Medicinal Benefits of Tiger Thorn Tree

Tiger thorn root is the root of the mulberry plant Cudrania tricuspidata, which belongs to the Moraceae family. It has certain medicinal value, for example, it can eliminate rheumatism, relax muscles and activate blood circulation, and has the effect of cooling and stopping bleeding. This Chinese medicinal ingredient is recorded in many ancient Chinese books and can be said to be a Chinese herbal medicine with a relatively long history. It has certain therapeutic effects on chronic gastritis, contusions, and bleeding caused by internal and external injuries.

Medicinal Benefits of Tiger Thorn Tree

Nature and flavor: bitter, flat. Efficacy: Used for internal and external bleeding, chronic gastritis, traumatic injuries, and rheumatic pain.

Tiger thorn root comes from "Compendium of Materia Medica", "Illustrated Record of Plant Names and Realities": "Barberry was first recorded in "Kaibao Materia Medica". Li Shizhen merged it with tiger thorn. Today, tiger thorn grows under trees in the mountains, with leaves like boxwood, layered like plates. It blooms small white flowers and bears red fruits, which do not wither in winter. I wonder if it is this tree?" "Embroidery needles are found in Jiangxi and Hunan.

"The tree has a thin stem, with branches growing opposite to each other. The leaves are also attached to the branches and grow opposite to each other, similar to the pomegranate flowers and leaves, but smaller, dark green, with a light green back, smooth and tender, with only a straight line in the middle. The leaves near the stem are as small as fingernails, and the leaves at the end of the branches are also small. There are no leaves about an inch away from the tip, and they are as thin as needles. They are soft in spring and summer, but hard in autumn when they are old."

In addition, plants of the same genus, such as the large-leafed tiger thorn and the large-shaped tiger thorn, are used as medicine just like the tiger thorn. The main characteristics of large-leaf tiger thorn are that the roots are enlarged and mostly bead-shaped, the leaves are ovate-elliptical or oblong, 3 to 9 cm long, soft in texture, and the thorns are only about 3 mm long; the roots of large tiger thorn are cylindrical, and some are bead-shaped, with broad ovate leaves, 2 to 3 cm long, and the thorns are 2 to 8 mm long.

Morphological characteristics

Climbing woody vines with curved spines. Leaves are alternate, broadly elliptic, and membranous when young. The leaves are dark green on the upper side and light green on the lower side, with sparse fine hairs along the veins; the veins on the lower side are significantly raised, and the stipules fall off early. Dioecious; capitula axillary; male flowers have 4 tepals, female inflorescence spherical, with 4 tepals, arranged in a shingle-like manner. The aggregate fruit is nearly spherical, 2 cm in diameter, and the fertile drupe is pea-shaped, 5-6 mm in diameter, surrounded by persistent fleshy tepals.

Distribution

Distributed in Mengla, Jinghong, Xichou, Malipo and other counties. It grows in dense forests, low mountain valleys, and forest edge thickets at an altitude of 1100-1700m.