Library

(Gourd vegetables) Resolve wind-cold, purge heat-toxin, resolve gu-poison, and eliminate stagnation in the collaterals.

Luffa fruit (专入经络 [primarily enters the meridians/collaterals], 兼入肠胃 [also enters the stomach and intestines]). Its nature is cold. Its taste is sweet, and its substance is slippery. The melon's meridians are interconnected, and its internal chambers are connected. For any person suffering from wind-phlegm, damp-heat, gu-poison, or blood stasis stagnating in the collaterals, manifesting as carbuncles, sores, metrorrhagia, intestinal wind, edema, etc., taking Luffa fruit can produce immediate effective results. This is because it unblocks the meridians and reaches the collaterals, penetrating everywhere. For children with slow eruption of smallpox, take three inches of the fruit near the stem, burn the skin together until ash remains but preserve its medicinal properties, grind into powder, and mix with sand sugar water for oral administration; it can also be applied externally to treat foot swelling. For rhinitis (鼻渊 [bi yuan] - nasal sinusitis) with frequent discharge of turbid fluid, take three inches of the vine near the root, burn to ash preserving its properties, grind into powder, and administer one cun chi (方寸匙 [fang cun shi]) with wine, which is also effective. To prevent smallpox in children, after Start of Winter (立冬 [li dong]), consume small Luffa fruits with Cinnabar (朱砂 [zhusha]); this also works. All these utilize its cold, slippery, and unblocking properties. However, excessive consumption can cause slippery intestines and diarrhea. Therefore, medical texts state: "This belongs to vegetables that should not be eaten excessively; one must judge whether it is suitable based on the qi of the zang-fu organs." Crushed fresh leaves taken raw can resolve all snakebite toxins; applying the dregs to the affected area is also good.

(Gourd vegetables) Promote urination, reduce edema, and clear heat.

Winter melon (专入肠胃 [primarily enters the stomach and intestines]). Although its taste is sweet and bland, its nature is very cold and purgative. Thus, the therapeutic effects described in texts are mostly about reducing edema and calming asthma. (*Yang Shi Jia Zang Fang* treats ten types of water-qi edema by using one large winter melon, cutting off the lid, removing the pulp, filling it with Adzuki beans, securing the lid, sealing tightly with mud containing paper fibers, placing it in two large baskets of dry glutinous rice husks, baking until the fire extinguishes, taking out slices, drying them together with Adzuki beans, grinding into powder, making pills with paste, taking seventy pills each time, washing down with Decoction of Winter Melon Seeds, three times a day, stopping when urination becomes smooth.) It stops thirst and treats carbuncle swelling and heat-toxin (apply slices to the affected area, replace when hot). It suppresses Dan-shi toxicity (mineral drug poisoning). However, it is most suitable only for those with heat in the zang-fu organs. If one has deficiency-cold, cold kidneys, chronic loose stools, or yin depletion with weak qi and emaciation, taking it will cause further loss of water-qi, leading to risks of cold limbs, incontinence/slippery collapse, and dryness-thirst! Wang Ang stated that its properties can stop thirst and reduce edema, yet also claimed its nature does not move and is pleasant to take. Is this not self-contradictory? Winter melon seeds (瓜子 [guazi]) can tonify the liver and improve vision. (The seeds used in medicines refer to these.) The rind can be used to make facial cream (because it is white).