Herbal Textual Research on Euryales Semen in Famous Classical Formulas / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

This paper systematically combed and verified the name， origin， producing area， quality evaluation， harvesting， processing of Euryales Semen in famous classical formulas by consulting relevant ancient materia medica， medical books， prescription books and modern literature. The results showed that Euryales Semen was first collected by materia medica under the name of Jitoushi， and since the Ming dynasty， Qianshi has been used as a proper name and continues to this day， with other aliases such as Yanhuishi. Euryale ferox， a plant of the Nymphaeaceae family， is the same as that used in the past dynasties. However， due to long-term artificial domestication， the varieties vary with the origin， including Beiqian and Suqian. The medicinal part of Euryales Semen is mature seed kernel， its origin of ancient records mainly includes Shandong， Jiangsu， Henan and other places， since the Ming and Qing dynasties， Euryales Semen produced in Suzhou has been highly praised. Since modern times， it has gradually summarized and formed the best quality evaluation method of Euryales Semen with full grains， white cross-section， powdery enough and no broken powder. The harvesting time in the past dynasties was mainly August or in autumn. The main processing methods in the past dynasties included peeling for powder， pounding powder after steaming， drying and frying. Up to now， two mainstream processing methods of cleansing and stir-frying have been formed. Based on the research results， it is recommended that the mature seed kernel of E. ferox be used in famous classical formula Yihuangtang. Combined with the processing requirements of the original formula， it is suggested to refer to the stir-frying method in the general principles of processing of the current edition of Chinese Pharmacopoeia.