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| Latin: |
Zanthoxylum simulans |
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| Origin: |
The fruit and seed of the plant Zanthoxylum simulans Hance. (Szechuan pepper), Zanthoxylum americanum Mill. (American prickly ash), Zanthoxylum alatum Roxb. (Asian prickly ash), or Zanthoxylum planispinum Siebold. & Zucc. (winged prickly ash), of the Rutaceae family. Native to Eastern North America for American prickly ash, and China for Asian prickly ash, it is also grown in Mexico, Japan, Korea, India, Nepal, Pakistan, etc.
Prickly ash is a shrub or small tree that grows to about 4 m by 4 m, often forming thickets by reproducing from root sprouts. Leaf stems are often prickly and paired spines often occur at the base of the leaflets. It is in flower from May to June, and the seeds ripen from September to October. The scented flowers are dioecious (individual flowers are either male or female, but only one sex is to be found on any one plant so both male and female plants must be grown if seed is required). The fruit is a red follicle about the size of a small pea, which quickly numbs the mouth if chewed; hence the name "toothache tree." The fruit is rather small, about 4-5 mm in diameter, but is produced in dense clusters which makes harvesting easy. Each fruit contains a single seed, which is used as a condiment.
Prickly ash is a fast-growing tree, found both on dry, rocky upland hillsides and on wet, low-lying ground, in clearings, open woods or in thickets. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade.
The tree is also called Toothache Tree.
See also Food, Flavorings, Pepper and Vegetables, Chili Pepper; and Herbs, Herbs for Warming the Interior, Pepper. |
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| Properties: |
| Pungent in flavor, warm in nature, it is related to the kidney, spleen and lung channels. |
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| Functions: |
| Warms the stomach and the spleen, disperses cold, removes dampness, relieves pain, destroys worms, counteracts poisoning by fish, crab, etc. |
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| Applications: |
Prickly ash is used for glaucoma (eye diseases with defects in vision), corneal opacity (clouding that can occur in the cornea), blurred vision, constipation, difficult urination, ascaris (worms in intestines), toothache, cold stomach ache and nausea.
1. For ascaris (a genus of nematode worms, including the species of roundworm) in bile duct:
Boil 3 g prickly ash in 60 ml vinegar for 10 minutes and drink.
2. For toothache:
Keep the above-mentioned decoction in mouth for several minutes.
3. For cold stomach ache and nausea;
Boil 2 g prickly ash and 6 g old ginger in water. Add some brown sugar and then administer. |
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| Dosage and Administration: |
| The seed is used as a condiment, for seasoning, or boil in soup. A pepper substitute. |
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| Modern Researches: |
Prickly ash contains essential oil (volatile oil), mainly composed of limonene, cumic alcohol and geraniol; steriod and unsaturated organic acid.
For self protection, the outer skin (bark) of many plants contains essential oil, which in turn has elements that serve as an immediate chemical defense against herbivores and pathogens. How? There is an element called hydroxynitrile glucoside in essential oil. This element will release toxic hydrogen cyanide by endogenous plant glucosidase upon tissue disruption (see Anne Vinther Morant, Kirsten Jorgensen, Charlotte Jorgensen, Suzanne Michelle Paquette, Raquel Sanchez-Perez, Birger Lindberg Moller, and Soren Bak, "beta-Glucosidases as Detonators of Plant Chemical Defense," Phytochemistry Vol. 69, Issue 9 (June 2008), pp. 1,795-1,813).
Glucosidase is a catalyzing enzyme that improves healthy functions of our body. It is a lipase that decomposes fat; it can also check inflammation and improve memory (see Mikako Sakurai, Masayuki Sekiguchi, Ko Zushida, Kazuyuki Yamada, Satoshi Nagamine, Tomohiro Kabuta and Keiji Wada, "Reduction in memory in passive avoidance learning, exploratory behaviour and synaptic plasticity in mice with a spontaneous deletion in the ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1 gene," European Journal of Neuroscience Vol. 27, Issue 3 (February 2008), pp. 691-701).
As reported in Eating Your Way to Health, 246 cases of acute abdomen, including peptic ulcer (an ulcer in the wall of the stomach) and intestinal spasm were injected intramuscularly or at acupoints with 2 ml of 50 percent solution made of peel of prickly ash. Of these, 240 cases were effective.
The active ingredients from prickly ash yield some analgesic (alleviate pain) or anesthetic (cause unconsciousness) action. For instance, diluted alcoholic solution of prickly ash reveals local surface anesthesis of cornea in rabbit. It also showed infiltrative analgesic action in guinea pig.
Prickly ash is a warming, stimulating herb that is beneficial for the circulation. It was highly regarded by the native North American Indians who used it especially to alleviate rheumatism and toothache. All parts of the plant, but especially the bark and roots, contain the aromatic bitter oil xanthoxylin. This has a number of applications in medicine, especially in the treatment of arthritic and rheumatic conditions, digestive problems and leg ulcers. The fruit has a similar medicinal action to the bark.
The bark and roots are irritant, odontalgic (relating to or marked by toothache) and antirheumatic. Along with the fruit they are diaphoretic (promotes perspiration), stimulant and a useful tonic in debilitated conditions of the stomach and digestive organs. They produce arterial excitement and are of use in the treatment of fevers, ague (an acute fever, or an intermittent fever, attended by alternate cold and hot fits), poor circulation, etc.
The fruits are considered more active than the bark, they are also antispasmodic, carminative (relieves flatulence), diuretic and antirheumatic.
The pulverized root and bark are used to ease the pain of toothache. One report says that it is very efficacious, but the sensation of the acrid bark is fully as unpleasant as the toothache. Chewing the bark induces copious salivation. Rubbing the fruit against the skin, especially on the lips or in the mouth, produces a numbing effect.
A tea or tincture of the bark has been used in the treatment of rheumatism, dyspepsia (indigestion), dysentery, heart, kidney troubles, etc.
A tea made from the inner bark has been used to treat itchy skin.
The fruits have been used by young men as a perfume. |
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