There are a lot of sayings in the folk, which seem to be very simple, but in fact they are the embodiment of the wisdom of the people, because these sayings are the names of the common people after a long period of use, or summarized by life experience, such as agricultural proverbs, which are the experience summarized by farmers and friends in the process of farming, so they can not be underestimated.
However, with the development of modern science and technology, some sayings have also appeared in the limitations of the times, after all, some of the previous experience has also been replaced by modern science and technology, so although the saying is also reasonable, we must look at it correctly, but also look at it in combination with modern eyes.
In this issue, the author will share with you a saying about plants, it is "know the star anise, you can sleep with the snake", so what is the star anise, and what is the value? Let's take a look.
What is Star Anise?
Many friends hear the name of the star anise for the first time, they think it is some kind of lotus, if you think so, then it is wrong, the star anise is not a lotus, and it has nothing to do with the lotus, it is actually a perennial herb of the genus Podophyllum of the Berberaceae family, not a plant of the genus Lotus. It is called the anise lotus because its leaves are octagonal and the whole looks like a blooming lotus flower, hence the name.
Although the name of the star anise is very good, it actually has a certain danger, because it is a poisonous plant, but even so, it is very popular among the people, the reason is that although it is poisonous, it has a good medicinal value, and in the past, it has helped many people in rural areas.
The value of star anise
As for what medicinal value it has, it is related to the saying to be said in this issue, "If you know the star anise, you can sleep with the snake". Friends who grew up in the countryside should know that in the past, the countryside was lush with grass and trees, and at the same time, pesticides and the like were never used in that era, wild animals are very common, such as pheasants, hares, frogs, grasshoppers, beetles, snakes, etc., among which snakes are very dangerous wild animals, and often haunt the crops near the mountains in summer.
Naturally, some herbs that can detoxify are used, and star anise is one of them. In the past in the southern rural areas, star anise is a relatively common detoxification plant, in the hillside forest, shrubs, the damp place next to the stream, under the bamboo forest or under the evergreen forest of the lime mountain, if the farmers are accidentally bitten by the snake when working, they will go to these places to look for the star anise lotus, after finding, it will be directly kneaded into juice or mashed to the bite place, after a while, the snake bite place is not only the poison is solved, the swelling also disappears.
The reason why the star anise lotus has such an effect is because it itself has a good effect of dissolving phlegm and dispersing knots, dispelling stasis and relieving pain, clearing heat and detoxifying, and has a very good effect on common snake bites near farmland, so it was a good remedy for snake wounds in the folk, and there is a common saying in the folk that "knowing the star anise lotus, you can sleep with the snake".
Of course, there must be an exaggeration in this saying, and everyone should look at it correctly. As I said earlier, when people used it in the past, most of them were bitten by snakes while working in the farmland, and most of the snakes that can go to the farmland are not poisonous, and even if they are poisonous, the toxicity is not very strong.
For example, the common cauliflower snake (scientific name king snake) in the field, the grass-bellied chain snake (commonly known as the land male snake) and so on, for the snake that is not poisonous or low toxicity, the effect of the star anise lotus is very good, but for those poisonous snakes in the mountains, it may not have such a good effect.
So although the saying goes, don't really think that you can sleep with the snake if you know it, after all, people's vision in the past still has certain limitations, just to highlight the good effect of the star anise, only to use such an exaggerated saying.
The current state of the star anise
Anise is a good traditional medicinal material, in many areas today have been artificially planted, but the wild star anise is very precious today, not that its value is higher than artificial planting, but because its medicinal value is very high, in the past by a large number of people and uncontrolled mining, resulting in wild star anise endangered, thus becoming a mainland of the secondary protection plant, so it is very precious.