The living conditions of the ancients were poor, the sanitary conditions were poor, and various diseases, poisoning, and trauma often tormented people. In order to find a cure for disease, the ancients had to take the risk of trying everything.
"Huainanzi Xiu Wu Xun" records that in order to let everyone know the efficacy and toxicity of various plants, Shennong's tasted all kinds of herbs, and 70 poisons out of 100. This reflects the fact that the ancients paid a huge price in the process of searching for medicine, which was full of hardships and dangers.
In addition to tasting plants, the ancients also tried to eat various insects. With the accumulation of life experience, it was gradually discovered that some insects could be used as a medicine to cure diseases.
(1) Medicinal insects - cockroaches
cockroach
Cockroaches, commonly known as bed bugs, are a harmful insect that people hate. It mostly hides in the kitchen, lurking during the day and coming out at night. It eats vegetables, rice and liquid food, and has the same habits as flies, pulling while eating, and when it eats, it will also excrete feces and secrete foul-smelling liquids, contaminating people's food and spreading diseases.
The name of the cockroach comes from the "Compendium of Materia Medica" by the Qing Dynasty Chinese herbalist Zhao Xuemin, which is a familiar name. But in fact, the scientific name of cockroaches in the insect world is "cockroach". The name of the cockroach first came from the "Shennong Materia Medica".
The ancients also gave this little insect some strange names in many medical works, such as Li Shizhen in the "Compendium of Materia Medica", calling it "tea insect" and "fragrant lady". In "Classification of Herbal Properties", it is called "oil stealing woman", and in "Lu Chuan Materia Medica", it is called "yellow thief". Its name has "steal" and "thief" in it, which is very consistent with this guy's habits.
How the ancients discovered that cockroaches have medicinal properties is unknown. Probably because there was no food in the famine years, the people caught cockroaches and burned them to eat, and thus discovered that this nasty pest could also cure diseases.
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According to the "Dictionary of Chinese Medicine":
The medicinal effect of cockroaches - invigorating blood, eliminating food accumulation, reducing swelling, and detoxifying.
Indications - women's qi and blood blockage, nodule hyperplasia, pediatric food accumulation, skin sores, sore throat, insect and snake bites.
Dosage and usage - 1~3, boil soup orally. Or dry and grind into powder orally. It can also be mashed for external use (I suspect it is unhygienic to use this way).
In the "Compendium of Materia Medica", Li Shizhen recorded cockroaches as follows: (translated into vernacular) There are many in the kitchen stove, and they can even gather into hundreds, two wings can fly, they like lights, the smell is very smelly, and the effect can invigorate blood. ”
What's even more novel is that there is a modern Chinese patent medicine, called "Rehabilitation New Liquid", which is a bottled liquid that can be used orally or externally. The ingredient on the instruction manual is "American cockroach dried insect extract", the name is very long, it is actually the extract of cockroaches. This can also be regarded as waste reuse.
(2) Medicinal insects - grasshoppers
grasshopper
The name of the grasshopper comes from Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica". Commonly known as grasshoppers, it is a type of locust. When I was young, there were many in the fields after the autumn harvest, and I often skewered them and roasted them. The ancients may have discovered its medicinal value in the process of eating grasshoppers. The scientific name of the insect kingdom is rice locust. This little insect is famous, as the saying goes, "grasshoppers after autumn can't jump for a few days". In the "Book of Songs" for more than 2,000 years, it is called "grub".
According to the "Dictionary of Chinese Medicine":
Medicinal effect - treatment of convulsions, tetanus, whooping cough, chilblains.
蝉蜕
It is recorded in the ancient medical book "Life-saving Bitter Sea" that grasshoppers are dried and eaten with more than a dozen dried grinders to cure tetanus. However, I think this is what the ancients were forced to do. Or modern antitoxin effective in preventing tetanus.
According to the "Compendium of Materia Medica", there are ten grasshoppers, and the decoction is only taken to treat children's cough. According to the record of "Yangsuyuan Messenger", grasshoppers are dried and ground at the end of the day, and sesame oil is adjusted to treat chilblains. "Food Materia Medica" also uses it to treat malaria, "grasshoppers are dried and ground to the end, and when the disease is about to attack, it is sent down with wine".
Nine incense insects
(3) Medicinal insects - crickets
Crickets are known to everyone in China. Good crickets are used in fights by the children of rich families, and the price is very expensive. Therefore, crickets are also called to promote weaving ("Guangya"), general ("Compendium of Materia Medica"), called chicken ("Guizhou Folk Prescription Collection"), fighting cock ("Chicken Material Data Compilation"), crickets ("Hebei Medicinal Materials"), and night song insects ("Chinese Medicine Chronicle").
Unlike cockroaches and grasshoppers, crickets are still commonly used as insect medicines. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the textbook of "Chinese Materia Medica" of the national colleges and universities of traditional Chinese medicine also recorded crickets.
Efficacy - diuretic, aphrodisiac
Indications - inability to urinate, edema, cirrhosis of the liver and ascites
According to the "Collection of Medical Prescriptions", crickets are dried and ground to treat urine blockage and lower abdominal distension and pain. "Modern Practical Chinese Medicine" records that there are four crickets, four mole crickets, one penny of licorice, decoction, and the treatment of the elderly who cannot urinate. "Sichuan Traditional Chinese Medicine Chronicle" records that crickets, dragonflies, dog whips, research ends, and impotence are cured.
Insect traditional Chinese medicine is discovered by working people from long-term life and production, and is an integral part of traditional Chinese medicine, which condenses the wisdom and experience of the people, and should be excavated and improved.
(To be continued)