Sweet potato

Sweet potato

(Chinese medicine and plant records)

[synonyms] local melon, lianggua, Liangshu, gegua, Geshu, tuluo (Chinese medicinal plant records), caoguaru (Luchuan materia medica), shage and Diluo (Jiangxi herbal medicine manual).

[source] it is the tuberous root of the leguminous plant Ipomoea batatas.

[plant morphology] sweet potato

Annual grass vines. The root tuber is fleshy, hypertrophic, cone-shaped or spindle shaped, with a diameter of 10 cm. The skin is light yellow, rich in fiber, easy to peel off, white meat, sweet and juicy. Stem twining, 3-7 m long. Compound leaves, alternate; 3 leaflets, apical leaflets rhombic, 3.5-16 cm long, 5.5-18 cm wide, bilateral leaflets ovate or rhombic, 3.5-14 cm long, 3-13.5 cm wide, margin dentate, or palmately divided, rarely entire. The flowers are light blue, purplish or white, 15-20 mm long, clustered into racemes, with joints at the base of the clusters; the wing petals are as long as the flag petals, with ears at the base of the flag petals; the keel petals are blunt and curved inward, equal to or over the wing petals; the style and stigma are curved inward. Pods 7.5-13 cm long, 12-15 mm wide, with fine coarse hairs; seeds nearly square, about 7 mm wide and long. The flowering period is from July to September. The fruit period is from October to November.

It is cultivated in Taiwan, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Hunan and Hubei.

The seeds of this plant (sweet potato seed) are also used for medicine. Please refer to the special section for details.

[collection] in autumn.

[chemical constituents] root tuber contains 0.56 G protein per 100 g. 18 g of fat and 8. 2 g of carbohydrates. The leaves contain diosgenin.

[nature and taste] Lu Chuan Ben Cao: "sweet, cool. "

[function indications] it can produce fluid and quench thirst.

① Lu Chuan's materia medica: "it can produce fluid to quench thirst, and cure fever and thirst. "

② Sichuan Traditional Chinese medicine annals: "stop thirst, detoxify alcohol. "

[usage and dosage] oral: raw or cooked.

[selected formula] for chronic alcoholism: sweet potato mixed with sugar. (records of Sichuan Traditional Chinese Medicine)