The Chinese yam. Root tuberous, flat, more or less ramiform. Stem volubilate, angular. Leaves opposite, petiolate, rarely alternate, oval or oblong, entire, deeply cordate, auricles lightly oblique, 8 cm. by 5-6 cm., acuminate, with numerous glands, petiole 4-5 cm. long. Flowers dioecious, in axillary spikes, solitary or geminate; September-October; male flowers with perianth in 6 segments, stamens 6; female in 6 segments, ovary inferior, 3-celled. Capsule triquetrous, compressed, winged. China, Japan.
The tubers contain 16% starch, mucilage, amylase, albuminoid matter, fat, sugar, amino acids (arginine, leucine, and tyrosine), and glutamine.140 151
The tubers are employed as a nutrient tonic and digestant in chronic enteritis and diarrhea; also prescribed in nocturnal enuresis, spermatorrhea, neurasthenia. Dose, 10-30 gm.
(D. batatas Decne. is similarly employed.)
COIX LACRYMA-JOBI L. (Graminae)
Job's tears. An annual grass 1-2 m. high, the stem branching. Leaves 10-40 cm. long, 2-4 cm. wide, lanceolate-acuminate, margin coarse, auriculate, ligule very short. Spikelets monoecious, in panicles consisting of pedunculate spikes, partly concealed in the leafy sheaths; August. Male biflo-rous, numerous, at the end of the spike. Female uniflorous, solitary at the base of the spike, enclosed in a hard involucre, ovoid-conical, bluish white, glossy, 8 mm. long, narrowly open at the top. Glumes and glumelles nearly regular, stamens 3, stigmas terminal, rather short. Caryopsis hemispherical. Central and western China, India, tropical Africa, America. (Syn. C. agrestis Lour., C. chinensis Tod., C. lachryma L.)
The seeds are globular, split longitudinally, 5 mm. long, 4 mm. in diameter, white. They contain 52 % starch, 7 % fat, a sterol, vitamin B, and 17% protein including the amino acids leucine, tyrosine, lycine, glutamic acid, arginine, and histidine.68
An infusion of the seeds is considered nutritive, refrigerant, and diuretic; it is prescribed in bronchitis, pulmonary abscess, pleurisy, hydrothorax. Dose, 10-25 gm. An alcohol fermented from the seeds is considered antirheumatic.
IMPERATA CYLINDRICA Beauv. (Graminae)
A perennial grass, the stalk 30-90 cm. high, thick. Sheath rather loose, glabrous. Leaves linear, erect, 15-30 cm. long by 3-6 cm. wide, rigid, acuminate, surface scabrous, the underside smooth. Ligule short, ciliate. Panicle spiciform, 5-20 cm. long, slender, compact, silvery; June. Spikelets in pairs, each with two flowers of which only one is fertile, the other reduced to a glumelle, 3-4 mm. long, covered with very long, flexible hairs. Glumes longer than the flowers, dentate, glabrous; glumelles fringed at the top. Stamens 2. Southern China, India, Sri Lanka, Indochina, Japan, Africa, Oceania. (Syn. I. arundinaceae Cyrill., Lagurus cylindricus L.)
The root, flowers, and young sprouts are all used in the Chinese pharmacopoeia. "The root is white, very long, flexible like a tendon, provided with joints, and of a sweet taste."138 "The sprouts are edible and are good for children."142
The root is employed as antipyretic, diuretic, and hemostatic. Dose, 10-35 gm. The flowers are used in hemoptysis and epistaxis of pulmonary disease. Dose, 5-10 gm. The young shoots are diuretic. Dose, 5-10 gm.
ORYZA SATIVA L. (Graminae)
Common rice. An annual, water-inhabiting grass with a fibrous root. Stem erect, 50 cm.-1.5 m. high, smooth, angled, mostly hidden in the long leaf-sheaths. Leaves 15-30 cm. long, attaining 2 cm. in width, rough, with oblong ligule, entire or divided. Inflorescence paniculate, branches erect, reaching 25 cm. in length; June-September. Spikelets hermaphrodite, uniflorous, compressed laterally, villous, caducous, 7-9 mm. long; glumes very small, nearly regular, lanceolate, single-veined; glumelles large, very cartilaginous, nearly regular, carinate, the inferior often mucronate or aristate, 5-veined, the superior 3-veined; stamens 6; stigmas exserted laterally. Caryopsis yellowish white, oblong, compressed, narrowly enclosed in the glumelles. Cultivated in the Old and New World.
The germinated seeds contain 90% starch, the highest of all the cereals, and vitamins A, B, C, D, and E.151 Rice is taken freely as stomachic and tonic. The rootlets are also officinal, being astringent and anhidrotic. Dose, 10-20 gm.
PHRAGMITES COMMUNIS Trin. (Graminae)
Reed grass. A perennial marsh grass, 1-4 m. tall, glabrate, rhizomes creeping. Leaves 30-50 cm. long and 1-3 cm. wide, margin coarse, ligule consisting of a row of short regular hairs. Panicle terminal, 10-30 cm. long, compact, erect, purplish brown or reddish, often blackish. Spikelets 10-12 mm. long, flowers 2-7; glumes very irregular, entire, lanceolate-acute, glabrous, shorter than the flowers; stamens 1-3. Caryopsis oblong. Cosmopolitan. (Syn. Arundo phragmites L.)
The root is used medicinally. "The root is like that of the bamboo, but the joints are at a greater distance apart; that part of the root which is below the water, in the mud, is sweet and pungent; that which is in the water is not good for use."142 The root contains 51% glycosides, 5% protein, 0.1 % asparagin.151
Employed as stomachic, antiemetic, antipyretic; in acute arthritis, jaundice, pulmonary abscess, food poisoning. Dose, 20-40 gm.
PHYLLOSTACHYS (gen.) (Graminae)
Various of the bamboo-like grasses of the above genera are used medicinally by the Chinese, especially P. nigra Munro. var. henonis Mak. and P. bambusoide S. et Z. The roots are considered astringent, styptic, and antipyretic. The leaves are antipyretic and diuretic, decoctions being prescribed in stomatitis, pharyngitis, head and chest colds. The epidermis of the young stems is regarded as sedative and antiemetic. The extracted juice of the stem is used as sedative and antipyretic in catarrhal, bronchial, and cerebral infections. Young shoots of the bamboo were found to contain 0.23% benzoic acid.36 Siliceous concretions which occur inside the inferior internodes, and which are known as tabaschir, are also esteemed medicinally. They often attain the size of a chicken egg, are opaque, angular, hard but fragile. This concretion contains 70-90% silica, 1.1 % potassium hydroxide, 0.9% aluminum oxide, 0.9% iron oxide, calcium.140 It is used as antipyretic and antispasmodic in catarrh, infantile chorea, paralysis, rheumatism.
Dose of the leaves or epidermis, 7-10 gm. Of the succus, 35-70 gm. Of the tabaschir, 5-10 gm.
TRITICUM VULGARE Vill. (Graminae)
Common wheat. An annual grass 8-15 cm., with fibrous roots. Leaves flat, abruptly acuminate, 30-40 cm. long by 13 mm.; sheaths smooth; ligules short, truncate. Floral spike erect, bent at maturity, more or less compact, rarely loose. Spikelets sessile, solitary, imbricate on the two sides opposite the rachis, compressed laterally, ovoid, glabrous or villous, whitish or reddish, containing 3-5 flowers, most often 4, the topmost sterile. Glumes 1 cm., shorter than the flowers situated directly above, nearly regular, broadly oval, corpulent,
