Li Shizhen first proposed that the five-fold seed was made of insects

Nature's miraculous work in creating all things is often beyond people's imagination. I was surprised to see the five-fold seed on the salt-skinned wood for the first time, thinking that the five-fold seed was a "kiwifruit" that was produced on the salt-skinned wood tree. In fact, this view was relatively common before the Ming Dynasty's Compendium of Materia Medica.

　　Wubeizi, the Northern Song Dynasty", the "Kaibao Materia Medica" was included in the grass department, and the "Jiayou Materia Medica" was moved into the wood department, all of which identified it as a plant. The Tujing Materia Medica collects five times into the grass and records five times the seeds: "On the leaves of the raw skin wood, it is fruitful in July, there is no flower, its wood is blue and yellow, in fact, it is green, ripe and yellow, and the big one is like a fist, and there are many insects inside." September tweezers, exposure dry. Although Su Song mentioned the phenomenon of "many worms within the five-fold seed", it still did not jump out of the definition that the five-fold seed is the fruit of the plant salt skin wood. It was not until 1647 that the understanding of the origin of the five-fold seed was written in 1647, although the concept of "not belonging to the fruit" was still confused and blurred. Lu Zhiyi believes that the five-fold seed "does not belong to the insect egg, not to the fruit, this genus is a false wood qi to give shape." ”

　　Only Li Shizhen of the Ming Dynasty further observed and investigated on the basis of Su Song's five-fold son", "This wooden jungle is inhabited, and in May and June there are small insects such as ants, eating their juice, and the old ones are left behind, and the small balls are between the leaves, just as they are very small at the beginning, gradually growing stronger, and their size is as big as a fist." Or, like a small diamond, the shape is different from round length. At first, it is green, but it is fine yellow for a long time, and it is decorated with branches and leaves, as if it is formed. According to this, Li Shizhen proposed for the first time that his predecessors "although they knew that (the five times) were born on the skin wood, they did not know that they were created by insects." "Subverted the traditional perception that pentaplicum is a plant fruit, and classified pentaploids into the worm section of the Materia Medica."

　　Wubeizi has long been wild and wild, mainly from the wild beilin, this habit is similar to Li Shizhen's "This woody jungle virgin... Knotted balls between leaves" is consistent with the description. When the salt-skinned tree sprouts in the spring, the horned aphid or the egg aphid (small insects such as ants) produce sexual male and female wingless aphids on the buds, and after sexual intercourse, they give birth to wingless females, commonly known as dry mothers, and dry mothers (which may be what Li Shizhen calls "old relics") invade the inner tissues of the buds, stimulate the development of malformations of surrounding leaf cells, form cystic-like bumps (small pellets between leaves), and multiply in them. This cystic bulge is called gall, or pentaploid. The female mother of these insects sucks the juice from the young branches and leaves to feed herself in the sealed cyst-like protrusions, and "gives birth" to herself inside. As the larvae grow from few to many, from larvae to adults, this cystic protrusion continues to grow, and after the larvae have grown into winged adults, they can break out of the sac, which is what Shi Zhen said, "the worm will wear out.". Therefore, there is the correct method of harvesting and processing the five-fold seed: "The mountain people take it before the frost falls, and steam it to kill the goods." ”

　　Li Shizhen's observations and descriptions are very close to the modern pentaploid biology, which was indeed a pioneering effort in the understanding of the origin of the pentaploid more than 400 years ago.

Source of this article: Chinese Traditional Chinese Medicine