Rock pepper

Rock pepper

(common folk herbs in Kunming)

[synonym] woody blood pill, wild prickly ash (commonly used folk herbal medicine in Kunming).

[source] it is the root of Zanthoxylum bungeanum.

[plant morphology] Zanthoxylum bungeanum

Shrubs or small trees, 1-1.6m high. The root is strip-shaped and tough. The stem has branches and prickles. The prickles on young branches are sometimes opposite. Spines about 5 mm long, branchlets densely covered with purplish red villi. The leaves are coarse, sub leathery, with transparent oil spots, the rachis winged and covered with white short hairs, the petiole base has a thorn, sharp, about 5 mm long; the leaflets are 5-13, opposite, sessile, papery, lanceolate, 3-8 cm long and 1-2 cm wide. Apex acute or shortly acuminate, base cuneate, margin finely serrate or almost entire. Upper surface sparsely pilose, lower surface densely villous. Cymes, usually on old branches, axillary, 1-1.5cm long, with many and dense flowers; flowers unisexual, yellowish green; perianth segments 5-8, 1-whorled, narrow strip; stamens 5-7, longer than perianth segments, disk annular, degenerate carpels small, female carpels 2-3. The follicles are globose, red or purplish red at maturity, with prominent glandular dots on them, and the fruit is in a mass.

Born in crevices and forests. It is distributed in Sichuan, Yunnan and other places.

[collection] all year round. Peel, slice and dry.

[chemical constituents] the fruit contains 0.57-2.0% volatile oil.

[flavor] pungent, warm.

It has the function of warming the stomach. It can cure abdominal pain caused by insect accumulation.

[usage and dosage] oral administration: decoction, 0.5-1 Liang.

[selected formula] treatment of abdominal pain caused by insect accumulation: rock pepper and black plum, fried in water. (the following is the common folk herbs in Kunming.)