What are the benefits of eating centipedes?

As we all know, among Chinese medicinal materials, not only plants have medicinal properties, but many animals and insects also have many medicinal effects. For example, centipedes. As we all know, centipede is also a kind of Chinese medicinal material. In many places, people even have the habit of eating centipedes. Although many people are very scared when they see centipedes, eating centipedes is good for our body.

Introduction of Centipede

[Other names]: centipede, Tianlong, maggot, Wugong, centipede, millipede

【Medicinal material category】：Animal

【Properties and flavors】: Spicy; warm; toxic.

① "Ben Jing": spicy, warm.

② "Bielu": poisonous.

③ "Yuchu Yaojie": spicy, slightly warm.

[return through meridians]: enters the liver meridian.

① "Compendium of Materia Medica": Jueyin meridian.

② "Medical Collection": Enters the liver and heart.

[Medicinal part]: The dried body of the Giant Scolopendra subspinipes of the Scolopendra family.

[Origin and distribution]: Likes to live in damp and dark places. Artificial breeding often simulates the natural environment, allowing them to live under rotten wood and rocks and on barren, damp thatched grass. They are distributed all over the country. It is mainly produced in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, Henan, Shaanxi and other places.

[Morphological characteristics]: This product is flat and long, 9 to 15 cm long and 0.5 to 1 cm wide. It consists of the head and torso, with a total of 22 segments. The head is dark red or reddish brown, slightly shiny, and covered with a head plate. The head plate is nearly round, slightly protruding at the front end, with a pair of maxillae attached on both sides, and a pair of antennae on both sides of the front end. The first dorsal plate of the trunk is the same color as the head plate, and the other 20 dorsal plates are brown-green or dark green, shiny, and there are often two longitudinal grooves on the fourth to twentieth dorsal plates; the abdomen is light yellow or brown-yellow, wrinkled; from the second segment onwards, there is a pair of walking legs on both sides of each segment; the walking legs are yellow or reddish brown, occasionally yellow-white, and are hooked. The last pair of walking legs are tail-shaped, so they are also called tail legs and are easy to fall off. It is brittle and has cracks on the cross section. It has a slightly fishy smell, with a special pungent odor, and tastes spicy and slightly salty.

Centipede Usage and Dosage

For internal use: decoct in water, 2-5g; grind into powder, 0.5-1g; or make into pills or powder. For external use: appropriate amount, grind into powder and sprinkle, soak in oil or grind into powder and apply.

The effects and functions of centipedes

Dispel wind and stop convulsions; dredge meridians and relieve pain; attack toxins and resolve stagnation. It is used to treat convulsions, epilepsy, spasms and convulsions, stroke, tetanus, rheumatism, hemicrania, snake bites, sores and scrofula. It is used for infantile convulsions, convulsions and spasms, facial paralysis due to stroke, hemiplegia, tetanus, stubborn rheumatism, sores, scrofula, and snake bites.

① "Ben Jing": It is used to treat snake, insect, fish poison, febrile malaria, and eliminate three kinds of worms.

② "Baopuzi": Grind into powder to treat snake sores.

③ "Bielu": Treats cold and heat accumulation in the heart and abdomen, abortion, and removes bad blood.

④ "Bencao Gangmu" (Bencao Gangmu): Treats diseases and addictions. Snake venom.

⑤ "Compendium of Materia Medica": Treats infantile epilepsy, convulsions, umbilical wind, lockjaw, erysipelas, baldness, scrofula, stool poisoning, hemorrhoids, snake tumors, snake miasma, and snake bites.

⑥ "Bencao Shu": Treats malaria.

⑦ "Yuchu Yaojie": remove pus and reduce swelling.

Centipede prescription

① For treating convulsions caused by stroke or after injury: 6 qian of raw Astragalus, 4 qian of Chinese Angelica, 2 qian of Notopterygium wilfordii, 2 qian of Angelica dahurica, 2 qian of whole scorpion, and 2 large whole centipedes. Take it as a decoction. (Zhufeng Decoction from "Medical Records of Combining Chinese and Western Medicine")

②Treats facial paralysis. For numbness in the mouth: three centipedes (one roasted with honey, one soaked in wine, one wrapped in paper and simmered, and the legs are removed), one Arisaema, cut into four pieces (one roasted with honey, one soaked in wine, one wrapped in paper and simmered, used for a lifetime), five cents each of Pinellia and Angelica dahurica. Grind it into powder and add a little musk. Take one coin each time, mixed with cooked (wine), once a day. (The Essential Methods of Transformation by World Medicine)

③Treatment of facial paralysis caused by stroke: a centipede. Roast and grind into powder, mix with pig bile and apply to the affected area (Jilin Chinese Herbal Medicine)

④Treat epilepsy: cut centipede and scorpion into equal parts. Grind into fine powder, take three to five fen each time, twice a day. (Jilin Chinese Herbal Medicine)

⑤To treat acute fright in children: one centipede (whole, without legs, roasted into powder), cinnabar and talcum powder in equal parts. Grind evenly, mix with breast milk and make into pills the size of mung beans. Take one pill per child aged 1 year, with breast milk. (Wanjinsan from Shenghuifang)

⑥Treat tetanus: Take centipede head, aconite tip, aconite root and scorpion tip in equal parts. Grind into fine powder. Use one word or half a word each time and mix it with hot wine. If your teeth are clenched, use this medicine to open them up. (Centipede Powder from "The Confucian Way of Caring for Parents")

⑦ Treat tetanus evil on the surface, chills and fever, stiffness and tightness of mouth, clenching of teeth: 2 centipedes, 3 qian of river maw, 2.5 qian each of Arisaema and Saposhnikovia divaricata. Grind them into fine powder, take 2 qian of it each time, mix with yellow wine, take twice a day. (Centipede Star Wind Powder from "Medical Golden Mirror")

⑧Treat scrofula and ulcers: tea, centipede. Roast the two ingredients until fragrant and cooked, pound and sieve into powder, wash with licorice soup first, and apply it. (Shenzhen Fang)

⑨Treatment of erysipelas: one centipede (dried), alum (as big as a soap seed), one thunder ball, and two cents of Baibu. Scale and add the same to the powder. Mix with vinegar and apply it. (《Compendium of Materia Medica》)

⑩ To treat the initial stage of snake head carbuncle with redness, swelling, fever and excruciating pain: one large centipede, seven whole scorpions and three qian of realgar. Together for the end. Apply egg white to the affected area and cover it with pig gallbladder skin. (Centipede powder from "The Complete Guide to Ulcer Medicine")

Further reading: Notes

This product is toxic and should not be used in excessive amounts. It is forbidden for people with blood deficiency and wind-generating disease and pregnant women to take it.

① "Bencao Yanyi": Fear of slugs.

② "Compendium of Materia Medica": Afraid of spiders, chicken droppings, mulberry bark, and white salt.

③ "Bencao Jingshu": Children with slow convulsions and lockjaw, adults with febrile malaria not caused by smoke and miasma, accumulation in the heart and abdomen not caused by worms or snakes, and toxic stools or pus that are about to burst are all to be avoided.