Bitter leaf plant belongs to the ginseng family, other names are bird's foot plant, lang leaf, southern ginseng. The plant grows wild on forest edges, hills and mountains, and is found in abundance from North to South.

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People in Quynh Luu district, Nghe An province use bitter leaves as a spice in soup. Bitter leaf soup is cool, reduces heat, stimulates digestion, and nourishes the liver.

Bitter leaves

In other places, people use the bark of the bitter leaf tree as medicine called “five-leaf aralia” (because it has the same nourishing and bone-strengthening effects as the five-leaf aralia). The bark of the bitter leaf tree is harvested in spring and autumn, brought back, the outer layer is scraped off, and dried in the sun or oven. These are slightly curved pieces of bark, light brown in color, and slightly brittle.

When using, moisten the medicinal herbs and incubate until fragrant (about 7 days), cut into small pieces, leave raw or soak in wine or ginger water, stir-fry. According to folk experience, bitter leaf bark is used to treat weakness, rheumatism, back and knee pain, impotence in men, impotence in women, slow growth and walking in children. The medicinal herb has a bitter, astringent taste, a light aroma, and a cool nature, and is used in the following cases:

Cure for swollen and painful feet: Bitter leaf bark, pine core, areca nut, cyperus rotundus, perilla seed, Chinese clematis, and Xanthium strumarium, each 8-16g. Chop all ingredients, boil with 400ml of water until 100ml remains, drink twice a day.

Cure rheumatism and pain: 2kg of bitter leaf bark, 1kg of kapok bark, 1kg of pain reliever vine, and 1kg of frog foam stem each. Chop all ingredients into small pieces, dry, boil with water, and get 200ml of liquid extract. Mix 200ml of alcohol and 100ml of syrup into the extract to get half a liter of finished product. Drink 50ml per day, divided into 2 times.

Treatment of nervous breakdown, rheumatoid arthritis, neuralgia, back pain, neck and shoulder pain: 0.035g bitter leaf bark powder, 0.005g bitter leaf bark extract, 0.03g concentrated extract of Hy Thiem, 0.013g processed Ma Tien fine powder for one pill. The maximum safe dose at one time is 30 pills and 80 pills per day.

External use: 30g bitter bark or leaves, combined with 30g mulberry leaves, 20g purple sugarcane leaves, 20g black turmeric. Keep all fresh, wash clean, crush, soak in 30-degree alcohol until just covered, stir-fry hot, apply bandage and fix with bamboo splint, cure broken bones.

According to Health & Life - NT