Wang henian

During the period of 1996, FAO investigated all kinds of wild plants and made a comprehensive evaluation from the point of view of being useful to human body. As a result, Aloe won the first prize. Therefore, aloe is recommended by FAO as "the best health food for human beings in 2 1 century".

Aloe vera is native to tropical and arid areas of North Africa. Aloe is now distributed almost all over the world, and also cultivated in Fujian, Taiwan Province, Guangdong, Guangxi, Sichuan and Yunnan.

After some consideration, the ancients called it aloe. In Chinese, the word "Lu" means black, and the word "Hui" means gathering. The juice dripping from the incision of aloe leaves is yellowish brown, which turns black after being oxidized by air and condenses into a whole, hence the name "aloe". However, after aloe was introduced into China, it was first known as elephant gall. "Compendium of Materia Medica" quoted Chen Cangqi, a doctor in the Tang Dynasty, as saying: "Vulgar is like a scab, but it tastes bitter like a scab." Materia Medica is also called "Naihui"; Kaibao Materia Medica is called slave society; Compendium of Materia Medica is called elephant trunk grass; Plant names and fact research are also called garlic, loquat grass, elephant trunk lotus and loquat flower; In addition, there are aliases such as Lu Hui and Lao Wei.

Aloe is an evergreen succulent perennial herb of Aloe in Liliaceae. The leaves are fleshy, basal, clustered, seat-shaped or born at the top of the stem, long and narrow and lanceolate, with sharp teeth on the leaf margin. Inflorescences are umbrella-shaped, racemose, spike-shaped, conical and so on. , with red, yellow or red spots. Its basic characteristics were described in the "Records of Products" of Longyan County in the ninth year of the Republic of China as follows: "Aloe vera, an evergreen plant. The leaves are fleshy, with sharp tips and short serrated edges. Peanuts spike in the upper part of long flower stems. "

There are at least 300 kinds of aloe, but only 6 kinds are edible.

Aloe contains amino acids, manna, vitamins, uronic acid, minerals and trace elements such as strontium and germanium needed by human body. These nutrients are complementary to the human body. The tender leaves of aloe are edible and have medicinal and cosmetic values.

Chinese medicine highly praised the medical function of aloe. Tang Zhenquan's theory of medicinal properties says that it can kill infantile scabies, brain scabies and nasal itching. Tang Li? Herbal Medicine of Haiyao claims to treat malnutrition in children. Song and Ma Zhi's "Kaibao Materia Medica" also said that "the main hot air is stuffy, and the hot air between the chest and diaphragm can improve eyesight and soothe the nerves, treat epilepsy and convulsion in children, and kill three worms and hemorrhoids. Solve croton poison. " In the Qing Dynasty, Depei Materia Medica also said that it can disperse scrofula, treat convulsion epilepsy, promote diuresis and reduce swelling.

Its native residents pay more attention to its medical function. Panouse Basson, an ancient Egyptian medical work written 3,500 years ago, recorded the prescription of aloe for diarrhea. The ancient Egyptians also called it a "universal herb".

Modern medicine also fully affirms that aloe has many therapeutic effects, such as sterilization, anti-inflammation, wound healing, clearing heat and relaxing bowels, enhancing immune function, anti-tumor and anti-aging. Therefore, aloe vera has a household name among the people-"Plant Doctor".

At the latest in the Tang dynasty, aloe vera was well known by Chinese people and became a medicine for treating diseases. According to Su Song, a pharmacologist in the Northern Song Dynasty, Liu Yuxi, a teenager in the Tang Dynasty, suffered from tinea. "First between the neck, and then extended to the left ear, it became a wet sore." Long-term treatment is ineffective. Later, I happened to meet a drug seller in Chuzhou and taught him to grind it with aloe once or twice and licorice twice. After mixing evenly, it was applied to tinea, which quickly cured him of this chronic disease.

For its place of origin, Materia Medica has such a description: "Lu Hui, out of Persia. Only Guangzhou has tourists today. Its wood is produced in Shan Ye, and it is made of fat and tears. Use regardless of time and month. Vulgarity is like bravery, and its bitterness is yin. Aloe vera cures wet itching and scratches it with yellow juice. " Textual research on plant names is quoted from Jia in Song Dynasty. The record in Materia Medica is similar: "A bookworm must be a slave, a vulgar person must be as timid, and his taste must be as timid." Born in Persia, like black tin. "The Materia Medica of the Ming Dynasty also said that this kind of plant made of' wood tears' has the characteristics of' black'. As can be seen from the description of the Song and Ming Dynasties above, aloe was planted in Guangzhou at that time. But it is puzzling to call it wood.

The records about aloe in Zhufanzhi, also written by Song people, are obviously different, and it is clearly pointed out that it is a "grass genus": "Aloe, a big slave eater; Caoye. It is shaped like a horseshoe tail, and the natives picked it, pounded it with jade, boiled it into a paste, and put it into a leather bag, called aloe. "

The unified records of the Ming Dynasty also mentioned aloe when describing the native products of Sanfo Qiguo, an ancient kingdom in today's sunda islands. The description of its shape in the book is roughly the same as that in Zhufanzhi: "Grass is like horseshoe tail, which is called aloe."

In view of the above different records, Ming Luzhi's Compendium of Materia Medica adopted a compromise statement: "There are two kinds of wood and grass first, or foreign countries, and there is no decision." Compendium of Materia Medica also puts forward the problem of "being a grass as well as a wood".

But in fact, it should be more in line with objective facts to classify aloe as herbal medicine.

In the Qing Dynasty, in addition to Lingnan area, Dali, Yunnan and other places were also important aloe producing areas. Moreover, the beauty effect of aloe has been well developed. In Wu Zhenfang's Miscellanies of Lingnan in Qing Dynasty, it is recorded in detail: "Oil onion looks like daffodil leaves, with thick fingers and thorns on the edge. No flowers and no fruits, from roots to old feet. The leaves are broken, and there is ointment in them. Women put it on their palms to make their hair shiny instead of oil. Poor women have all kinds of houses, and they get angry when they ask, thinking that they are laughing at their poverty. "

Nowadays, aloe has developed into an important health food. There are many ways to eat aloe, such as making aloe into salad, cooking aloe with meat, and adding aloe as raw material to soup. Such as spore cabbage aloe salad, salted peanut aloe, onion oil jellyfish silk, aloe juice Kaiyang celery, diced chicken aloe, gingko aloe, perch aloe slices, boiled pork with aloe powder, shredded chicken with golden boy aloe juice, fried mushrooms with aloe juice, colorful egg yolk tofu aloe, pork liver aloe clip, aloe radish sauce, tomato mixed with aloe, cold aloe and so on. , are common aloe dishes.

References (omitted)

Secrets in Ancestor's Vegetable Basket (Serial)

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