Wild leech

Wild leech

(Hunan medical records)

Another name: leech and turnip.

[source] it is the whole plant of pogostemonaceae.

[plant morphology] variegated grass

Herbs annual or biennial, 25-70 cm high, all spiny. The stem is erect, with many branches at the upper part, or branched from the base, with longitudinal ribs. Leaves alternate, elliptic lanceolate, or ovate lanceolate, 1.5-6 cm long, 5-10 mm wide, apex obtuse or pointed, base narrow, nearly entire, both sides covered with flat bristles, upper leaves sessile, lower leaves petiolate. Flowers are solitary in axils of branches and leaves, or racemes with many bracts; flowers are petiolate, usually pendulous, densely hirsute; calyx 5-lobed, lobes linear lanceolate, densely hirsute outside; corolla blue, tube very short, apex 5-lobed, lobes ovate, corolla tube throat with scales 5; stamen 5, alternate with petal lobes, anther ovate; pistil 1, ovary superior, 4-lobed, style 1 Stigma capitate. Nutlets 4, ovate elliptic, ca. 0. 2 cm long, ca. 0. 1 cm wide, ventral landing surface elliptic scar, smooth and marginal, longitudinal. It blooms in spring and summer.

Wild in the roadside, hillside, wasteland grass. It is distributed in the north and east of China.

[collection] harvest the flowers in spring and summer and dry them in the sun.

[function indications] dispel wind, detoxify and kill insects.

[selection] 1. To cure the body swelling: three coins of wild leech, two coins of rhubarb, two coins of buckwheat seed and lotus. Fry in water, take a little orally; wash the rest of the medicine and wipe the whole body.

② Cure sore poison: Wild leech, decoct water to wash affected area.