Mouse melon

Mouse melon

(Xinjiang Chinese herbal medicine manual)

[synonym] Crotalaria (Xinjiang Manual of Chinese herbal medicine), spinago (Uygur name).

[source] it is the root bark, leaf and fruit of Capparis spinosa.

[plant morphology] Capparis spinosa

It is a creeping shrub, 1-2m long. The root is thick, the skin is thick, yellow and white. Branchlets pale green, pubescent when young, glabrous later. Leaves alternate; papery, suborbicular, broadly ovate or obovate, 1-5 cm long and 1-4.5 cm wide, apex rounded, with a short pointed protuberance, base rounded, entire, glabrous on both sides; petiole 2-20 mm long; stipules becoming uncinate, 2-6 mm long. Flowers solitary, leaf axils 2-3 cm in diameter; pedicels 2.5-4 cm long, glabrous; sepals ovate, glabrous outside, pilose inside, glabrous later; petals white, pink or purplish red, obovate; stamens numerous; ovary stalks 2 cm long. The berry is oval in shape, 2.5-4 cm long and 1.5-3 cm wide, with blood red endothelium. Most seeds, dark brown, like radish, spicy.

It grows on dry low hillside and sandy land. It is distributed in Xinjiang, Tibet and other places.

[collection] the fruits will be harvested when they are ripe in autumn.

[chemical constituents] the seeds contain ferulic acid and erucic acid. There are C18 unsaturated fatty acids in seed oil. The leaves and the last flowers contain rutin.

[flavor] it tastes hard and warm.

Functions and indications: dispelling wind, dispersing cold and removing dampness.

[treatment] acute and chronic rheumatoid arthritis: fresh root bark four, fruit one, or four fresh fruit leaves, a fruit, a total of a paste, if a little dry, not paste, you can heat the Baijiu appropriate, and gauze wrapped the affected part, fifteen to thirty minutes after taking off, once a day, five days for a course of treatment.