This product, also known as Akebia Fruit or August Melon, is the fruit of the woody vine plant Akebia Stem (Akebia trifoliata subsp. australis) from the Akebia Stem family. It is produced in the southern provinces of mainland China. The fruit is harvested when ripe between August and September, then dried in the sun or soaked in boiling water before being dried.

bubble_chart Morphological Characteristics

The dried fleshy berry is ovate-cylindrical, slightly curved, 3-8 cm long, 2.5-3.5 cm in diameter, with a bluntly rounded apex and a fruit stalk scar at the base. The surface is light yellowish-brown to earthy brown, wrinkled, with coarse and sparse wrinkles in mature fruits, and fine and dense wrinkles in immature ones. The fruit skin is thick, leathery or slightly horny. The seeds are numerous, enclosed in a flocculent pulp, irregular in shape, round, oblong, or ovate, slightly flattened, with a reddish-brown or dark brown surface, glossy, and finely wrinkled. The flesh has a faint aroma and a slightly astringent and bland taste. The best quality fruits are plump and have wrinkled skin.

bubble_chart Properties and Meridians

Sweet, cold.

1. Meng Shen: "neutral."
2. "Food Materia Medica": "cold, nontoxic."
3. Sichuan Chinese Materia Medica: "warm neutral, bitter, astrigent and acrid, nontoxic."

bubble_chart Efficacy

Soothe the liver and regulate qi, dredge collaterals and relieve pain, eliminate irritability and promote diuresis.

bubble_chart Indications

Liver and stomach qi pain, stomach heat causing poor appetite, irritability and thirst, also white dysentery, lumbago, hypochondriac pain, hernia, uterine prolapse.

bubble_chart Documentation

1. Cui Yuxi's "Dietary Classic": "Eating it removes phlegm and stops red and white diarrhea."
2. Shiliao Bencao: "Thickens the intestines and stomach, makes people able to eat, lowers the triple energizer, eliminates malign qi, and is even better when eaten with seeds... unblocks the twelve Jingmai."
3. Rihuazi Bencao: "Treats abdominal mass and qi lumps."
4. Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Medicine: "Soothes the liver and regulates qi, dredges collaterals and relieves pain, eliminates irritability and promotes diuresis. Treats liver and stomach qi pain, stomach heat and loss of appetite, irritability and thirst, red and white dysentery, lumbago, rib pain, hernia, dysmenorrhea, and uterine prolapse."
5. Bencao Shiyi: "Promotes urination and defecation, unblocks and disperses, removes irritability and heat, eating it makes people feel relaxed, quenches thirst, and lowers qi."
6. "Dietary Materia Medica": "Mainly treats appetite heat block, regurgitation and inability to eat, and removes triple energizer guest heat."
7. Bencao Huiyan: "Boiling it in honey water and eating it treats heat dysentery with inability to eat."

bubble_chart Usage and Dosage

10-15 grams, decocted with water for oral administration.

bubble_chart Processing and Storage

Wash, soak briefly, steam until thoroughly moistened, slice and sun-dry, or wash and sun-dry, then crush when needed.

bubble_chart Modern Pharmacology

This product contains various sugar components. Animal experiments have shown that this product has inhibitory activity against mouse fleshy tumor 180 and fleshy tumor 37, with an inhibition rate of 50-70% against JTC26; the inhibition rate against mouse fleshy tumor 180 is 50-70%. Screening results using the Hela cell monolayer culture method indicate that this product has anti-Hela cell activity.

AD

TCM can effectively treat dry eye syndrome, floaters, retinopathy, and various chronic eye diseases

1. For treating subcutaneous lymph nodes: Akebia Fruit, Cherokee Rose Fruit, and Lygodium japonicum root, each four taels, Muskroot-Like Semiaquilegia Root eight taels. Decoct and take the decoction divided over three days. (From the "Chinese Herbal Medicine Handbook" by Su Medical)
2. For treating gastrointestinal bloating: Take one tael of the root or fruit of Three-leaf Akebia Stem, decoct with water and consume. ("Common Folk Herbal Remedies of Zhejiang")