1Mandrake (Mandragora)

It is toxic and serves as a key sedative herb, capable of relaxing muscles. It was a major component in ancient anesthetic formulas like Ma Fei San and Yunnan Baiyao. In folk medicine, the flowers, seeds, leaves, and roots have different uses for treating various diseases. Chewing ten seeds can treat insomnia.

2Ghost Needle Grass (Hedyotis diffusa)

Young shoots can be eaten as a vegetable and are quite tasty. It is said to be effective in lowering transaminases and can disperse liver heat.

3Bitter Herb (Sonchus oleraceus)

In Yunnan, people refer to green vegetables as bitter herbs, but the one in the picture is the true bitter herb. It is listed as a superior herb in ancient texts, known to strengthen the stomach and benefit the gallbladder, and has anti-tumor properties, making it suitable for modern people.

4Sunflower Greens (Helianthus annuus)

There are wild and cultivated varieties. Listed as a superior herb in Shennong’s Herbal Classic, it is a vegetable beneficial to health, though most regions are unaware of its edibility. The wild variety shown can benefit the five organs, with the roots used to promote kidney function and the leaves cooked with brown sugar to treat external swellings effectively.

5Nettle (Urtica dioica)

Some texts mention it as toxic, while others describe it as mildly toxic or even highly toxic. In the past, it was primarily used medicinally, but now it is often consumed as a vegetable. Its stinging hairs can cause a prickling sensation upon contact. It can be used in soups or fried with eggs for a delicious taste. It treats children’s coughs and toothaches due to wind-heat. One patient reported that its roots have remarkable effects on treating urticaria.

6Black Nightshade (Solanum nigrum)

It clears heat and treats tumors, and is also a commonly used wild vegetable. It has liver-protective, stomach-strengthening, and vision-improving properties.

7Yellow Pouch (Hibiscus sabdariffa)

The fruit is delicious, appetizing, and softens the liver, making it good for children.

8He Shou Wu (Polygonum multiflorum)

Used to tonify and nourish qi and blood, it has a mild flavor and can be consumed regularly. Raw use detoxifies and promotes bowel movements without harming yin. The sprouts have calming and blood-nourishing effects.

9Black Pouch (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis)

The fruit has similar effects to Yellow Pouch, while the leaves and tender tips cooked with brown sugar are effective for treating liver-related diarrhea without side effects.

10Wild Mint (Mentha arvensis)

Its taste and effects are similar to cultivated varieties. It disperses wind-heat, eliminates foul qi, and detoxifies from fish and shrimp.

11Palm (Arecaceae)

The palm fibers, flowers, and roots are used medicinally. It has astringent properties and can stop bleeding, but is particularly effective for gynecological discharge.

12Gray Herb (Chenopodium album)

Generally not used in medicine, it was used in ancient formulas to make winter ash and is now rarely used. It can clear lung and visceral stagnation.

13Summer Kuding Tea (Ilex kudingcha)

It grows seasonally and can harmonize blood, drawing yang into yin to treat insomnia. It has a salty taste and can soften hardness and disperse accumulation. Non-toxic, the tender shoots should be edible, but in central Yunnan, there are many vegetables, and no one eats it.

14Plantago (Plantago asiatica)

The seeds are used in pharmacies, and the grass and seeds have similar effects. It clears bladder heat, benefits kidney qi, and prevents stone accumulation. Additionally, it can expel lung heat through urination and treat coughs. There are large-leaf and small-leaf varieties, with the small-leaf being better.

15Artemisia (Artemisia argyi)

There are many types of artemisia, some for medicinal use, some for food, and some for both. Pharmacies often use qinghao and huanghao. Iron artemisia can clear empty heat and is similar to qinghao, with a less bitter taste. During difficult times, common people also consume it to stave off hunger, and it has health benefits, but unfortunately, it is not researched or developed.

16Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica)

All parts of honeysuckle can be used medicinally and it is one of the precious Chinese medicinal materials designated by the State Council. Honeysuckle has functions of clearing heat and detoxifying, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory, and protecting the liver and benefiting the gallbladder.

17Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

Taste and function: Sweet, slightly bitter, cold. Clears heat and detoxifies, reduces swelling and disperses lumps.

18Duck’s Tongue Grass (Hedyotis diffusa)

1. For urinary obstruction: Use one ounce of Duck’s Tongue Grass and one ounce of Plantago, mash to extract juice, add a little honey, and take on an empty stomach.
2. For dysentery: Boil Duck’s Tongue Grass and take daily.
3. For throat obstruction: Use Duck’s Tongue Grass juice to gargle.
4. For hemorrhoids: Use Duck’s Tongue Grass and Bi Chan Er flowers together, mash and apply to the affected area.

19Houttuynia (Houttuynia cordata)

Found in fields near water, it has a sweet, slightly sour, and cool taste. It can clear heat and detoxify, reduce abscesses, promote urination, and counteract snake venom.

20Lantern Fruit (Physalis alkekengi)

This one needs no introduction; it is often picked and eaten sour in childhood. It clears heat and detoxifies, promotes urination, stops bleeding, reduces swelling, and disperses lumps.

21Common Cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium)

It disperses wind-dampness and opens nasal passages. Used for wind-cold headaches, nasal congestion, wind rash itching, and dampness obstruction.

22Malva (Malva sylvestris)

Also a common wild vegetable, known as Malva head, stair-front chrysanthemum, chicken intestine, and red-stemmed vegetable. It belongs to the Malvaceae family. The whole plant is used medicinally. It is cool in nature and spicy in taste. It enters the hand Taiyin lung and foot Jueyin liver meridians. It cools the blood, clears heat, promotes dampness, and detoxifies. It treats dysentery, edema, gonorrhea, chyluria, hemoptysis, hematemesis, uterine bleeding, excessive menstruation, and red, painful eyes.

23Small Thistle (Cirsium setosum)

One of the wild vegetables, also known as prickly vegetable, cat thistle, prickly radish, knife vegetable, and wild red flower. It belongs to the Asteraceae family. The whole plant or roots are used medicinally. It is cool in nature and sweet in taste. It enters the liver and spleen meridians. It cools the blood, dispels stasis, and stops bleeding. It treats hemoptysis, epistaxis, hematuria, dysuria, uterine bleeding, acute infectious hepatitis, traumatic bleeding, and carbuncles.

24Water Celery (Oenanthe javanica)

One of the wild vegetables, belonging to the Apiaceae family. The whole plant is used medicinally. It is cool in nature and spicy in taste. It calms the liver, releases the exterior, and promotes rashes. It treats early-stage measles, hypertension, and insomnia. If you pick it yourself, be careful of another toxic plant, which is a robust plant that generally grows scattered, while water celery grows in patches near water or in wetlands.

25Chinese Coriander (Coriandrum sativum)

Also known as broken copper coin, chicken grass, and pot coriander, it belongs to the Apiaceae family. The whole plant is used medicinally. It is cold in nature and bitter in taste. It clears heat, promotes urination, reduces swelling, and detoxifies. It treats jaundice, dysentery, urinary obstruction, and throat swelling.

26Oxalis (Oxalis corniculata)

Also known as three-leaf sour grass, vinegar mother grass, and quail sour, it belongs to the Oxalidaceae family. The whole plant is used medicinally. It is cold in nature and sour in taste. It enters the hand Yangming and Taiyang meridians. It clears heat, promotes dampness, cools the blood, disperses stasis, reduces swelling, and detoxifies. It treats diarrhea, dysentery, jaundice, gonorrhea, red and white discharge, measles, hemoptysis, epistaxis, throat swelling, carbuncles, abscesses, hemorrhoids, prolapse, and burns.

27Ear Leaf (Euphorbia hirta)

Chinese medicinal name: Mother-in-law’s nail, also known as melon seed grass and high-foot mouse ear grass. It belongs to the Caryophyllaceae family. The whole plant is used medicinally. It has a sweet taste and clears urinary heat symptoms.

28Qiqi Grass (Euphorbia hirta)

Also known as pearl grass and earth pine, it belongs to the Caryophyllaceae family. The whole plant is used medicinally. It is cool in nature and bitter in taste. It treats lacquer sores, bald sores, abscesses, scrofula, dental caries, pediatric milk accumulation, and internal injuries from falls.

29Tongquan Grass (Euphorbia hirta)

Chinese medicinal name: Green orchid flower, also known as tiger grass, stone moss, and pus medicine. It belongs to the Scrophulariaceae family. It is cool in nature, slightly sweet, and non-toxic. The whole plant is used medicinally. It reduces inflammation, detoxifies, and treats abscesses, burns, and scalds.

30Persian Speedwell (Veronica persica)

Chinese medicinal name: Kidney grass, also known as lantern grass and Persian water bitter lettuce. It belongs to the Scrophulariaceae family. It is neutral in nature, with a spicy, bitter, and salty taste. The whole plant is used medicinally. It detoxifies and treats kidney deficiency and rheumatism.

31Zexi (Euphorbia hirta)

It promotes urination and reduces swelling, resolves phlegm and disperses lumps, and is used for ascites, edema, tuberculosis, cervical lymphadenitis, excessive phlegm, cough, and skin diseases.

32Dogtail Grass (Cynodon dactylon)

Also known as green dogtail grass, grain weed, and fox tail. It is used to clear heat, eliminate dampness, and reduce swelling. It treats abscesses, sores, and red eyes.

33Daylily (Hemerocallis fulva)

Daylily is a perennial herbaceous plant with delicious flower buds, rich in nutrients, containing abundant pollen, sugars, proteins, vitamin C, calcium, fats, carotene, and amino acids essential for the human body. Its carotene content is even several times higher than that of tomatoes. Daylily is sweet and cool in nature, with effects of stopping bleeding, reducing inflammation, clearing heat, promoting dampness, aiding digestion, improving vision, and calming the mind. It is effective for hemoptysis, blood in stool, urinary obstruction, insomnia, and insufficient milk production, and can be used as a tonic after illness or childbirth.

34Red Sage (Salvia miltiorrhiza)

The medicinal part is the whole plant, which can be harvested throughout its growth period, used fresh or dried for later use.

35Duck Tongue Grass (Hedyotis diffusa)

Duck Tongue Grass has a bitter taste and is cool in nature; it has heat-clearing and detoxifying effects. It is used for dysentery, enteritis, acute tonsillitis, erysipelas, and carbuncles.

36Phoenix Eye Orchid (Dendrobium nobile)

Also known as water hyacinth and water floating lotus. The whole plant is used medicinally. It is harvested in spring and summer, cleaned, and used fresh or dried.

37Orchid Ginseng (Dendrobium candidum)

It tonifies deficiency and releases the exterior. It treats deficiency injuries, hemoptysis, epistaxis, spontaneous sweating, night sweats, women’s leukorrhea, wind-cold cough, stomach pain, diarrhea, and knife wounds.

38Chai Hu (Bupleurum chinense)

Nature and meridian entry: Slightly cold, bitter, and spicy, entering the liver, lung, and spleen meridians. Function: Releases the exterior and clears heat, soothes the liver, and raises yang qi. Indications: Common cold with fever, alternating chills and fever, malaria, liver qi stagnation, chest and rib distension, prolapse of the rectum, uterine prolapse, and irregular menstruation.

39Mai Dong (Ophiopogon japonicus)

Nature and meridian entry: Sweet, slightly bitter, slightly cold. Enters the heart, lung, and stomach meridians. Function and indications: Nourishes yin and generates fluids, moistens the lungs, and clears the heart. Used for dry cough due to lung dryness, yin deficiency cough, throat obstruction and pain, thirst due to fluid deficiency, internal heat thirst, irritability and insomnia, and constipation due to dryness.

40Yuzhu (Polygonatum odoratum)

Nourishes yin, moistens dryness, alleviates restlessness, and quenches thirst. Treats heat illness with yin injury, cough with irritability and thirst, deficiency fever, easy hunger, and frequent urination.

41Sang Bai Pi (Morus alba)

Nature and meridian entry: Sweet and cold, entering the lung meridian. Function: Clears the lungs and relieves wheezing, promotes urination and reduces swelling. Used for lung heat cough and wheezing, facial swelling, and urinary obstruction.

Source: Lin Cao News WeChat Official Account