Chinese medicine expert Ren Jidong talks about the edible and medicinal functions of the whole scorpion

Recently, the author interviewed Ren Jidong, former director of the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine and chief pharmacist of Linyi People's Hospital, who explained in detail the edible and medicinal functions of the whole scorpion. He said: "Scorpion is a traditional medicinal material, ingredients, mainly produced in Shandong, Hebei, Henan and other provinces, especially in Shandong Mengshan whole scorpion is the most valuable, because it has eight legs, two tongs, so it is called 'full of scorpion'." ”

The medicinal value of the whole scorpion is very high, with the effect of dispelling wind, detoxification, pain relief and communication. The Shu Bencao records that the whole scorpion has a medicinal history of more than 1100 years, and is currently recorded in detail in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. As for the question of whether the whole scorpion can be eaten, Director Ren said: "The first written record of the whole scorpion is in the "Book of Poetry", the name is called the ant, from the record to the explicit inclusion in the pharmacopoeia, there is a history of nearly 2,000 years of consumption. The whole scorpion is a good tonic food, which is recorded in Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica", "The scorpion walks like a water shrew, with eight legs and a long tail, with a knotted color, and now the catcher eats it with salt and mud". It shows that scorpions have a long history of consumption as a traditional food. ”

Director Ren said that although scorpions are listed in the pharmacopoeia as Chinese herbal medicines and contain certain toxicity themselves, they are not included in the scope of toxic medicinal materials in the pharmacopoeia, and the possibility of food safety hazards caused by normal consumption is unlikely, and no personal health accidents have been heard of in history. Liu Zhenliang