Cold water pill

Cold water pill

(Shaanxi Chinese herbal medicine)

[synonym] Asarum costatum.

[source] it is the root and rhizome of Aristolochia.

[plant morphology] Zanthoxylum repens

Perennial herbs. Rhizome stout, aromatic, 2 stems erect, single or branched, 50-100 cm high, pilose. Leaves alternate, long petiole, heart-shaped, 6-14 cm long, 7-15 cm wide, apex short acuminate, base auricles rounded on both sides, margin and both sides pilose. Flowers solitary at apex, pedunculate; outer perianth lobes 3, semicircular, pilose outside, persistent and enlarged when fruiting; inner perianth lobes 3, rounded reniform, yellow; stamens 12, as long as style; carpels 6, lower part connate with calyx. Fruit leathery when ripe, dehiscent along abdominal suture. Seeds ovate, apex pointed, with obvious transverse wrinkles.

It grows on the hillside, under the forest and in the grass beside the ditch. It is distributed in Sichuan, Guizhou, Hubei, Jiangxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Gansu and other places.

The leaves of this plant are also used for medicine. Please refer to the special section for details.

[collection] in summer and autumn, it was dug and dried in the shade.

[sexual taste] it tastes hard, warm and has little poison.

Functions and indications: warming the middle and dispersing the cold, regulating qi and relieving pain. Treatment of stomach cold pain, precordial pain, joint pain.

[usage and dosage] oral administration: decoction, 0.5-1 yuan; or grinding powder.

It should not be used in children.