These spring wild vegetables are a wonderful remedy.

Introduction: There is a saying popular among the Chinese people: "On the third day of the third lunar month, shepherd's purse is as effective as a magic pill." Soup made from shepherd's purse and dumplings filled with amaranth are incredibly delicious. Today, various wild vegetables have become precious as they are free from pesticides, suffer from few pests and diseases, and some even possess both medicinal and edible qualities. Therefore, many people dig up wild vegetables to enjoy the flavors of spring. Xu Xinzhu, a clinical nutrition physician from the Department of Nutrition at the Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, explains 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 boils, carbuncles, swelling, toxins, eczema, and herpes zoster. Modern pharmacological research shows that it has antibacterial effects, inhibiting *Escherichia coli*, *Shigella dysenteriae*, and *Salmonella typhi*, as well as common pathogenic skin fungi.

Garlic and Sesame Sauce Purslane

● Toon (Toon Tree)

Its nature and flavor are warm, bitter, and astringent. It has the effects of expelling wind, promoting diuresis, stopping bleeding, and relieving pain. Its entire body has medicinal properties. For example, the root bark can be used for dysentery, enteritis, urinary tract infections, hematochezia, metrorrhagia, leukorrhea, and rheumatic lumbago and leg pain. The leaves and tender shoots can be used for dysentery. The fruit can be used for gastric and duodenal ulcers and chronic gastritis.

● Shepherd's Purse

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

Shepherd's Purse and Egg Scramble

● Sow Thistle

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

Reminder

Precautions for Eating Wild Vegetables

1. Do not eat wild vegetables you cannot identify. Confirm whether they are toxic before consumption. Some wild plants are highly poisonous. Ingesting them can lead to mild symptoms like chest tightness, abdominal bloating, and vomiting, or severe cases that can be life-threatening.

2. Due to environmental pollution, 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 can detoxify and reduce inflammation, but 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 and should not eat too much.

Toon Tree and Egg Pancake