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For medicinal use, yellow eggplants (Solanum melongena L. var. esculentum) are mostly used. The rest can only be eaten as vegetables. (Su Song)

Eggplant
Flavor: Sweet; Nature: Cold. Indications: Disperses blood, relieves pain, reduces swelling, and relaxes the intestines. (Li Shizhen) Eggplant belongs to Earth, therefore its flavor is sweet and its nature tends to descend. Those with loose bowels should avoid it. (Zhu Zhenheng) Old yellow eggplants treat cracked nipples; decoction of eggplant roots soaks frostbite; ash from burnt pedicels treats oral ulcers, all yielding miraculous effects. This utilizes its sweet nature to moderate and its cold nature to cool. For tendon spasms, burn the pedicel to ash and incorporate into pills.
[Note: "Jar" in original text likely refers to a specific part or is a textual error, translated literally as context implies local application]. Burn the pedicel to ash to treat oral and dental sores. Take two qian of the ash mixed with rice water to treat persistent bleeding from intestinal wind (hematochezia due to wind-heat) and bloody hemorrhoids. Rub fresh sliced eggplant on vitiligo patches to treat white spots. Use pedicels of white eggplants for white vitiligo, and pedicels of purple eggplants for purple vitiligo. Dip them in a mixture of sulfur and Aconitum carmichaelii powder to sprinkle on the affected area, utilizing its blood-dispersing property. (Li Shizhen) Fresh pedicels combined with equal parts of fresh Polygonum multiflorum (He Shou Wu), along with their roots and withered stems/leaves, treat various syndromes of wind-stroke, cold-dampness, knee-joint deformity (crane-knee wind), and leprosy-like conditions, dispersing blood and reducing swelling. Treat hematuria, rectal bleeding, bloody dysentery, uterine prolapse, toothache, oral ulcers, and skin cracking; soaking in decoction is effective. For female genital prolapse, calcinate eggplant roots until carbonized, grind into fine powder, mix with oil, roll into paper tubes, and insert intravaginally once daily.
For fresh mushrooms, rinse mouth with vinegar, then apply ash of eggplant root tubers mixed equally with sublimated salt and diluted with rice vinegar, rubbing frequently. For painful hematuria, take two qian of eggplant leaves per dose, administered with warm wine or salted water; leaves from the previous year are particularly effective. For toothache, apply ash of aged eggplant tree wood; first gargle with decoction of Colletes sinensis (bee nest). Juice obtained by leaching ash of eggplant stalks, mixed with mulberry bark alkali and other herbs, is effective for treating various carbuncles, swellings, and furuncles. (Chen Shigong)

[Discussion] The flavor of eggplant is sweet and cold. Danxi stated it belongs to Earth, but since it ripens yellow in the ninth month, it has deeply absorbed Metal qi, hence its nature tends to descend.

[Processing] It is suitable to harvest when yellow and ripe in the ninth month. Wash clean and dry in the shade before use.
Leaves that are too large are unsuitable for medicinal use. Smaller ones contain mercury between the nodes and leaves [Note: Ancient texts often used 'mercury' metaphorically for cold/mineral properties or impurities; literal translation retained]. However, stems must be removed when using them, as stems indeed have no efficacy.

Also known as Changming Cai (Longevity Vegetable).
Flavor: Sour; Nature: Cold; Property: Even colder and slippery. Indications: Disperses blood, reduces swelling, benefits the intestines, detoxifies, treats tetanus, chronic malignant sores unhealed by various methods. Or pain... Take Portulaca oleracea... Hot strangury... Calcined to carbon... Wind-Di Ding...
[Discussion] Portulaca oleracea inherently contains Water within Metal (leaves contain moisture and are hard to dry completely). Its sour flavor indicates Metal interacting with Wood. Entering the Blood viscera to disperse blood.