Longan meat is the flesh of the longan tree, which is the mature fruit pulp. It can be used as a tonic medicine or as a nutritional supplement, making it an excellent example of a dual-purpose food and medicine. It is mainly produced in the southern provinces of China and is now widely cultivated. The fruits are harvested in early autumn when they are ripe, then dried by baking or sun-drying. The skin is peeled off, the flesh is removed from the seed, and it is further sun-dried until it is dry and non-sticky before being stored for future use.
I. The Efficacy of Longan Meat:
Longan meat tastes sweet and warm. It belongs to the heart and spleen meridians. Its efficacy canNourish the heart and spleen, enrich blood and calm the mindIts characteristics include rich nutrition and dual use as both food and medicine, particularly excelling in nourishing heart blood and replenishing yin, earning it the reputation as the essential herb for tonifying the heart and spleen.
Commonly used forInsufficient qi and blood, palpitations and anxiety, forgetfulness and insomnia, blood deficiency and sallow complexionTreatment of various deficiency and insufficiency syndromes.
Abstracts of Famous Works by Renowned Authors:
The Classic of Materia Medica: "It primarily calms the mind, treats anorexia, and with prolonged use, it strengthens the ethereal and corporeal souls, enhancing intelligence."
"Yunnan Materia Medica": "Benefits blood and calms the spirit, enhances intelligence and reduces sweating, stimulates appetite and strengthens the spleen."
"Ben Cao Qiu Zhen": "Longan has a sweet and warm nature, similar to jujube, but its sweetness is more pronounced, and it is particularly moistening. In addition to tonifying qi, it also possesses the ability to nourish blood. Therefore, it is recorded that it can benefit the spleen, enhance intelligence, nourish the heart, and preserve blood, making it an essential herb for the heart and spleen. Hence, it can be used to treat symptoms such as forgetfulness, palpitations, anxiety, and intestinal wind with bloody stools resulting from mental strain and overexertion."
The Jade Carving Medicine Explanation: "Longan is sweet and can benefit the spleen, moistening and generating essence, nourishing liver wood and clearing wind dryness, lowering heart fire and dispelling heat and restlessness, supplementing yin and generating blood, without causing dampness or harming yang, damaging the middle and impairing earth. It is an excellent product, far superior to other herbs like angelica and rehmannia."
Ben Cao Bei Yao: Sweet and warm, it returns to the spleen. It benefits the spleen, enhances intelligence, nourishes the heart, and preserves blood, hence it is used in Guipi Decoction. It treats damage to the heart and spleen due to excessive thinking and overwork, as well as intestinal wind with bloody stools.
II. Compatibility and Application of Longan Meat:
1. For deficiency of both the heart and spleen, palpitations, severe palpitations, insomnia, forgetfulness, and other syndromes. Longan meat can tonify the heart and spleen, neither being greasy nor causing stagnation of qi, making it a truly excellent nourishing medicine. For treating excessive contemplation, overexertion injuring the heart and spleen, forgetfulness, severe palpitations, and other syndromes, it can be used alone or often combined with ginseng, astragalus, angelica, sour jujube seed, and other qi-tonifying, blood-nourishing, and mind-calming herbs, forming a famous tonic formula.Gui Pi Tang。
If treating intestinal wind with bleeding, bloody stool, metrorrhagia and metrostaxis due to spleen failing to control blood, the usage of Guipi Decoction can also be referred to, which has the effects of leading blood back to the spleen and supplementing qi to prevent collapse.
"Ben Cao Qiu Zhen": "Although blood is generated by the heart, it also relies on the spleen to govern it. When excessive contemplation depletes qi, only sweet substances can replenish it; when excessive contemplation damages the spirit, only moistening substances can nourish it. Longan is both sweet and moistening, capable of tonifying the spleen and consolidating qi, as well as preserving blood from depletion. Thus, the spirit and qi are naturally nurtured, preventing conditions such as palpitations and forgetfulness. In Guipi Tang, longan flesh is used to treat damage to the heart and spleen, and its efficacy is fundamentally based on this principle."
2. For conditions of qi and blood deficiency. Longan flesh is sweet, warm, and nourishing, rich in nutrients, and has the function of supplementing qi and blood. It can be used alone, added to nourishing formulas, or consumed regularly as a dietary therapy for health maintenance.
For the syndrome of qi and blood deficiency, one can use longan meat steamed with white sugar and take it with boiling water. If the body constitution tends to have excessive fire, a small amount of American ginseng slices can be added.Yuling PasteFor those who are weak, frail, elderly, or debilitated, and have no conditions such as phlegm-fire or loose stools, regularly taking this paste can have the effect of tonifying qi and blood.
III. Usage and Dosage of Longan Meat:
Longan meat can be used in decoctions, as well as in pill form, made into paste, and used in dietary therapy. The common dosage in decoctions ranges from over ten grams to several tens of grams.
IV. Application Precautions for Longan Meat:
Longan meat is sweet and warm, thus it tonifiesThose with dampness obstructing the middle and fullness or those with retained fluid, phlegm, or fire should avoid taking itDue to the polysaccharides in this product and its processed products,Therefore, individuals with a diabetic constitution should also be cautious when taking it.。
"Li Xu Yuan Jian": "Longan greatly nourishes heart blood, its efficacy is comparable to ginseng, yet it is ultimately a product of damp-heat nature. Therefore, for those with lung stagnation fire, where fire is excessive and blood vessels are injured, taking it will certainly worsen the condition. Many physicians only know its nourishing properties but are ignorant of the distinction between clearing and warming. Whenever encountering deficiency fatigue, diminished heart blood, or restlessness at night, they hastily prescribe it. They do not realize that after lung fire has been cleared, using it to greatly nourish the heart and spleen indeed has the effect of supplementing blood and calming the spirit. However, if there is latent fire in the lungs, taking it will instead assist the fire; if it is precisely when blood heat is surging upward, administering this sweet, warm, and greatly nourishing substance will cause the blood condition to surge and overflow even more, so caution is essential."
