Brown root - blood circulation medicine

Oriental medicine believes that brown tubers have a sweet, sour and astringent taste, are neutral, non-toxic, and have the effect of clearing heat, disinfecting, stopping bleeding, activating blood circulation, and stopping diarrhea.

Dioscorea cirrhosa Lour., belongs to the Dioscoreaceae family. It is a wild plant that grows in the mountainous regions of our country, most abundantly in the provinces of Lao Cai, Quang Ninh, Ha Tay, Thanh Hoa, and Nghe An.

Sometimes cultivated. The plant is often used to dye net cloth to give it a durable brown color. It is also used for tanning leather. The tubers are often sold in rural and urban markets. Depending on the color of the sap, light red, light gray, light yellow or slightly pink, people call it reddish brown, pearly brown and white brown. Pearly brown is better for dyeing.

Climbing plant, round stem, smooth, with many thorns at the base, 1-2 tubers growing from a node at the base of the stem, above ground, round, rough bark, gray-brown, red or slightly white flesh. Single leaves, heart-shaped, about 20cm long, growing alternately near the top. Flowers grow in clusters. Capsule fruit has straight stalk, with edges. Seeds have wings around.

The part used as medicine is the rhizome - Rhizoma Dioscoreae Cirrhosae, whose oriental medicinal name is Thu luong.

Chemical analysis has shown that the tuber contains a lot of catechic tannin (up to 6.4%) and starch.

Oriental medicine believes that the brown root has a sweet, sour and astringent taste, is neutral, non-toxic, and has the effect of clearing heat, disinfecting, stopping bleeding, activating blood circulation, and stopping diarrhea. Therefore, in addition to being used for dyeing, the brown root can be eaten. People peel off the outer skin and soak it in a stream for many days and nights to remove the astringent substances, before it can be boiled and eaten. The brown root is used as a medicine to treat the symptoms of accumulation of ascites, leukorrhea, metrorrhagia, diarrhea, and dysentery. In China, the brown root is used to treat uterine bleeding, bleeding before birth; to treat coughing up blood, vomiting blood, bloody stools, and bloody urine; enteritis, dysentery; rheumatism of the joints and organs, and mild hemiplegia. It is used externally to treat burns, injuries from falls, boils, and skin abscesses, and bleeding injuries. The average dose is 10 - 15g, in the form of a decoction; the external root is crushed and applied.

Below are some typical remedies for diseases from brown tubers.

* To treat women with blood clots: Take brown root pulp (after grinding with water, squeeze to get the juice for dyeing), dry it, grind it into powder and drink 8g, 2-3 times a day. Or use 20g of brown root pulp to boil and drink.

* To treat broken bones: Use crushed brown tubers to wrap and bandage the bone after fixing it back to its original state.

* Cure dysentery with nosebleeds: Use burnt brown root residue, grind it, drink with rice water, 3g each time, 3-4 times a day.

* Hemiplegia: Use 60g of root soaked in 500ml of white wine for 5 days, extract the water and drink, use 15 - 30ml per day before going to bed.

* Cure boils and abscesses: Crush the white brown root, mix with rice water or rice water, heat the ash and apply. The anti-inflammatory effect reduces swelling and pain very clearly.

According to Vietnam Agriculture - NT