HCB Chapter 344: Sheep Milk Fruit
Chapter 344: Sheep Milk Fruit
Shen Youyou discovered that many plants have medicinal value. For example, the Eclipta prostrata is a treasure plant that can not only be eaten, but also used to dye hair and cloth.
Its stems and leaves can also be used as medicine, which has the effects of tonifying the kidney, replenishing yin, stopping bleeding and cooling blood.
We can use Eclipta prostrata for treatment of premature graying of hair, bloody stool, bleeding from knife wounds, and kidney deficiency.
Of course, a lot of things were told to her by Guo Daya on the way. The biggest advantage of bringing Guo Daya and Guo Erya with her is that if Shen Youyou wants to find a plant, she only needs to roughly explain its function and appearance, and the two sisters of the Guo family will be able to find it for her.
Thinking that she could use it to dye her grandparents' hair when she got home, Shen Youyou accepted all the offers of Eclipta prostrata.
The previous Compendium of Materia Medica once recorded: "Eclipta prostrata can make hair black." That is to say, Eclipta prostrata can not only dye hair, but also grow hair. It can be said that Eclipta prostrata is a very valuable herb.
The method is also very simple. Crush the stems and leaves of Eclipta prostrata with a blender, filter out the juice, and then use it to wash your hair.
Moreover, compared with the hair dyes used in later generations, Mo Zaolian hair dye is more natural and does not damage the hair and scalp.
In fact, many pure plant shampoos in the past actually contained the essence of Eclipta prostrata.
Tang Xin was full of admiration: "Erya, I'm absolutely amazing. I know a lot of things, and I know that this thing is called ink grass. It can be eaten and can also be fed to pigs. Pigs like it very much."
Shen Erya nodded: "The two elder sisters of the Guo family have been learning medicine from Grandpa Guo since they were young, so they naturally know a lot. And Youyou is the smartest girl in our family. Grandpa Guo even said that he wanted Youyou to learn medicine.
It's just that we've been too busy lately and haven't had any free time. Recently, Yoyo has been learning about Chinese herbal medicine with the two elder sisters of the Guo family. When Grandpa Guo is free, he will teach her."
Tang Xin's eyes were sparkling with stars as she looked at the three people with admiration.
Shen Erya reminded her, "If you want to learn, you can listen. We girls know some pharmacology, which may be useful at critical moments."
Tang Xin blushed slightly: "Can I?"
Shen Erya nodded: "Didn't you see that when the two sisters of the Guo family talked about pharmacology, the other sisters and aunts would gather around to listen? Although they couldn't remember everything, they could ask Youyou when they got back. She has a photographic memory and can remember it after listening once."
"Never forget everything they see? There really are people like that in the world. When I was a kid, I heard Jiu Gong say that there are people who are naturally smart and have a photographic memory. I never thought that it was not just a rumor but true."
Shen Erya cried out, "Oh no! Grandpa said not to talk about this outside anymore. I'm talking nonsense." She quickly shook Tang Xin's arm:
"Don't tell anyone else, otherwise if word gets out that Yoyo is too smart, it'll bring disaster. Just pretend you never heard of it."
Tang Xin was not a fool. Although she rarely left the village, as a true ancient person, she naturally knew that a girl's reputation should not be spread too widely, as it might attract the covetousness of others.
She nodded firmly and said, "Don't worry, I won't even tell my mother."
They harvested the Eupatorium with sickles very quickly and soon they had almost finished. The sun was getting hotter and hotter. In this forest, you would be sweating profusely after walking for a while.
Along the way, I saw a lot of wild fruits, including persimmons, jujubes, wild grapes, nightshade, and ground melons.
But it is not yet the season for them to mature, so we can only wait a little longer. After August, these fruits can be picked one after another.
Shen Youyou discovered that there were really a lot of persimmons in Fangshan, especially ripe wild persimmons. And the millstone persimmons looked very big, but unfortunately they were still green.
Don’t think too much, because if you think too much you’ll easily keep thinking about the sweet feeling.
Then there is the unique wild fruit, the ground melon. It can be picked and eaten when it is still unripe and small young fruit. It tastes very delicious. Shen Youyou remember that its other name is the sheep's milk fruit.
Contrary to what its name suggests, the sweet melon can be picked and eaten now. However, when it matures, the inside of the fruit will become floc-like and full of fiber, making it inedible.
This wild fruit is the memory of a generation. Even now, after traveling through time, Shen Youyou still misses the taste of her childhood.
Many rural children spent their childhood eating wild fruits. At that time, there were not many fruits to eat, and the wild fruits that could be picked everywhere in the wild became everyone's snacks.
The ground melon is also called "milk melon" and "sheep's milk fruit".
In the previous life, when Shen Youyou was a child, she could pick them at will in this month, and they could be found everywhere. But after they moved,
Once I saw this kind of fruit in a supermarket, and it was selling for nearly two hundred yuan each. Even Shen Youyou, who was always extravagant, was shocked.
It’s not that people can’t afford it at 200 yuan per kilogram, but that the food that was originally picked casually in the village has suddenly become something that no one can afford.
Although this wild fruit has the word "melon" in its name, it is different from traditional watermelons, pumpkins, etc.
It is very small, only the size of a finger, and the shape of the fruit is also very special, spindle-shaped, with a green skin and many fine white hairs on it.
When this fruit is peeled, a milky liquid will flow out, and it also has a fragrance. In that era of material scarcity, rural children drank it like milk and regarded it as a treasure.
And according to adults, sweet potato has a certain lactation effect, so people often call it "milk melon".
This fruit is drought-resistant and cold-resistant and has strong vitality, so it is distributed in a wide area and quantity in rural areas. It can be found in grass, hillsides, and piles of rocks.
There are a lot of these things in Fangshan. You can see patches of ground melons every few steps.
Shen Erya rubbed a ground melon on her clothes a few times and stuffed it directly into her mouth. She did not forget to pick the rest with her hands. She picked two and threw them into the thick basket.
Shen Youyou also carried a bamboo basket on her back and bent over to dig through the grass, where she found many green, pointed melons.
"Brother Erhu, please put it in a palm bag. We can bring this back to make everyone happy."
Its flesh is crisp and smooth, and has a light sweetness when tasted carefully.
The fruits were picked and put into pockets, and the whole plant was also collected by Guo Daya because it is also a medicinal herb.
The whole plant and fruit of the ground melon can be used as medicine. It is harvested in summer and autumn, cut into sections, dried and used raw.
In traditional Chinese medicine theory, the taste of the melon is sweet, and it is cool in nature. It belongs to the lung meridian and has the effects of clearing away internal heat, invigorating qi, promoting the production of body fluids, and promoting lactation.
It can also treat symptoms such as insufficient qi and yin, sore throat, postpartum weakness, insufficient milk, dizziness and insomnia.
The reason why Shen Youyou asked everyone to pick so many ground melons is because they taste delicious and are juicy, and they are super refreshing to eat cold.
Moreover, the calcium content in the juice of the ground melon is higher than that in milk, making it a very healthy wild fruit.
It is also rich in a variety of vitamins necessary for normal human metabolism, especially vitamin B and vitamin E.
In addition, ground melon is rich in nutrients such as protein, fat, phosphorus, iron, etc., which can fully supplement the nutrients needed by the human body.
This was because she saw this wild fruit from her childhood in the supermarket one time and bought it for nearly 200 yuan per pound. She went back to check and finally understood why everyone was chasing after it so much.