Pictures of wild yam

Fuling is the name of a Chinese herbal medicine. It is the dry underground stem of the Liliaceae plant Smilax glabra. It is a perennial evergreen climbing shrub that grows mostly on hillsides or under forests. As medicine, only the dried underground stems are selected. It is usually harvested in summer and autumn, the roots are removed, and then washed and dried as medicine; or it can be cut into slices while fresh and then dried and used as medicine. Sweet, light taste, warm nature.

It has the functions of removing toxins, removing dampness, and unblocking bones and joints. It is mainly used for body cramps and bone and tendon pain caused by syphilis and mercury poisoning; cold and damp stranguria, clear phlegm, carbuncle, scrofula, and scabies.

1. Treat female urine diseases such as blood heat headache, sore throat, and menstrual drip: Poria is combined with honeysuckle tea, Terminalia chebula, Gardenia jasminoides, Toosendan fruit, Scutellaria baicalensis, and Dianthus superbus. (Seven-flavored Tufuling Decoction in "Chinese Medical Encyclopedia·Mongolian Medicine")

2. Treatment of syphilis and gonorrhea: Poria is combined with honeysuckle tea, lithospermum officinale, madder, loquat leaves, Aconitum carmichaelii (processed), Terminalia chebula, Gardenia jasminoides, Rhizoma Aucklandiae, Ramulus flax, rose, Dianthus superbus, and Rhizoma Aucklandiae. (Chinese Medical Encyclopedia·Mongolian Medicine, Fourteen-Ingredient Tufuling Decoction)

Chinese medicine preparation method

If not cut into slices, soak, wash, moisten thoroughly, slice and dry. This product is in the shape of long rings or irregular flakes with uneven edges. The cross section is milky white to light reddish-dark brown, powdery, with spotted conducting tissue and most of the small flashes visible; it feels slimy when wet with water. It has a faint smell and tastes slightly sweet and astringent.

Physiological characteristics

A climbing shrub with a tuberous underground rhizome that is significantly contracted and contains most of the roots. The stem is smooth. Simple leaves are symbiotic; whorled, lanceolate to elliptic-acicular, 6-500px long, 1.2-125px wide, gradually pointed at the apex, annular at the tip, entire margin, often covered with glaucoma below, with 3-5 basal veins; leaf stems are 1-51080x long, slightly wing-shaped, with a progressive petiole near the tip, and the petiole apex often becomes 2 tendrils. Flowers unisexual, dioecious; umbels axillary, pedunculate very short; pedicels slender, with mostly persistent triangular bracteoles at the tip; leaf flowers, milky white, 4 mm in diameter; perianth lobes 6, 2 whorls; male flowers have 6 pistils, filaments shorter than anthers, and reduced pistils absent; female flowers have linear atrophic pistils, ovary superior, 3-chambered, column 3-branched, slightly recurved. The fruit is spherical, 6 to 8 mm in diameter, and purple-black when ripe. The flowering period is July to August, and the fruiting period is September to October. It grows and develops on hillsides, wastelands and semi-shaded areas near forests.