Legend has it that Honghua was originally a fair lady, because of depression, irregular menstruation, yellow face and thin muscles, and finally died of fatigue. After death, it becomes safflower to cure women's diseases and make women's bodies healthy and beautiful. In order to defend themselves from the humiliation, all kinds of jagged needles are born from the edge of the leaf, making it difficult for people to get them.
Safflower is the dried flower of safflower of the Asteraceae family.
Also known as red and blue flowers, yellow and blue (Su Song said: its flowers are red, and the leaves are quite blue, so it has a blue name, also known as yellow and blue), thorny red flowers.
The mainland has a long history of cultivating safflower, with Xinjiang, Henan, Zhejiang, and Sichuan as the main production areas. It is also found in other provinces.
Trait identification
It is a tube makeup flower without an ovary, about 1-2cm long, and the surface is reddish-yellow or red. The corolla tube is slender, the apex is 5-lobed, the lobes are narrowly striped, 5-8 mm long. stamens 5, anthers yellowish-white, aggregated into a cylindrical shape, stigma slightly exposed outside the anther tube, long cylindrical, slightly bifurcated at the apex. Soft. It has a slight aroma and a slightly bitter taste. The flowers are soaked in water, and the water is dyed golden yellow. It is better to have a corolla that is red and bright, without thorns, soft and moist, and soft as hairy in the hand.
The history of safflower in medicine is very long, and it was first seen in Zhang Zhongjing's "Jin Kui Yaolu" in the "Women's Miscellaneous Diseases", which used red and blue flower wine prescriptions to treat gynecological diseases.
After the Tang Dynasty, it was called safflower, which was contained in "Kaibao Materia Medica": "Red and blue flowers are safflowers, and they are born in the Liang Han Dynasty and the Western Regions... After giving birth, the main blood was silent, the blood in the abdomen was inexhaustible, colic, the fetus was stillborn, and the wine was boiled. ”
Su Song of the Song Dynasty said in the "Book of Sketches": "There are everywhere today. Planted in the nursery, the cloth in the winter moon is in the ripe ground, the seedlings are born in spring, and there are flowers in summer. The hedgehog is thorny under the flower, and the flower is on the top. The nursery people take advantage of the dew, and the harvest has come back, and it is over. The middle of the tree is firm, and the white ones are as big as small beans. Its flowers are exposed to drying, in order to dye the real red and make swallow fat. ”
Li Shizhen also recorded that "saffron, that is, saffron blue, saffron." Out of the West back to the earth and the kingdom of heaven, that is, the red and blue flowers there... The first young leaves and seedlings can also be eaten, and their leaves are like small thistle leaves, which bloom in May, such as large thistle flowers and red... Flowers, pungent, warm, non-toxic. Blood is born in the pericardium and hidden in the liver, which belongs to Chongren. Safflower juice is similar to it, so it can carry out men's blood and women's water. More blood is practiced, and less blood is nourished. ”
The Ming Dynasty Jia's "Medicine and Righteousness" contains: "Safflower, yang, light body, red color, gas, bitter taste, warm nature. Safflower red blood, pungent and warm, good at meridians, for the blood qi medicine. It can be laxative and replenished, and each has its own wonderful meaning. ”
Safflower has excellent blood circulation effect and is an important medicine for the treatment of obstetrics and gynecology stasis. Clinically, it is often used for amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, lochia, symptomatic lumps, chest paralysis and heartache, stasis abdominal pain, chest and flank stinging, fall injury, sores and sores and pain, etc.
In Mongolian medicine, safflower is called "ancient Japanese ancient wood", is the most frequently used medicinal material in the traditional Mongolian medicine compound in addition to chebula, has the effect of clearing liver heat, regulating menstruation, invigorating blood, stopping bleeding, relieving pain, reducing swelling, nourishing the essence, and the common compound formula has Dedu Seven Flavor Safflower Pills, Thirteen Flavor Safflower Secret (Secret) Pills, etc.
In Tibetan medicine, safflower is called "Zha Piergon", which has the effect of clearing liver heat, stopping bleeding and nourishing, and contains "Seven Flavors of Safflower Special Pill" in the "Four Medical Classics" of Tibetan medicine, which has the effect of clearing heat and reducing inflammation, protecting the liver and reducing yellowness. Safflower is used in medicine, decoction is taken internally, and can be made into safflower oil and safflower tincture for external use.
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