Introduction to licorice
Glycyrrhiza licorice is the root and rhizome of Glycyrrhiza glabra, Glycyrrhiza glabra or Glycyrrhiza inflate. Licorice is a perennial herb that grows in sunny and dry calcareous grasslands and riverside sandy land. Distributed in Northeast, North China, Northwest and other places; Glycyrrhiza glabra grows in deserts or saline-alkaline grasslands, abandoned land, and is distributed in Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu; Glycyrrhiza glabra grows in salinized soil, and is distributed in Xinjiang, Gansu, etc. land.
Excavated in autumn, removed the reed head, stem base, branches and fibrous roots, cut into sections of appropriate length, sun-dried until half-dried, tied into small bundles, and then sun-dried. The cultivars are excavated in autumn 3 to 4 years after planting.
Selection of licorice
The skin is compact, reddish-brown in color, firm in quality, yellow-white in section, and powdery enough. Slight gas, sweet and special. Mildew and deterioration, etc. should not be purchased.
1. Licorice roots are long cylindrical, 25-100 cm long, 0.6-3.5 cm in diameter, reddish-brown or gray-brown in surface, varying in skin elasticity, with obvious longitudinal wrinkles, grooves, lenticels and sparse fine root scars. The texture is solid, the cross-section is slightly fibrous, with cracks, yellowish white, powdery, the cambium ring pattern is obvious, and there are radial textures. The rhizome is cylindrical, with bud scars on the surface and pith in the middle of the section. Slight gas, sweet and special. The peeled one has a light yellow surface, which is powdered licorice.
2. The roots and rhizomes of Glycyrrhiza glabra are relatively solid in texture, and some branches and skins are not rough, and the surface is gray-brown; the cross-section is fibrous and has few cracks.
3. The roots and rhizomes of Glycyrrhizae bulge are thick and thick, some are branched, the outer skin is rough, mostly gray-brown or gray-brown, the quality is hard, the wood fiber is much, the powder is poor, and the rhizomes are many and thick with adventitious buds. Sweet or bitter.
Storage of Licorice
Store in a ventilated and dry place, moth-proof
【effect】
Harmonizes urgency, nourishes the lungs, detoxifies, and harmonizes various medicines. Sunburn is used to treat weakness of the spleen and stomach, lack of appetite, abdominal pain and loose stools, fatigue and fever, lung impotence and cough, palpitations, and epilepsy; raw use is used to treat sore throat, peptic ulcer, carbuncle and sore, antidote poison and food poisoning.
① "The Classic": "Maintains cold and heat in the five viscera and six prefectures, strengthens muscles and bones, grows muscles, doubles strength, relieves sores and swells, and detoxifies."
② "Bie Lu": "Warming the middle and lowering the qi, irritating fullness and shortness of breath, hurting viscera and coughing, quenching thirst, dredging the meridians, sharpening blood qi, and detoxifying the poison of hundreds of medicines."
③ "Medicine Properties": "Controls cold pain in the abdomen, treats convulsions and epilepsy, removes abdominal fullness; nourishes the five internal organs; controls various drug poisons; nourishes kidney qi and internal damage, causing yin (not) impotence; housewife's blood drips low back pain; deficiency and How hot; use it more.”
④ "Rihuazi Materia Medica": "Relieve the soul and stabilize the soul. Supplement the five fatigues and seven injuries, all the weakness, palpitations, depression, and forgetfulness. Open the nine orifices, benefit the hundred veins, benefit the essence and nourish the qi, strengthen the muscles and bones, and relieve cold and heat."
⑤ "pearl sac": "enrich blood, nourish stomach."
⑥ "Decoction Materia Medica": "To treat the pus and blood of lung impotence, it is used as an emetic; to eliminate the sores of five hairs, it has the same function as Astragalus."
⑦ "Compendium": "Relieve fetal poisoning and convulsions in children, reduce fire and relieve pain."
⑧ "Chinese Medicine Plant Illustrated Book": "Treating peptic ulcer and jaundice."