I remember when I was a child, whenever it rained in summer and autumn, I often saw a bug in the corner of the wall outside the house, in the bricks, and even under some rotten fallen leaves. They were everywhere, gently picking up a brick that was stacked together, brushing away the layers of damp fallen leaves, and there must be it below.
In fact, friends who have lived in the countryside are very familiar with this insect, we call it "dustpan worm", there are also called "lid worm", "ant tiger", is a kind of cockroach turtle family of ground turtles.
Dustpan insects, scientific name earth turtle insects, also known as soil elements, ground turtles, they often live under the rotten forest, damp corners inside and outside the house, old kitchens, stove corners and other wet places.
As a child, I was disgusted with bugs that grew in dark, damp environments, and it became a pleasure to find them and "mutilate" them. I know that they like to hide in the bricks in the corners of the piles, in the grass piles, so every time they see them, they will first step on a few feet, and when they see the "corpses" on the ground, the friends will laugh.
The "bad eggs" identified as children are actually expensive medicinal materials, its cold, salty, into the heart, liver and spleen three meridians, with the effect of breaking blood and stasis, continuing tendons and bones, clinically commonly used to treat bruises, tendon fractures, blood stasis menstrual closure, postpartum stasis abdominal pain, fistula lumps. As we all know, the turtle shell decoction pills for the treatment of fistula contain the flavor of earth turtle insects. Another example is the soil turtle insect with continuous interruption and eucommia to treat those who fracture and tendon injury in the later stage, and the muscles and bones are weak and weak.
In addition, the extract of earth turtle worm also has a good therapeutic effect in anticoagulation, anti-tumor, regulation of blood lipids, regulation of immunity, prevention and treatment of hormonal femoral head necrosis and so on.
However, with the changes in today's natural environment, the number of wild earth turtle insects is decreasing year by year, and the demand for traditional Chinese medicine is increasing, which makes artificially raised earth turtle insects come into being.
Because of the effect of earth turtle insects breaking blood and stasis, as well as small poison, pregnant women should be contraindicated. In addition, this drug is generally used in prescription drugs and needs to be used regularly under the guidance of a doctor.
(The pictures in this article are all infographics, for reference only)
(Author Wang Qian, Graduate Student of Formulary, Shanxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine)