The "New Perspective on Chinese Medicine" series of articles is not purely theoretical knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine, but an interpretation of dietotherapy and health care and ingredients with the same origin of medicine and food from the perspective of modern science and nutrition, in order to broaden horizons, broaden thinking, enlighten wisdom, and provide insights into understanding the wisdom of the ancients. New perspectives, new ideas.
Studying the written records of ingredients all day long, it is inevitable that some people will find it boring.
"From ancient times to the present, there are so many books, take out a few at random, and which book doesn't record something to eat!"
Well, let's not talk about ancient books today, let's talk about ancient paintings.
For example: Qingming River Scene.
How much do you know about this painting?
This is a folk painting of the Northern Song Dynasty, one of the top ten famous paintings handed down from generation to generation in China. The painter Zhang Zeduan vividly recorded the appearance and customs of the city in the Northern Song Dynasty in the five-meter-long scroll with delicate brushstrokes.
There are towers, bridges, cars, boats, sedan chairs, horses, and all kinds of people on it, so it's very lively.
If you follow Yiru's perspective, you will see a seemingly inconspicuous wooden sign hanging under a parasol in an inconspicuous corner, with three words "Xiangyinzi" written on it.
Now when we are walking on the road, we can see all kinds of "milk tea shops" and "cafes".
In the Northern Song Dynasty, the small stall under the parasol was supposed to be a "folk popular" drink stall at that time.
What we are going to talk about today is the common raw material on the drink stalls in the Northern Song Dynasty: perilla.
Perilla has a long history in my country's "diet spectrum".
In the cultural relics "Jane" unearthed in Mawangdui, the eating method of perilla has been recorded.
The use of perilla is not only "a delicacy on the plate", it also has the ability to relieve the appearance and dispel the cold. Little problem encountered.
So how does perilla do it?
Let's find out together.
The above table can be solved - runny nose
Perilla has the function of relieving the exterior and dispelling cold, so it is often used to treat the initial stage of wind-cold and cold.
In dog days, prepare some perilla at home, boil some perilla water to drink when needed, it is likely to eliminate a "cold" in the bud.
Some people may be wondering: "How can Futian catch cold when it's so hot?"
This has a certain relationship with people's current lifestyle.
During the dog days, many people choose to turn on the air conditioner in order to "avoid the heat". Sometimes the air conditioner can even be turned on to 17 or 8 degrees. "Turn on the air conditioner and cover the quilt" has become a "routine operation".
If this "quilt" can be covered well, it's fine, but it often "doesn't cover well".
When I fell asleep, the quilt was on the body, and when I woke up, the quilt was on the ground, and the person and the quilt "slept separately".
And after a night of sleep in an "air-conditioned room" where "people and quilts are separated from each other", when we wake up the next day, we feel not only the first ray of sunshine in the morning, but also the "first snot" in the morning.
If there is clear water-like nasal mucus coming out at this time, it is likely that you have caught a cold. At this time, you can use some perilla to relieve the cold on the one hand, and regulate the spleen and stomach on the other hand to improve immunity.
We all know that a runny nose is one of the common symptoms at the beginning of a cold.
Under normal circumstances, there is only a small amount of mucus in our nasal cavity, which is moist to maintain normal physiological activities.
And when the body is invaded by external wind and cold, as the pores are "closed", the water vapor that could have been emitted from the pores is difficult to emit normally.
"Water vapor" cannot come out from normal channels, so they will find other ways to get out.
For example, all the brains are squeezed into the airway.
It is manifested as "phlegm" in the lungs, and "snot" in the nasal cavity.
From a microscopic point of view, perilla can regulate the blood rheology inside the body, restore the normal operation of the Qi and blood meridians blocked by cold air, thereby improving the water metabolism of the respiratory system.
On the other hand, perilla can help us improve the body's immunity and make the immune force stronger, thus resisting the invasion of external evils.
Scholars have studied the effect of perilla on immunity through a series of experiments.
The results showed that compared with the control group, the serum phosphatase activity, serum lysozyme content, and NO content of the research group using perilla were all increased. Not only that, but the biological activity of IL-2 in the research group using perilla was better enhanced.
In other words, whether it is in terms of specific immunity or non-specific immunity, perilla has a certain auxiliary conditioning function, which can help us better "drive out" external evils.
So, when we want to use perilla to deal with wind-cold symptoms at home, how can we use it?
If it is a cold and cold, you can take 10 grams of perilla leaves, 5 scallions, and 3 slices of ginger. Decoct in water and serve warm.
If the headache is caused by exogenous wind and cold, you can take 10 grams of perilla leaves, 6 grams of cinnamon bark, and 5 scallions, and decoct them with water.
In addition, sometimes we will inevitably have injections or infusions after we go to the hospital for help when we can't bear it anymore. And some people will feel tired after the infusion, and the body will feel tired and listless.
Faced with this kind of problem, you can also boil a bowl of steaming perilla and ginger soup. After a bowl of hot soup, the fatigue on the body will be relieved a lot.
Zhong Ke Jie Yu
The recent dog days are always accompanied by heavy rain.
Hot, rainy, windy, air-conditioned...
The combination of this series is really too easy to make people feel depressed.
If you usually have a bad temper and tend to be angry, and you are accidentally attacked by the wind and cold in such an "atmosphere", then it's no wonder that you don't feel listless.
If you feel humid, depressed and sad in the rainy and hot weather all day long, and you are particularly prone to fatigue every day, you can eat some perilla to help you recover.
Studies have shown that perilla can improve depression. Rosmarinic acid and other ingredients extracted from perilla leaves have good conditioning ability for depression.
Scholars have found that perilla can be used to make tea, which can calm down and fight depression.
It is precisely because of the ability of perilla that some researchers are trying to dig deeper into perilla, so as to develop products for regulating depression.
If perilla is used to relieve depression, aromatize qi, refresh the spleen and refresh the mind, it can be paired with licorice and boiled water to drink together.
detoxification
Although my country has a long history of eating perilla, the frequency of perilla on people's tables is not particularly high.
But in Japan and South Korea, the demand for perilla is quite "exuberant".
Yiru once read a statistic, which shows that according to incomplete statistics, the annual demand for perilla leaves in Japan is about billions, which is quite a lot.
Their demand for perilla is also related to their eating habits.
For example, the Japanese like to eat "raw" seafood, sashimi, seafood sushi and other foods.
When they eat, they often eat it with perilla leaves. They eat sashimi rolled with perilla leaves and dipped in seasoning. On the one hand, it can remove the foul smell, and on the other hand, perilla can just detoxify fish, shrimp and crab.
From a microscopic point of view, the ability of perilla in "detoxification" has a certain degree of relationship with its good anti-allergic activity.
Studies have shown that perilla leaves have anti-allergic activity and can be used to treat problems such as allergies.
Some scholars took the allergic asthma model as the research object, and the research results showed that rosmarinic acid and other components in the perilla extract had a good conditioning ability on allergic asthma, and promoted the production of cytokines and anti-allergic antibodies in the body. Perilla can inhibit the aggregation of platelets, and the flavonoids in perilla leaves can inhibit the production of brain tumor necrosis factor, which has good anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic abilities.
When we use perilla to treat the uncomfortable situation after eating "fish, shrimp and crab", we can use 30 grams of perilla leaves, 3 slices of ginger, and drink frequently in decoction.
Treat gastrointestinal disorders
During dog days, people will have more gastrointestinal diseases.
The weather is relatively hot, and pathogenic microorganisms such as bacteria are easy to breed. If you don’t pay attention to your diet, it is easy to cause problems in the gastrointestinal tract, such as acute gastroenteritis.
For simple prevention, perilla is a good choice.
First of all, many literatures have reported that perilla leaves have certain antibacterial ability, and are commonly used in the treatment of various acute and chronic infections in clinical practice.
Studies have shown that perilla leaves have antibacterial effects on pathogenic microorganisms such as Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, and Staphylococcus aureus.
In addition, the fragrance of perilla awakens the spleen, which can help us regulate the spleen and stomach and improve the ability of the spleen and stomach to transport and transform.
Scholars have found that perilla can promote normal small intestinal peristalsis and antagonize gastrointestinal inhibition caused by certain substances.
After further research, scholars concluded that the ability of perilla leaves to regulate gastrointestinal motility may be related to M-choline receptors.
Researchers also found that perilla can increase the contraction amplitude of colon smooth muscle strips and the contraction rate of smooth muscle cells, and increase intracellular calcium ions, thereby achieving the purpose of regulating colon contraction. Certain components contained in perilla can enhance colon motility by enhancing the depolarization of smooth muscle cell membranes.
Studies have confirmed that perilla can help maintain the fluidity of smooth muscle cell membranes and provide the necessary material basis for the normal movement of smooth muscle.
When we use perilla to prevent or regulate acute gastroenteritis, we can use 10 grams of perilla, 10 grams of Huoxiang, 6 grams of tangerine peel, 3 pieces of ginger, decocted in water.
The "color" of perilla
Regarding basil, many people have such confusion: "Is the green basil a basil?"
Regarding the issue of the color of perilla leaves, there are some disputes in the eyes of scholars of different disciplines, so we can leave this aside for the time being.
If it is only from the perspective of diet, the leaves that are green on both sides are often called "baisu" in daily life. According to the "Chinese Pharmacopoeia", perilla leaves are purple on both sides or green on the upper surface and purple on the lower surface.
That is to say, if you want to use it as medicine, you can choose perilla leaves with purple on both sides or green on the upper surface and purple on the lower surface. If it is usually eaten as a dish, ordinary green perilla leaves are also acceptable.
You may not know that when Yiru wrote this article, she had a few fresh perilla leaves on hand.
The sun shines in through the window and falls on the perilla leaves, like a pot of old wine, poured lightly into every small leaf.
The fragrance of sunlight and perilla lingers on each other, which is fresh and mellow.
It's a wonderful feeling.
Half a volume of medical books comforts life, and a pot of worldly flavors is brewed into tea.
This may be the perseverance and romance in the bones of Chinese medicine practitioners.
