Li Dou

Li Dou

(notes on materia medica)

[synonyms] tiger bean (notes of Guo Pu in Erya), beaver bean (compendium), Bashan tiger bean and rat bean (textual research on the name and reality of plants).

[source] it is the seed of leguminous plant Limonium capitatum.

[plant morphology] touhualidou, also known as "Er Ya", "Hu" and "Heng" (notes of Guo Pu in Er Ya).

Herbs annual, twining, all sparsely pilose. Leaflets ovate, 6.5-9.5 cm long, 4-7.5 cm wide, apex rounded, apiculate: stipules setate. Inflorescence capitate, with short pedicels; calyx campanulate, 2-lipped, densely silvery pubescent; corolla dark purple, 25-30 mm long; stamens 10, 9 and 1 in two bundles; style filiform, usually pubescent. Pods dark brown, about 9 cm long, densely covered with silver gray hairs; seeds 2-5, white background with gray stripes, or gray background with black stripes, about 1.4 cm long, 1 cm wide, 6 mm thick, hilum 6 mm long, white caruncle with collar like protuberance. The flowering and fruiting period is October.

It is cultivated in Huangshan, Anhui Province.

[collection] after autumn, the fruits are harvested when they are ripe.

[chemical composition] 1.9% of L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine was isolated from seeds, and the content was 2.65%. No alkaloids, tannins and saponins were detected.

[nature and taste] Compendium: "sweet, slightly bitter, warm, with little poison. "

[Guijing] compendium of materia medica: "start with Taiyin. "

[function indications] Compendium: "warming the middle of the body, benefiting qi. "