Tamarind

Tamarind

(selected Chinese herbal medicines in Yunnan)

[synonym] Sour Dumpling (Diannan materia medica), sour plum, Mamu (Leguminosae), tongxuexiang (selected Yunnan herbal medicine).

[source] it is the fruit of leguminous plant suanzou.

[plant morphology] sour bean

Evergreen trees, up to 6-20 m high. Bark dark gray, irregularly fissured. Branches many, spinless, branchlets pubescent, lenticel many, brown. Double pinnate compound leaves, 8-11 cm long, leaflets 14-40, oblong, 1-2.4 cm long, 4.5-9 mm wide, apex obtuse or slightly concave, base oblique, entire, glabrous on both sides. Flowers are axillary racemes or terminal panicles; calyx tube is gyriform, lobes 4, lanceolate; petals 3, unequal in size, yellow, with purplish red lines; lower 2 degenerate into scales; fertile stamens 3, the middle part of filaments below connate, the rest degenerate into spines, at the top of connate silk sheath; pistil 1, ovary stipitate, with many ovules. Pods thick, oblong, 3-6 cm long, about 2 cm wide, grayish brown. Seeds 3-10, reddish brown, bright, suborbicular or oblong. The flowering period is from May to June. The fruit period is from July to December.

Most of them are cultivated, or wild in mixed forests, riversides and fields. Distributed in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Taiwan, Yunnan and other places.

[collection] pick in spring, remove the seeds and dry them in the sun.

[chemical constituents] the fruit contains sugars, d-tartaric acid, citric acid, formic acid, 2-malic acid and other organic acids. It contains serine, β - alanine, proline, phenylalanine, leucine and piperidine-2.

The leaves contain d-tartaric acid, L-malic acid, Vitexin, isovitexin, orientin and isoorientin. The tender leaves and buds are rich in copper.

[pharmacological action] the fruit pulp has a laxative effect. It may contain a lot of tartaric acid, and this effect disappears when it is cooked. The skin of the seed contains a lot of tannins, which are used by Africans to treat dysentery and decoction to treat abscess. Some parts of the plant have antibacterial activity, but the bark is just not. Its leaves have antibacterial effect on Gram-positive cocci and Escherichia coli in vitro, and the effective component may be Vitexin. The decoction of leaf and stem had a weak inhibitory effect on isolated ileum of guinea pig, while the water extract (adding alcohol to remove precipitate) had a strong inhibitory effect. The results showed that the decoction had no obvious effect on isolated rabbit duodenum, but had inhibitory effect on isolated rabbit heart; the water extract had significant vasodilating effect in hind limb perfusion test of rats, but had no significant effect on blood pressure, Decoction and water extract of anesthetized dogs. Mice were intraperitoneally injected with 1g crude drug, and the two preparations had no obvious toxicity.

Sweet and sour, cool.

① "Diannan Materia Medica": "sweet and sour, flat. "

② "Yunnan Chinese herbal medicine selection": "sweet acid, cool. "

[function indications] clearing summer heat and resolving stagnation. Treatment of summer heat, loss of appetite, pregnancy vomiting, infantile malnutrition.

① "Diannan Materia Medica": "the treatment of wine into phlegm, separated in the stomach, with sugar cream, sooner or later take a money. "

② "Clearing heat and relieving summer heat, eliminating food and dissolving accumulation". "

[usage and dosage] oral administration: decoction, 0.5-1 Liang; or boiling cream.

[formula selection] prevention of heatstroke, poor diet, vomiting during pregnancy, constipation, infantile malnutrition: five yuan to one or two yuan of sour horn. Take it in water. (selected Chinese herbal medicines in Yunnan)