What does plantain look like?

Plantain is a kind of Chinese herbal medicine. It can help with urination and reduce inflammation. It has high efficacy and function. Of course, it can also be eaten as a common vegetable and fruit. Many people like it very much. You can soak plantain in water and drink it. It has many functions and effects. What does plantain look like?

1. What are the shape characteristics of plantain?

Annual or biennial herb. Taproot long, with most of the main root, somewhat fleshy. The underground stem is short. The leaves are basal and rosette-shaped, lying, obliquely spreading or standing; the leaves are papery, elliptical, oblate-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 3-12cm long, 1-3.5cm wide, with acute or slightly obtuse apex, margins with shallow wavy blunt teeth, irregular serrations or teeth, the tip is broadly wedge-shaped to narrowly wedge-shaped, extending down to the leaf stem, with 5-7 veins, slightly concave on the upper side, and significantly raised on the reverse side, with sparse milky white short soft hairs on both sides; the leaf stem is 2-6cm long, and the tip is expanded into a sheath.

There are 3-10 or more capitulum inflorescences; the capitulum peduncle is 5-18cm long, with longitudinal patterns, sparsely covered with short, soft milky white hairs; the raceme is slender cylindrical, gathered at the top, often interrupted at the tip, 6-12cm long; the bracts are triangular-ovate, 2-3.5mm long, concave, hairless, with thick keels, wider than the two side pieces, not extending to or extending to the top. The calyx is 2-2.5 mm long, glabrous, with a thick keel that does not extend to the top. The anterior pair of calyxes is narrowly obovate-elliptic to broadly elliptic, while the posterior pair of calyxes is obovate-elliptic to broadly elliptic. Corolla is milky white, hairless, with a crown tube as long as or slightly longer than the calyx, and the lobes are very small, oval or ovate, 0.5-1mm long, and folded after flowering. The pistil is attached inside the crown tube near the top, and the style protrudes significantly outward. The anther is ovate-elliptical or broadly elliptical, 0.6-1.1mm long, with a wide triangular protrusion on the top. It is milky white or greenish milky white when fresh, and turns light brown when dry. Ovule 5.

Siliques are ovate-elliptical to conical-ovate, 4-5 mm long, and split around the tip. There are 4-5 seeds, which are oval in shape, flat on the ventral surface, 1.2-1.8 mm long, and brown to gray-black in color. The young leaves are arranged dorsally and ventrally. The flowering period is from May to July, and the fruiting period is from July to September.

2. What is the medicinal value of plantain

1. Effect on the urinary and reproductive system: Plantain has a certain diuretic effect, which can increase the water excretion of dogs, rabbits and humans, and enhance the excretion of urea, uric acid and sodium ions. Oral administration of 10 g of salt plantain decoction has a diuretic effect in ordinary people, but the total volume of the decoction and the daily water intake are not recorded, lacking strict comparison. Ordinary people and rabbits taking plantain seed decoction have no significant diuretic effect. Plantago seeds also have no effect in promoting urination.

2. Antitussive, antiasthmatic and expectorant effects.

3. Antimicrobial effect: Plantain extract has different degrees of inhibitory effect on Trichophyton, Microspore Ringworm, and Nocardia stellate in vitro fertilization. The tablet hole method confirmed that Staphylococcus aureus was highly sensitive to plantain, Shigella dysenteriae was slightly to moderately sensitive, and Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Salmonella typhi were slightly sensitive.

4. Effects on the stomach and gastrointestinal tract: Giving 0.5g/kg of plantain water extract or infusion to dogs with Pavlov's small stomach and gastric fistula has a double buffering effect on gastric acid metabolism; it has an anti-excessive gastric acid metabolism caused by pilocarpine and an insufficient gastric acid metabolism caused by adrenal hormones.

5. Anti-infection effect.

In addition, plantain also has antidepressant effects. In addition, it can also remove oxygen free radicals. Seeing that plantain has so many functions, will you not ignore it in the future? So if in your future daily life, you can pick some plantain, and then go home to boil some plantain water, you can give it to your family to drink. Plantain water may be a little sweet, so you can add a little white sugar to it. Plantain has certain health-care effects on the elderly and children. Seeing the above functions of plantain, you can purposefully solve the problems of some people with related diseases.