This product is the mature fruit of the white gourd (Benincasa hispida (Thunb.) Cogn.), a plant of the bottle gourd peel family.

White gourd

White gourd

bubble_chart Properties and Meridians

Sweet and bland, cool. Act on lung, small intestine and bladder meridians.

bubble_chart Efficacy

Clears heat and promotes diuresis, relieves summer heat, dissipates heat phlegm, and stops cough. Regular consumption by overweight individuals can aid in weight loss.

bubble_chart Indications

It treats edema, abdominal distension, difficulty in urination, diarrhea, and various types of strangury; it also treats lung heat cough with yellow, sticky phlegm.

bubble_chart Documentation

1. Mingyi Bielu: "White gourd, sweet in taste, slightly cold. Mainly eliminates minor ascites swelling, promotes urination, and quenches thirst."
2. Bencao Yanyi: "For back gangrene and all boils and sores, cut a large piece and place it on the sore. Replace it when it gets hot, as it effectively disperses heat toxins."
3. Bencao Yanyi Buyi: "Its nature is dispersive and urgent. Those with chronic illness and yin deficiency should avoid it. The 'Yanyi' takes it for dispersing heat toxins, utilizing its dispersive and urgent nature. Do not eat it in September; wait until it has been frosted. Otherwise, it may cause regurgitation. It also alleviates the five types of strangury."
4. Bencao Gangmu: "Mainly for donkey and horse sweat entering sores causing swelling and pain, dry in the shade and apply as powder. Also for fracture pain."
5. Bencao Jingshu: "White gourd internally receives the qi of yin earth, externally is affected by frost and dew, hence its sweet taste, slightly cold qi, and frigid nature, non-toxic. Water belongs to yin, and the gourd's nature also belongs to yin, thus it can promote urination and eliminate minor ascites swelling. Sweet and cold, it relieves stomach heat, hence it can also quench thirst. Hongjing: Stops consumptive thirst and restlessness, removes toxins. Meng Shen: 'Tonifies qi, resists aging, relieves chest fullness, and removes heat from the head and face.' Da Ming: 'Reduces heat toxin abscesses, slices rubbed on prickly heat. Su Li benefits the small intestine, suppresses mineral toxin.' All grasp its essence."
6. "Medicinal Property Explanation": "Sweet in taste, cold in nature, non-toxic, enters the spleen, stomach, and large and small intestine meridians. Mainly for chest restlessness causing thirst, water swelling below the navel causing strangury, promotes urination and defecation, greatly relieves heat toxins, can be applied to abscesses, also relieves mineral and fish toxins. Note: White gourd's sweet taste suits the spleen; its dispersive and urgent nature suits the large and small intestine. Restlessness and thirst symptoms are due to heat, its cold nature can relieve them. Danxi said: Those with chronic illness and yin deficiency should avoid it, eating it before frost may cause regurgitation."
7. Benjing Fengyuan: "Benefits the small intestine, suppresses mineral toxins. Its seeds treat intestinal abscesses, remove facial blemishes, moisturize skin, and can be used in facial creams, as in Benjing for beautifying and enhancing complexion. Gourd juice taken orally treats the five types of strangury, suppresses mineral toxins."
8. Bencao Qiuzhen: "Unblocks water and disperses edema, relieves heat. White gourd (specifically enters the intestines and stomach) though sweet and bland in taste, is very cold and diuretic. Thus, the described effects are mostly for reducing swelling and calming panting, 'Yang's Family Prescriptions' treats ten types of water qi swelling, using a large white gourd, cut open and filled with rice beans, sealed and dried, roasted in chaff until the fire dies, then sliced and dried with rice beans into powder, made into pills with flour and water paste the size of wu zi. Take seventy pills per dose, decocted with wax gourd seed soup, three times a day, until urination is promoted. Quenches thirst, and treats abscesses and heat toxins, sliced and applied, replaced when hot. Suppresses mineral toxins. However, only zang-fu organs with heat are most suitable. If cold deficiency and kidney cold, chronic efflux diarrhea, and weak water and qi in thin bodies, taking it may further leak water qi, risking reversal cold of limbs and slippery diarrhea with dry thirst."
9. Bencao Fenjing: "Sweet, cold. Drains heat, benefits the spleen, promotes urination and defecation, reduces edema, disperses heat toxins."

bubble_chart Cautions and Contraindications

Those with a weak constitution, cold body, weak stomach, and prone to diarrhea should use with caution.