https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/A4PeQB2Vq1CW8xtc-5KQOA
Everyone is welcome to share their experiences with the medicine in the replies, to facilitate others’ search and learning.
Dendrobium Huangcao
- Dendrobium Huangcao
Dendrobium Huangcao is actually quite inferior, but it’s still necessary to give it a try, because in hospitals when they prescribe “Dendrobium,” it is most likely this Huangcao variety.
It tastes rather sour, slightly sticky; chewing it shows a noticeable stickiness, but the chewed material can cause some throat irritation.
After drinking, the lungs feel a bit moistened, with a slight feeling of fullness.
Dendrobium Candidum (Tiepi Shihu)
- Dendrobium Candidum
When cooked in a health pot, you can see it slowly unfold from its compressed state into a whole stem, somewhat like a Pharaoh’s snake. Dendrobium Candidum used to be very expensive, and it is still not cheap in many pharmacies. I feel that the main hype is about its manufacturing process — the long stem is tightly rolled into a small bundle. But in terms of effect, it is far inferior to the fresh Dendrobium we initially tried — no matter how expensive the variety is, once dried, it loses its essence.
Brewing it in water yields a higher extraction rate than brewing fresh products directly; basically, it tastes like freshly squeezed juice of the fresh version, but much lighter, with a very slight viscosity, though it can’t be compared to fresh juice. Chewing on the soaked Dendrobium strips still releases some gel-like substance, and the flavor is quite authentic, like the arrival of an old friend.
Effect: refer to fresh Dendrobium.
Eclipta Prostrata (Mo Han Lian)
- Eclipta Prostrata
A very familiar taste, but I can’t immediately recall what it resembles; I’ll say once I remember.
After drinking, the body slowly cools down, from head to upper back, then gradually down to the waist, abdomen, legs, and feet—the whole process completes within 3 minutes, quite remarkable.
Eclipta Prostrata has a moisturizing effect for dryness but not outstanding; it has no liver or kidney tonic functions. It mainly helps replenish yin essence and yin fluids by reducing losses. It acts like chlorpromazine in traditional Chinese medicine, helping the body enter a low-metabolism hibernation-like state. During this process, unnecessary consumption such as inflammatory responses decreases, allowing the body’s energy to be used more for self-repair — very effective for insomnia in middle-aged and elderly women.
Though effective, illness is the root cause, and method is the standard; if the principle is clear, it stabilizes the lower body; if unclear, the twelve officials suffer danger. Drinking Eclipta Prostrata causes drowsiness, so when sleepy, one must go to sleep. If not, and one keeps busy on various things, even immortals can’t save you.
Effect: moistens dryness, reduces metabolism, cools blood, stops bleeding.
Side effects: causes blood vessel constriction; people with weak qi and blood may experience pain in weak spots, such as headaches, stomach pain, or testicular pain.