benzoin
Historical changes and history: This product was first published in the "New Cultivation of Materia Medica", Yun: "Benzoin out of Xi rong, shaped like pine resin, yellow and black, for blocks, the new one is also flexible." Li Xun's "Sea Medicine Materia Medica" quotes Guangzhou Zhiyun: "Born in the Persian country of the South China Sea, the resin in the tree is also like peach gum." "The Miscellaneous Tricks of the Unitary Sun" Cloud: "The benzoin tree came out of the Persian kingdom ... Carved its bark. Its glue is like a carrot, the name is benzoin, and it is taken in June and July. "Successive Materia Medica records that benzoin was imported from abroad.
1. Import benzoin
Alias: Gold and silver incense
Source: Siamese benzoin tree Styrax tonkinensis Pierre (Thai benzoin) and benzoin dryand for the benzoin family. (Sumatran benzoin) Resin dried product that oozes after cutting the trunk.
Origin: Mainly produced in Thailand, Sumatra, Indonesia and other places.
Harvesting and processing: harvested in summer and autumn, with a knife to cut the bark around the trunk of the tree that has grown for 5-10 years, and the white resin flows out of the wound, and collects it after it dries up slightly. Cut a new wound at intervals four centimeters above the wound. The resin that flows out first and solidifies is of the best quality, and the resin that is harvested later is of inferior quality.
Benzoin plant
Trait identification: Sumatran benzoin is a mass of spherical particles pressed together in size. The surface is reddish brown to grayish brown, embedded with yellow-white and off-white opaque particles, which is commonly known as "gold and silver incense". It is brittle at room temperature and softens when heated. Aromatic and slightly spicy. Burn it to smell a special aroma.
Thai benzoin: A slightly flattened, round teardrop or clump. The teardrops are about 1 to several centimeters in diameter. The outer surface is yellowish brown or dirty brown, and the inner surface is milky white. The smell is similar to sumatran benzoin and is lighter.
Sumatran benzoin
Thai benzoin
Second, domestic benzoin
Source: Dry resin for the benzoin family white-flowered tree Styrax tonkinensis (Pierre) Craib ex Hart.
Origin: Mainly produced in Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan.
Harvesting and processing: in summer and autumn, select tree trunks with a diameter of more than 10 centimeters, cut several inverted triangular incisions around 40 centimeters from the ground, and after ten days, there will be resin flowing out, and when it condenses into a milky white solid, it will be collected, melted into a certain container, and taken out after drying.
Trait identification: irregular cylindrical or flattened small blocks. The surface is off-white or yellowish white to orange-yellow, with a waxy luster. Brittle and brittle. The section is flat and white, and the color will become darker over time. Aromatic and slightly spicy.
Guangxi produces benzoin
Third, quality evaluation: benzoin outside the color of red brown, the section is sandwiched with white teardrops, the aroma is strong, no bark, wood chips, sand and other impurities are preferred, the quality of Sumatran benzoin in imported benzoin is the best, Thai benzoin is slightly inferior, and the quality of domestic benzoin is secondary.
Fourth, efficacy and application
Sexual taste: spicy, bitter, flat; return to the heart, stomach meridian.
Effect: Awaken the spirit, activate the blood, and relieve pain.
Application: stroke phlegm, qi depression, malignant coma, abdominal pain, postpartum blood dizziness, pediatric convulsions.
Dosage: 0.6-1.5 g, for multi-ent round scattering.