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| Latin: |
Fructus Tsaoko |
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| Origin: |
Caoguo is the ripe fruit of the perennial plant Amomum Tsaoko Crevost et Lemaire, of the Zingiberaceae, or ginger family.
The majority species of the Zingiberaceae family are shade plants of the rain forest of evergreen tropical regions, although some grow mainly on forest margins, in clearings, or on riverbanks. Within a single genus (e.g., Musa, Costus) some species may grow only in shade while others grow in more open places.
All members of the family Zingiberaceae have brightly coloured flowers and slender flower tubes full of nectar. They are probably mostly pollinated by butterflies. Flowers are, in all cases, short-lived, often lasting only a few hours.
In almost all members of the order, the long leaf sheaths overlap, so that the true stem bearing them is not exposed. The stem is slender and lacks firm tissues, the leaf sheaths (the inner ones of which are very long) providing the necessary rigidity. As a consequence, the only fully exposed stems occur where the flowering stalk projects above the false stem of leaf sheaths.
In some species of Amomum, moisture may be provided by the rotting of main bracts so that fruits develop in a mass of black putrescence maintained in a wet state by frequent rains.
In China, A. Tsaoko is mainly produced in Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou, etc. Harvested in autumn when the fruit ripens, the plant is removed of impurities, then the fruit is dried in the sun or in low heat. The original herb is fried until brown and slightly bulging, pounded and taken the kernels out or fried the shelled caoguo with ginger juice for a while. |
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| Properties: |
| Pungent in flavor, warm in nature, it is related to the spleen and stomach channels. |
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| Functions: |
| Removes dampness, dispels cold, eliminates phlegm and prevents malaria. |
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| Applications: |
1. To treat abdominal distention and pain, vomiting and diarrhea with turbid and greasy tongue coating due to obstruction of the spleen and stomach by cold and dampness:
Caoguo is often used in combination with amomum, official magnolia bark, Chinese atractylodes rhizome (Rhizoma Atractylodis), etc.
2. To treat malaria:
a) Malaria due to excessive cold and dampness:
Caoguo is mostly used in combination with dichroa root, windweed rhizome (Rhizoma Anemarrhenae), etc., e.g., Changshan Yin.
b) Malignant malaria caused by mountainous pestilential pathogens or filthy and turbid pathogenic dampness:
Caoguo is often used together with such drugs as Chinese thorowax root (Radix Bupleuri), skullcap root (Radix Scutellariae), betel nuts, windweed rhizome (Rhizoma Anemarrhenae), etc. |
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| Dosage and Administration: |
3-6 g.
Decoct caoguo for oral administration. Remove the shell, take the kernel out and pound it for use. |
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| Cautions on Use: |
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| Reference Materials: |
Principles of Correct Diet : "To treat pain in the chest and abdomen by arresting vomiting, nourishing the stomach and sending down abnormally rising qi."
The Compendium of Materia Medica : "Caoguo (Fructus Tsaoko) and windweed rhizome (Rhizoma Anemarrhenae) are used together for the treatment of malignant malaria with chills and fever because one of them is targeted at yin (bodily fluid), as caoguo is used to treat excessive cold in the taiyin channel, while the other is targeted at yang, as windweed rhizome is used to treat excessive fire in the yangming channel."
'The Compendium of Materia Medica' :
"Warming spleen-yang, arresting vomiting, treating cold-damp syndromes and cold phlegm in the spleen and stomach, replenishing genuine qi, removing all expanding sensations due to cold, eliminating malaria with splenomegaly, removing undigested food, relieving alcoholism and the accumulation of fruit and eliminating pestilential pathogens." |
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| Toxic or Side Effects: |
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| Modern Researches: |
The caoguo kernel contains an essential oil (volatile oil).
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). |
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