Does dandelion damage the kidneys?

In daily life, we often see dandelions on the grass in the park. As we all know, dandelions are not only edible, but also a kind of Chinese medicinal material. Dandelion is used in many traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions. However, not everyone can eat dandelions. For some weak patients, dandelions are not a medicinal herb. So, do you know that dandelions are harmful to the kidneys?

Dandelion is also known as yellow flowered dandelion, dandelion, and Chinese flower dandelion. A perennial herb of the Asteraceae family. The inflorescence is capitulate, and the seeds have a ball of white pappus. After the flowers bloom, they are blown by the wind to new places to give birth to new life.

Nutrition

Raw dandelions are rich in vitamin A, vitamin C and potassium, and also contain iron, calcium, vitamin B2, vitamin B1, magnesium, vitamin B6, folic acid and copper. The specific element content is mainly water. Every 60 grams of raw dandelion leaves contains 86% water, 1.6 grams of protein, 5.3 grams of carbohydrates, and about 108.8 kilojoules of calories.

The dandelion plant contains a variety of healthy nutrients such as taraxacin, taraxacin, cholecalciferol, organic acids, inulin, etc. Sweet, slightly bitter and cold in nature. It enters the liver and stomach meridians. It has diuretic, laxative, jaundice-relieving and choleretic effects. It is used to treat heat toxins, carbuncles, sores, internal abscesses, red and swollen painful eyes, damp heat, jaundice, dribbling and painful urination, carbuncle swelling and toxins, breast abscess, scrofula, toothache, red eyes, sore throat, lung abscess, intestinal abscess, damp heat jaundice, and hot and painful urination. Treat acute mastitis, lymphadenitis, scrofula, carbuncle, acute conjunctivitis, cold and fever, acute tonsillitis, acute bronchitis, gastritis, hepatitis, cholecystitis, urinary tract infection, etc. Dandelion can be eaten raw, fried, or made into soup. It is a plant that can be used as both medicine and food.

Contraindications: Do not use if you have yang deficiency, external cold, or weak spleen and stomach.

Overdose: Gastrointestinal reactions such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal discomfort and mild diarrhea may occasionally occur after taking the decoction at the usual dosage. After oral administration of a large dose (30 g/kg) of the decoction for 3 days, mild swelling of the hepatocytes and renal tubular epithelial cells and narrowing of the renal tubules were observed in the experimental rabbits, but no other obvious changes were observed. In subacute toxicity tests on mice and rabbits, a small amount of casts may appear in the urine and the renal tubular epithelial cells may be turbid and swollen.

Allergic reactions: After taking dandelion decoction or dandelion wine infusion, some people may experience allergic reactions such as urticaria and itching all over the body. After intravenous infusion of dandelion injection, chills, pale complexion, cyanosis or mental symptoms may occasionally occur.

The medicine is not suitable for the disease: it mainly fails to distinguish between cold and heat, and abuses dandelion to treat various infections without differentiation of symptoms. Most of the infections seen clinically are heat syndromes, and the use of dandelion generally does not cause adverse reactions. However, a small number of infections are yin-cold syndromes with no fever symptoms, a long course of illness, and weak patient constitutions. The author has often seen people use large doses of dandelion to treat Yin-cold syndrome, and as a result, the patients experienced loss of appetite, fatigue, sweating, and pale complexion. The infection showed no signs of improvement. Abusing dandelion's heat-clearing and detoxifying effects simply by viewing them as antibacterial and anti-inflammatory will produce adverse reactions.