Fir fruit

Fir fruit

(records of Sichuan Traditional Chinese Medicine)

[synonym] Tang Ze (Tibetan name).

[source] it is the seed of Abies cangshanensis.

[plant morphology] Abies cangshanensis, also known as Taxodium.

Evergreen trees, about 20-30 meters high, crown tower shaped, bark gray or gray brown, deeply split. Branchlets bright reddish brown or grayish brown, smooth. Leaf linear, 1-1.5 cm long, apex obtuse and concave, entire and involute, base narrow, upper midrib concave, lower midrib convex, both sides with a pore zone. The flowers are unisexual and monoecious; the male cones are short and drooping, cylindrical or oblong, inserted in the axils of the leaves at the base of the twigs; the anthers are scarlet, 2-locular, and crowned with spherical connectives; the female cones are oblong, erect, and located at the apex of the twigs. Bracts and scales with many imbricate arrangement, each with 2 ovules at its inner base. Cones are long cylindrical or long ovoid, 7-10 cm long, base thick, woody, purple black; scales fan-shaped; bracts lavender, long spoon shaped, base narrow and long stalk, scales and bracts fall off at maturity. Seeds winged. It blooms in spring. The fruit ripens in autumn.

It grows in high mountains. It is distributed in Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet.

[collection] the fruit is picked and dried when it is ripe. Gently beat the scales and seeds, and sieve the seeds for use.

[nature and taste] it is warm, pungent and nontoxic.

Functions and indications: regulating qi and dispersing cold. It can be used to treat the patients with fever, pneumodynia, chest and abdomen cold pain and small intestinal hernia.

[usage and dosage] oral administration: decoction, 3-4 Qian; or calcined and preserved powder.