Juemingzi – 決明子 – Sickle Senna Seed

Description

Juemingzi – 決明子 – Sickle Senna Seed
Chinese Name: 決明子
Chinese Pinyin: Juemingzi
English Name: Sickle Senna Seed, Oriental Senna
– Latin Pharmaceutical Name: Cassia tora L, Cassiae Semen
– Parts of plants that have useful value: Fruits and seeds
– Origin: The dried mature seed of Cassia obtusifolia L., or Cassia tora L.(Fabaceae).
– Family & Genus: Fabaceae, Cassia

• • Description: Annual subshrub-like herbs, 0.5-2m tall, erect, stout. Leaves alternate, pinnate compound leaves, 4-8cm long; petioles without glands; with 1 stick-shaped gland between each pair of leaflets on leaf axis; leaflets 3 pairs, membranous, obovate long elliptic or obovate, 2-6cm long, 1.5-2.5cm wide, top blunt and with small tips, base gradually narrow, skewed; upper part sparsely pubescent, lower part pubescent; small petioles 1.5-2mm long; stipules linear, with soft hairs, caducous. Flowers axillary, usually one pair clustered in leaf axils; total peduncles 6-10mm long; pedicels l-1.5cm long, filamentous; sepals 5, slightly ranging in size, oval or oval-oblong, membranous, pubescent outside, about 8mm long; petals 5, yellow, lower two pieces slightly longer, 12-15mm long, 5-7mm wide; stamens 10, fertile stamens 7, anthers square, top hole cracked, about 4mm long, filaments shorter than anthers; ovary with white soft hairs, sessile, linear. Pods thin and long, two ends acuminate, up to 15cm long, 3-6mm wide, sparsely pubescent, membranous; seeds numerous, rhombic, bright, grey green. Flowering: June to August; fruiting: September to October.
  • Macroscopic Features: Slightly square or short cylindrical shape, two ends are parallel, slightly slanted, 3~7mm long, 2~4mm wide, greenish-brown or dark brown, smooth and lustrous, one crest line on each side, and one pale yellow concave line on the two sides of crest; hard texture, not easily broken. Cut surface presents with a seed coat and 2 yellow cotyledons in “3” shaped fold. faint odor; slightly bitter taste.
  • Distribution: Growing on roadsides, open fields or hillsides. Distributed in East, South-central and Southwest China, Shanxi, Hebei, Jilin and Liaoning. Cultivated or wild. The medicinal materials are mainly produced in Guangxi, Yunnan, Anhui, Jiangsu and Sichuan.
  • Harvest & Processing: Harvested when fruits get ripe and pods turn tawny, cut the whole plant and sun-dried, knocked off the seeds and removed impurities.
  • Part Used Medical part: Mature seeds. Chinese name: Juemingzi.
    Chemistry: Seeds contain anthraquinone compounds: mainly emodin, dianthrone, physcion and chrysophanol, aloe-emodin, obtusifolin, obtusen, chryso-obtusin, aurantio-obtusin、and their glycosides and sulfoacid, cassiaside. And also mucus, protein, sitosterol, amino acid and fatty oil, etc.
  • Pharmacology: Blood-fat and blood-pressure lowering, hepatic- and gallbladder-protective, and anti-bacterial.
  • Properties & Actions: Sweet, bitter, salty, slightly cold. Clearing hear for improving eyesight, moistening the intestines and freeing the stool.
    Quality Requirements Superior medicinal material has full seed and green color.
  • Functions: Clears heat, brightens eyes, moistens intestines, frees stools. Apply to swelling pain induced by conjunctival congestion, intolerance of light and hyperdacryosis, headache and dizziness, lightheadedness, constipation. Belongs to liver, kidney and large intestine channels. It has effect of lose weight. Apply to conjunctival congestion with wind and heat, optic atrophy, night blindness, hypertension, hepatitis, abdominal dropsy due to cirrhosis, habitual constipation.
  • Usage: External application against pyogenic infections, ringworm. Oral administration: decocting, 9-15g, or powdered; or made as drinking tea. External application: appropriate amount, triturated for application. Use with caution in cases of deficiency and cold in spleen and stomach and loose stool.
  • Examples
    1. Colpitis mycotica: an appropriate amount of sickle senna. Decoct in water, fumigate and wash vulva and vagina.
    2. Habitual constipation: sickle senna 18g, dwarf flowering cherry seed 18g. Infuse with boiling water and drink as tea.
    3. Stomatitis: sickle senna 60g. Decoct thickly and frequently gargle.

Juemingzi – 決明子 – Sickle Senna Seed
中文名稱: 決明子
漢語拼音: Juemingzi
英文名稱: Sickle Senna, Oriental Senna
– 拉丁學名: Cassia tora L. ; Cassiae Semen
– 科屬歸類: 豆科 Fabaceae， 決明屬 Cassia
– 類別: 果實及種子類
– 來源: 豆科植物決明Cassia obtusifolia L.或小决明Cassia tora L.的乾燥成熟種子。

• • 植物形態: 一年生亞灌木狀草本，高0.5-2米，直立，粗壯。葉互生，羽狀複葉，長4-8厘米；葉柄上無腺體；葉軸上每對小葉間1枚有棒狀的腺體；小葉3對，膜質，倒卵狀長橢圓形或倒卵形，長2-6厘米，寬1.5-2.5厘米，頂端圓鈍而有小尖頭，基部漸狹，偏斜；上面被稀疏柔毛，下面被柔毛；小葉柄長1.5-2毫米；托葉線形，被柔毛，早落。花腋生，通常一對聚生於葉腋；總花梗長6-10毫米；花梗長l-1.5厘米，絲狀；萼片5，稍不等大，卵形或卵狀長圓形，膜質，外面被柔毛，長約8毫米；花瓣5，黃色，下麵二片略長，長12-15毫米，寬5-7毫米；雄蕊10，能育雄蕊7枚，花藥四方形，頂孔開裂，長約4毫米，花絲短於花藥；子房被白色細柔毛，無柄，線形。莢果纖細而長，兩端漸尖，長達15厘米，寬3-6毫米，被疏柔毛，膜質；種子多數，菱形，光亮，灰綠色。花期6-8，果期9-10月。
  • 性狀: 該品略呈四方形或短圓柱形，兩端近平行，稍傾斜，長3~7mm，寬2~4mm，綠棕色或暗棕色，平滑有光澤，背腹面各有1條突起的棱線，棱線兩側各有1條淡黃色的線形凹紋；質堅硬，不易破碎。橫切面可見薄的種皮和2片3形折曲的黃色子葉。氣微，味微苦。
  • 生境分佈: 生於河邊，曠野，山坡。 分佈於華東，中南，西南，山西，河北，吉林，遼寧。栽培或野生。 藥材主產於 廣西 安徽, 江蘇, 四川 雲南等地。
    採收加工: 末果實成熟，莢果變黃褐色時採收，把全株割下曬乾，打下種子，去淨雜質即可。
  • 藥用部位: 以成熟種子入藥。中藥名: 決明子。
  • 主要成分: 種子含蒽醌類化合物，主為大黃素、大黃素甲醚、大黃酚、蘆薈大黃素，以及鈍葉素(obtusifolin)、決明素(obtusen)、黃決明素(chryso-obtusin)、橙黃決明素(aurantio-obtusin)、及它們的苷類和黃酸等，尚含決明苷(cassiaside)。此外，含粘液、蛋白質、穀甾醇、氨基酸及脂肪油等。
  • 藥理作用: 降血脂、降血壓、保護肝臟、抗菌等作用。
  • 性味功能: 甘，苦、鹹，微溫。清熱明目，潤腸通便。
  • 品質: 以顆粒飽滿、色綠棕者為佳。
  • 功效: 清熱明目，潤腸通便。用於目赤澀痛，羞明多淚，頭痛眩暈，目暗不明，大便秘結。歸肝、腎、大腸經。有減肥之功效。治風熱赤眼，青盲，雀目，頭痛頭暈，視物昏暗，高血壓，肝炎，肝硬化腹水，習慣性便秘。
  • 用法: 外治腫毒，癬疾。內服: 煎湯，用量9-15克；或研末；或泡茶飲。
  • 外用: 適量，研末調塗。脾胃虛寒及便溏者慎服。
  • 應用舉例
    1. 真菌性陰道炎︰決明子適量。水煎薰洗外陰及陰道。(浙江藥用植物誌)
    2. 習慣性便秘︰決明子18克，郁李仁18克。沸水沖泡代茶。(安徽中草藥)
    3. 口腔炎︰決明子60克。濃煎頻頻含漱。(安徽中草藥)