Wild vegetables are nutritious; consume with caution if unidentified.

Making soup with shepherd's purse and filling with amaranth, both are incredibly delicious. Various wild vegetables have become precious today. They are free from pesticides, have few pests and diseases, and some even possess excellent dual medicinal and food properties. Therefore, many people dig for wild vegetables to enjoy the delicious flavors of spring. Xu Xinzhu, a clinical nutritionist from the Department of Nutrition at the Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, introduced that some wild vegetables have medicinal value.

Purslane

Its nature and flavor are sour and cold. It can clear heat, promote diuresis, cool the blood, and detoxify. It is used for bacterial dysentery, acute gastroenteritis, acute appendicitis, mastitis, hemorrhoids, and bleeding. Externally, it treats carbuncles, sores, toxic swellings, eczema, and herpes zoster. Modern pharmacological research shows that it has antibacterial effects, inhibiting *Escherichia coli*, *Shigella dysenteriae*, and *Salmonella typhi*, and also has an inhibitory effect on common pathogenic skin fungi.

Pickled Purslane

Toon

Its nature and flavor are warm, bitter, and astringent. It has the effects of expelling wind, promoting diuresis, stopping bleeding, and alleviating pain. Its entire plant has medicinal uses. For example, the root bark can be used for dysentery, enteritis, urinary tract infections, hematochezia, metrorrhagia, leukorrhea, and rheumatism in the lower back and legs. The leaves and young shoots can be used for dysentery. The fruit can be used for gastric and duodenal ulcers and chronic gastritis.

Toon Sprout and Bean Roll

Shepherd's purse

Its nature and flavor are sweet and neutral. It has the effects of cooling the blood to stop bleeding and clearing heat to promote urination. It can be used for hematuria due to renal tuberculosis, postpartum uterine bleeding, menorrhagia, hemoptysis in pulmonary tuberculosis, hypertension, common cold with fever, nephritic edema, urinary tract stones, and enteritis. Modern pharmacological research has found that shepherd's purse contains shepherd's acid, which has a hemostatic effect.

Shepherd's Purse and Tofu Skin Rolls

Bitter vegetable

Also known as bitter vegetable, its nature and flavor are bitter and cold. It has the effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, breaking blood stasis, promoting blood circulation, and draining pus. It can be used for appendicitis, intra-abdominal abscess, enteritis, dysentery, acute and chronic pelvic inflammatory disease, lung heat cough, pulmonary tuberculosis, and hematemesis. Externally, it is used for falls and injuries, sores, carbuncles, swelling and pain, and scrotal eczema.

Olive and Chicory Mixed Salad

Reminder: Precautions for eating wild vegetables

1. Do not eat wild vegetables that you cannot identify. Be sure to confirm their toxicity before eating. Some wild plants are highly toxic. Ingesting them can lead to chest tightness, abdominal bloating, and vomiting in mild cases, and can be life-threatening in severe cases.

2. Due to pollution from their growing environment, wild vegetables growing near factories, garbage dumps, polluted rivers, or wastewater often contain toxins and are not suitable for consumption.

3. Most bitter wild vegetables have a cool nature and are used to detoxify and reduce internal heat. However, excessive consumption can damage the spleen and stomach. Therefore, people with a weak or cold spleen and stomach should not eat them in excess.

4. Wild vegetables are relatively high in dietary fiber. Infants and young children have weak digestive abilities, so they should not eat too much.