What are the main components of wood ash?

Wood ash is the residual material remaining after the complete combustion of plants. The charcoal content is very high and wood ash is not easily soluble in water. Basically, every household in rural areas produces a large amount of wood ash every day. People also use wood ash for other purposes. What are the main components of wood ash? Let’s take a look at the explanation of its effects.

The residue after burning plants (herbs and woody plants) is called wood ash. It is an insoluble substance. Wood ash fertilizer contains almost all the mineral elements contained in plants because wood ash is the ashes after burning plants.

The main component of wood ash is potassium carbonate (K?CO?), with a relative molecular mass of 138. Wood ash fertilizer contains almost all the mineral elements contained in plants because wood ash is the ashes after burning plants. The most abundant element among them is potassium, which generally contains 6-12%, of which more than 90% is water-soluble and exists in the form of carbonate; the second is phosphorus, which generally contains 1.5-3%; it also contains trace nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, silicon, sulfur, and iron, manganese, copper, zinc, boron, and molybdenum. The nutrient content of the ash from different plants is different, with sunflower straw having the highest potassium content.

Medical effects:

Efficacy: Dispel cold, reduce swelling, eliminate symptoms and break up accumulations.

Indications: Treats osteomalacia, carbuncle and flesh erosion.

Nature and flavor: Pungent, warm. ① "Ben Cao": "Tastes spicy, slightly warm." ② "Compendium of Materia Medica": "Spicy, slightly warm, poisonous." Enters the liver and kidney meridians.

① Treatment of osteomalacia: Take 3 jin of wood ash (ash from burnt weeds or branches), add 10 jin of water, stir thoroughly and soak for 24 hours, filter, take the clarified liquid, heat and concentrate it into 2 jin. Use 30-40 ml each time, 3 times a day, and can be taken continuously for 6 months. Or heat the wood ash extract and continue to concentrate it into crystals. Dry mulberry flowers or leaves, grind them into powder, mix them thoroughly in a 1:1 ratio, and make them into soybean-sized water pills. Take 30 pills each time, 3 times a day.

② Treatment of Keshan disease: 10 cases of chronic Keshan disease were treated with wood ash extract. After 3 months, most patients' subjective symptoms improved to varying degrees, but the improvement in physical signs and cardiac function was not obvious. The preparation of wood ash extract is the same as before. Dosage: 5 ml for children under 5 years old, 10 ml for children aged 6-10 years old, 15 ml for children aged 11-15 years old, 20 ml for children aged 16 years old and above, take 3 times a day; 5 ml for children under 9 years old, 10 ml for children aged 9-17 years old, 15 ml for children aged 17 years and above, take once in the morning and evening.