Chinese Medicine

 

Wild Yam: An Indo-Chinese species is used as a dye in Southern China. Dioscorea Villosa is a perennial, twining plant, with long, knotty, matted, contorted, ligneous root-stocks. The root is long, branched, crooked, and woody, the taste being insipid, afterwards acrid, and having no odour. It is usually sold in pieces of various lengths, which are difficult to pulverize, as the root flattens out when this is attempted. The therapeutical value is lost after the first year, so that it should be freshly gathered and carefully dried each year.

  

 

Patchouli: This fragrant herb, with soft, opposite, egg-shaped leaves and square stems, grows from 2 to 3 feet in height, giving out the peculiar, characteristic odour of patchouli when rubbed. Its whitish flowers, tinged with purple, grow in both axillary and terminal spikes. The crop is cut two or three times a year, the leaves being dried and packed in bales and exported for distillation of the oil. The best oil is freshly distilled near the plantations. That obtained from leaves imported into Europe, often damaged and adulterated even up to 80 per cent, is inferior. It is used in coarser perfumes and in 'White Rose' and 'Oriental' toilet soaps. Although the odour is objectionable to some, it is widely-used both in Asia and India. Sachets are made of the coarsely-powdered leaves, and before its common use in Europe, genuine Indian shawls and Indian ink were distinguished by the odour, which has the unusual quality of improving with age. Hence the older oil is preferred by perfumers and used to confer more lasting properties upon other scents.

 

 

 

Chinese Medicine: Foods are classified by the five tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and pungent. Each taste acts on or has direct influence on a specific vital organ. When each taste is consumed in moderation, it benefits the corresponding organ. Over-indulgence in any taste harms the organ and creates imbalance among the five vital organ systems.

 

Sweet acts: on the spleen and stomach helping digestion and neutralizing the toxic effects of other foods.

 

Sour acts: on the liver and gall bladder and controls diarrhea and excessive perspiration.

Bitter acts: on the heart and small intestine and reduces body heat and excessive fluids and induces diarrhea.

 

Salty foods act: on the kidneys and bladder and soften hardness of muscles or glands.

 

Pungent acts: on the lungs and large intestine and induces perspiration and promotes energy circulation.

 

The five organ systems control and support each other. Proper coordination only exists when there is no one organ stronger or weaker than the rest. Since the five tastes have direct influences on your organs, your diet should have a good combination of the five tastes in order to promote internal balance and harmony.