. Chromosome number 2n=2x=26. Alias Tian Luffa, Mangua (skill side), Miangua (continuation skill side), Bugua (ancient and modern events outline), Tian Luogua (Puji side), Yuqiu (strange prescription),,, Gua, Daoyang cuisine (Caigua (Flora of Guangzhou), Shuigua (Flora of Lingnan Medicinal Plants), etc. What you eat is tender fruit. Mature fruit is rich in fiber and can be used as medicine. It is called "Luffa". Traditional Chinese medicine believes that loofah has the effects of regulating menstruation, eliminating dampness and treating dysentery. You can also wash the dishes. Stem juice can be used as cosmetic raw material. Luffa cylindrical Roem has a rough surface with several dark green longitudinal stripes and no edges, while luffa acutangula Roxb has a short cylinder to a long cylinder with an edge of 9- 1 1, dark green).
The Cultivation History and Culture of Luffa
Luffa originated in tropical Asia, and it is said that it was cultivated in India 2000 years ago. It's hard to find ancient time books circulating in China. The earliest record of loofah in history should be Lu You's Notes on the Old Academy in the mid-Southern Song Dynasty: "Loofah washes the inkstone, and the residual stains are exhausted without damaging the inkstone." And Du Beishan's "Luffa Fu", which shows that it should be introduced in the Northern Song Dynasty or the Five Dynasties at the latest. In the Ming Dynasty, Li Shizhen described it in detail in Compendium of Materia Medica: "Luffa was planted in February to raise seedlings, draw vines, extend bamboo trees, or make scaffolding. Its leaves are bigger than hollyhock, with many sharp thorns, and its juice can be dyed green. Its stems are angular, with yellow flowers in June and July, slightly like gourd flowers and yellow petals. Its melon is one foot big, one or two feet long, or even three or four feet long. Dark green, wrinkled, melon head like a turtle head, peeled when tender, cooked and exposed, filled with tea. Old age is as big as a pestle, exhausted, but withered by frost. Only boots and shoes can be used to wash the kettle, so the villagers call it washing the kettle and washing the melon. There is a partition inside, and the child is in the partition. It looks like a building, black and flat. Unknown before the Tang and Song Dynasties, it began in the south, so it is called pretty melon, which is found in both north and south today. Its flower buds, tender leaves and tendrils can be eaten, which is a normal vegetable. " By the Ming Dynasty, it had been widely circulated in China, and all kinds of medical books were generally recorded.
Cultural appreciation of loofah
Since ancient times, loofah has been loved by people, and many literati have painted poems for it. Luffa green leaves, melon season, strips of luffa hanging on the shelf, can really give people a light and elegant aesthetic feeling.
"Ode to Loofah" in the northern mountain of Juniper: "Lonely hedge households enter the spring, but they don't see the mountains. In a few days, the rain will be fine and the grass will grow in autumn, and the loofah will be born along the tile wall. "
Song Zhaomei's "Ode to Luffa": "Yellow flowers are long and green, and white knots are covered with frost; It's so thin that it's just a twist, it's just stained with fat. "
Anonymous: "Yellow-flowered Cui Man Zi Lei, writing westerly wind and rain hedge; I am afraid to meet you, but when I am old, I will do anything in Qiu Si. "
As the saying goes, "the owner has a loofah on the wall and a yellow flower in the west yard."
Nutrition and Edible Value of Luffa
Luffa is rich in nutrition. Every100g of edible part contains protein1.4-1.5g, fat 0. 1 g, carbohydrate 4.3-4.5g, crude fiber 0.3-0.5g, ash 0.5g and calcium1. Ascorbic acid 5-8mg. In addition, it also contains saponins, xylan, bitter substances of towel gourd, a lot of mucus, citrulline and so on.
Tender loofah itself has a sweet taste, which is delicious when fried with vegetarian dishes. In Jiangnan area, tender loofah is often peeled, cut into pieces and fried with eggs, which is very delicious; Or peel the loofah, cut it into 2-inch sections, dig a hole in it, stuff it with meat, steam it in a cage, hook it with sauce, and make it into a unique loofah stuffed with meat. When you don't want to eat or drink in the summer heat, use loofah to make soup, which is refreshing and not greasy, appetizing and fitness, and has the effect of clearing heat. You can also make soup with tofu, sliced meat or shrimp skin and shrimp skin.
Luffa dishes abound in recipes all over China. The dishes with loofah as the leading role include Sichuan cuisine's Dragon Loofah, Huaiyang cuisine's Soul Flesh Loofah, Hunan cuisine's Scallop Loofah and Jiangsu cuisine's Scrambled Eggs with Loofah. These dishes are simple to make, and their similarities are clear, cool, fresh, crisp and elegant in color. Suitable for family banquets. When cooking loofah, we should pay attention to keeping it as light as possible, using less oil, and using monosodium glutamate or pepper to enhance the taste, so as to show the refreshing and fragrant characteristics of loofah.
Luffa flowers can also be eaten. "disaster relief materia medica" said: "it is better to be a vegetarian dish than a fake flower." "Qunfangpu": "Big yellow flowers can add salt to order tea." Compendium of Materia Medica: "Its buds, tender leaves and tendrils can be eaten."
Luffa recipe
1. 800g of towel gourd, 50g of water-soaked mushrooms, and appropriate amount of ginger juice. First, wash the water-soaked mushrooms, peel the loofah, wash and slice; Heat the pan, add the oil, and cook with ginger juice. Add the slices of towel gourd, mushrooms, cooking wine, salt and monosodium glutamate, and cook until the mushrooms and towel gourd taste delicious. Thicken with wet starch and pour in sesame oil and mix well. This dish has the effect of nourishing qi and blood and dredging meridians. It is suitable for women with postpartum galactorrhea and breast pain.
2 chicken soup and loofah stewed dictyophora indusiata and loofah 500g, dried dictyophora indusiata 50g, a chicken rack, salt, sugar, ginger and pepper, starch, oil and sesame oil. Wash the chicken rack, put it in a casserole, add ginger slices, add appropriate amount of water to boil, and simmer for 30 ~ 60 minutes. Soak Dictyophora in clear water, cut into 4cm long sections, peel off loofah, wash, and cut into 4cm long strips for later use. Cook the cooked chicken rack soup with dictyophora, and take out dictyophora for later use. Heat a wok with proper amount of oil, pour in loofah and stir fry, then add chicken rack soup, proper amount of salt, a little pepper and proper amount of sugar, cook loofah, then add cooked dictyophora, cook for two minutes, finally thicken, pour in sesame oil and mix well, and serve. This dish has the effect of beautifying and nourishing.
3. Tomato and loofah soup 65438+ 0 loofah, 2 tomatoes and chopped green onion. Firstly, tomatoes are washed and sliced, and then loofah is peeled, washed and sliced; Boil the cooked lard to 60% heat, add 5 ooml fresh soup to boil, add towel gourd slices and tomato slices, and when cooked, add pepper, salt, monosodium glutamate and chopped green onion and mix well. This soup is delicious and fragrant, and has the effects of clearing away heat and toxic materials and removing annoyance. Heat and boredom, thirst and dry throat are all effective.
4. Stir-fried loofah, 25O grams of loofah. Peel, clean and slice the loofah, put a little oil on the pot, heat it to 60%, pour in the loofah and stir fry, and add a little salt when the loofah is cooked. This dish is light and delicious, and has the functions of clearing away heat and promoting diuresis, resolving phlegm and relieving cough. It is especially suitable for patients with excessive phlegm, asthma, cough, dysentery and jaundice.
5. Raw loofah juice Raw loofah 1000 g, with appropriate amount of honey. First, wash the raw loofah, shred and juice, add honey (generally 10: 1) and stir well. The fruit juice has the effects of clearing away heat, relieving cough and resolving phlegm, and is suitable for children with pertussis.
Medicinal value of loofah
Loofah is not only delicious, but also can produce body fluid to quench thirst and relieve summer heat. It's hot and sultry in midsummer. Eat cold soup made of loofah to refresh your thirst and eliminate body heat and irritability. Luffa is a cool food. "Compendium of Materia Medica" says "clearing away heat and benefiting intestines", and Ben Jingyuan also says: "Luffa is tender and cold." Therefore, people who get angry have dry stools and should eat loofah, which has the function of clearing away heat and relaxing bowels. Luffa contains amino acids, sugars, saponins, vitamin C, B vitamins and carbohydrates, as well as a variety of trace elements. Therefore, loofah is also a good product in beauty beauty. Modern medical research also shows that various nutrients contained in towel gourd juice have the functions of promoting blood circulation, dredging collaterals, clearing away heat and toxic materials, diminishing inflammation, promoting diuresis, moistening skin and caring skin, and sun protection. Indications: fever, polydipsia, excessive phlegm, asthma, cough, intestinal wind, hemorrhoids, leucorrhea, bloody stranguria, furuncle, mammary gland obstruction and carbuncle. The elderly burn sex clothes, dispel wind and phlegm, cool blood and detoxify, kill insects, dredge meridians, and promote blood circulation and milk; Can be used for treating urination and defecation bleeding, hemorrhoids, jaundice, hernia, egg swelling, blood gas pain, carbuncle, sores, toothlessness, acne rash, and fetal toxicity.
Luffa root has the effects of promoting blood circulation, dredging collaterals and reducing swelling. Indications: migraine, lumbago, mastitis, sore throat, intestinal wind bleeding, hemorrhoid leakage.
Luffa vine contains saponin, which has the functions of relaxing muscles and tendons, promoting blood circulation, invigorating spleen and killing insects. Indications: numbness of waist, knees and limbs, irregular menstruation and edema; Toothpaste, sinus, dental bulletin. Treat hypoxemia, numbness of waist, knees and limbs, postpartum convulsion and irregular menstruation.
Luo Tianshui (the juice of loofah or loofah stem), Addendum: Treat double moths, remove phlegm fire, detoxify, clear internal heat, treat lung abscess and lung flaccidity. Illustration of Chinese medicinal plants: Boiling sugar and taking it orally can relieve cough, treat headache, abdominal pain, cold, beriberi, edema, alcoholism and so on.
Luffa leaves contain saponins. Guangdong Luffa leaves contain hydrocyanic acid. It can clear away heat and detoxify. Treat carbuncle, furuncle, tinea, snake bite, soup fire injury.
The contents of glutamine, aspartic acid, arginine and aspartic acid in luffa flowers are more in female flowers than in male flowers, while lysine and alanine are more in male flowers. Clearing away heat and toxic materials. Treat cough due to lung heat, sore throat, sinusitis, furuncle and hemorrhoid.
Luffa sponge (herbal rejuvenation) is also called Luffa sponge (medicinal forest compilation), Luffa sponge (classification of medicinal materials), melon, flocculent pulp (Guangzhou Flora), Luo antenna (medicinal materials compilation), Luffa sponge (Jiangsu medicinal plants) and Luffa sponge. Luffa contains xylan and cellulose, and may also contain mannan, galactan and lignin. Dredge meridians, clear away heat and resolve phlegm. Indications: Chest pain, abdominal pain, lumbago, testicular swelling and pain, lung heat and phlegm cough, female amenorrhea, galactorrhea, carbuncle, hemorrhoid and leakage. For black burn, it can be taken orally to treat intestinal bleeding, dysentery, uterine bleeding, orchitis swelling, hemorrhoid bleeding and so on.
Luffa seed Luffa seed contains 23.5-38.9% fatty oil, mainly glycerides such as linoleic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid and oleic acid, 0.47% phospholipid, squalene and α -spinach sterol. It also contains triterpenoid saponins (oleanolic acid as aglycone), melanin (catechol produced after alkali melting and oxidation) and cucurbitacin B, and others include protein and sugar. Conducive to the heat removal effect of water. Indications: edema of limbs, stranguria, intestinal wind, hemorrhoids and leakage. ① Yao Kecheng's Edible Materia Medica: Victims: the main flood, swollen face and limbs, drowning, making people vomit. Sweet people: quench thirst, treat heart heat, benefit waterways, regulate heart and lungs, treat stranguria and vomit ascaris.
Medicinal mechanism of luffa
1. Anti-scurvy Luffa has a high content of vitamin C, 8 mg per 100 g, which can be used for anti-scurvy and prevention of various vitamin C deficiency.
2. Brain-strengthening beauty Because the content of vitamin B 1 in loofah is also high, it is beneficial to the brain development of children and the brain health of middle-aged and elderly people; The juice of towel gourd stem has the special function of keeping skin elastic, and can beautify and wrinkle.
3. The antiviral and antiallergic Luffa extract (Lo43) has obvious preventive effect on Japanese encephalitis virus, and the protection rate can reach 60% ~ 80% when injected with Lo43 before being infected with the virus. A kind of antiallergic substance, Xiegenalkyd, was also extracted from tissue culture solution of Luffa, which has a strong antiallergic effect.
Luffa recipe
① Treating intestinal wind: there are more cotton melons, burning ash, and the wine is adjusted to two yuan, which is hollow. ("Continued Technology")
② Treatment of hemorrhoid leakage and proctoptosis: towel gourd burned with ash, lime for many years, and realgar for five yuan each. Finally, mix the gallbladder, egg white and sesame oil and put them away. ("Sun Liangfang")
③ Treatment of hemorrhoid caused by anal wine: the loofah is burnt and ground, and two yuan of wine is taken. (summary)
4 cure white collapse: palm (burning ash) and loofah. The upper part is divided into equal parts and is fine powder. Adjust hollow wine. ("miracle cure")
⑤ Treatment of wind heat: burning, grinding and water rubbing of loofah. (summary)
⑥ Treatment of carbuncle is not convergent, and the sore is too deep: towel gourd wipes juice frequently. (Ren Zhai Zhi Fang)
⑦ Treatment of blisters and wet sores: Luffa juice and powder should be applied frequently. (summary)
⑧ Treatment of jade stem ulcer: Use loofah and lotus seeds to pound the juice and rub it with gallnut. (Zhu Zhenheng)
⑩ Treating blood gas dryness and pain, the woman's blood gas is not good, rushing to the heart diaphragm, becoming blood gas dryness: a towel gourd, burning, hollow warm wine clothes. (Shouyu Shenfang)
⑾ Treatment of meridian obstruction: dry a towel gourd into powder, mix it with pigeon blood into cake, dry it on the same day and grind it into powder. Two yuan each time. Take Siwutang three times under the hollow wine. ("Famous Party at Sea")
⑿ For treating abdominal pain caused by dysentery and bloody stools, or those with five colors like fish brain: dry towel gourd, burn with skin, and take two yuan with hollow wine. While simmering. (Experience Prescription)
[13] Treatment of milk barrier: Study on the burning characteristics of towel gourd lotus seeds. Take a dollar or two to buy wine, sweating all over. ("purely unilateral")
[14] Treatment of toothache caused by wind insects: Burn the frost-dried loofah sponge and rub the end. (Ren Zhai Zhi Fang)
(15) Proper amount of raw loofah can prevent measles if taken in soup.
(16) Take a little raw towel gourd juice and honey; Or cut off the loofah vine, drop a small glass of water naturally, and stew with rock sugar to treat whooping cough.
(17) Give birth to a few small loofahs (pedicled), cut them, put them in a casserole, and take the thick juice to treat asthma.
(18) Raw Luffa (or leaves), mashed to get juice, and applied to the affected area to treat acne vulgaris, impetigo, heat furuncle and urticaria.
(19) Chop a piece of ground towel gourd and soak it in boiling water to treat acute laryngitis and sore throat.
(20) 30 grams of loofah seed, boiled silver carp food, less milk.
(2 1) Luffa seed is baked and ground into powder, and each dose is 10g, which is not easy to treat expectoration.
(22) Clean and mash the fresh towel gourd leaves and apply them to the affected area of neurodermatitis, once every seven days to treat neurodermatitis.
(23) Old loofah (peeled), baked on tile and ground into powder, and mixed with yellow wine to treat lung abscess, hernia pain and postpartum abdominal pain.
(24) Instant loofah drink: An old loofah is frosted, washed, seeded, chopped, boiled with appropriate amount of water for one hour, and then deslagging. Continue to simmer the juice until it thickens, and then stop. Add100g white sugar powder, stir well, and bottle. At any time, use10g boiled water to prepare and eat. Can be used for treating acute and chronic pharyngitis, laryngitis and tonsillitis.
(25) Luffa lean broth: about 250g fresh Luffa is cut into pieces, and about 200g lean pork is sliced. Add appropriate amount of boiled soup, add salt to taste after cooking, and eat with meals. Has the effects of clearing away heat, promoting bowel movement, relieving summer heat and relieving vexation. Suitable for summer heat, polydipsia, early internal hemorrhoids, and fecal bleeding.
(26) acne is not fast. Use an old towel gourd, three inches close to the pedicle, scald the skin, grind it into powder, and serve it in sugar water.
(27) carbuncle does not converge and the wound is deep. Luffa mashed juice is often used.
(28) Wind-heat rib swelling. Burn with towel gourd, grind into powder, and apply with water.
(29) Chair sores. Bake with melon peel, grind into powder, mix with Chinese liquor and apply.
(30) Burn chilblains on hands and feet with old loofah and apply wax-adjusted lard.
(3 1) bleeding, leakage and proctoptosis. Burning Luffa, lime for many years and realgar in 50 yuan into powder, and smearing with pig bile, egg white and sesame oil until it comes out of the intestine.
(32) Blood flows under intestinal wind. Dry the loofah with frost, grind it into powder, take two money in the hollow and send wine.
(33) Blood collapse. Burn the old loofah and palm ash equally, and add salt wine or salt soup.
(34) The milk is blocked. Burn it with loofah lotus seeds, grind it into powder, and give one or two yuan for wine and sweat cover.
(35) Intestinal gas is distended and painful, and it runs around the umbilicus. Burn the old loofah together and grind it into powder. Every time you drink San Qian, the hot wine will be adjusted. If the patient is seriously ill, it will disappear after taking it for two or three times.
(36) Eggs swell and fall. Burning with old loofah, grinding into powder, refining honey, and making paste. Drink a spoonful of good wine every night.
(37) Low back pain. Stir-fried with loofah seeds, mashed and mixed with wine. Apply slag to the pain.
(38) Laryngeal obstruction with swelling and pain. Pour the loofah pulp.
(39) Eliminating phlegm and relieving cough. Burn with loofah, grind into powder, and add dates to make balls, such as marbles. Take one pill at a time, and take it with warm wine.
Toothache is very common. Use raw loofah, rub it with salt, grind it into powder, brush your teeth frequently, and saliva will be fine. If the ribs are swollen, you can smear them with water at the end. This prescription is ineffective in treating tooth decay.
(4 1) knife wound. Divide ancient lime, fresh lime, towel gourd root leaves, leek roots, etc. into equal parts, pound them into powder, make them into cakes, dry them in the shade, grind them into powder and apply them. Hemostasis, analgesia, granulation, with special effects.
(42) sores are persistent. Wash and wipe with the old roots of loofah.