In summer, watermelon is our favorite fruit. So, what should be done with the rind after eating it? Don't throw it away, as the rind actually has many uses. It can also be cooked, refreshing and delicious, and has significant medicinal effects.
The most important function of the watermelon rind is as a medicine to prevent and treat diseases, truly embodying its value of "nothing is waste." The part used for medicine is the outermost skin of the watermelon. It has a mild aroma and a light taste, and is an excellent remedy for clearing heat, relieving summer heat, quenching thirst, and promoting urination. It is often used to treat summer heat-related vexation and thirst, scanty urination, and canker sores in the mouth.
The white crystals made by mixing watermelon rind with mirabilite are called "Watermelon Frost" in pharmacology, and it is a primary medicine in stomatology. Its function is to treat conditions such as acute throat infection, throat obstruction, mouth sores, and dental caries. It is usually used externally by grinding it into a powder and blowing it onto the throat, or taken orally by dissolving it in a decoction. In the medical book "Summary of Throat Scarlatina," the "Jade Key," used for reducing inflammation and swelling and treating sore throat with white putrefaction, and in "Essentials of Quick Treatment for Throat Diseases," the "Melon Frost Powder," used to treat diphtheria, are both time-tested and important throat remedies with Watermelon Frost as the main ingredient.
In daily life, the principle of "nothing is waste" can be seen with all kinds of fruit peels. For example, winter melon peel can be used to treat urticaria, lumbar muscle strain, and expel roundworms; cucumber peel can treat diarrhea, dysentery, and has cosmetic effects; papaya peel can treat beriberi and remove dampness and itching; apple peel can treat nausea and excessive phlegm; raw pear peel can treat excessive heart fire and excessive phlegm; persimmon peel can stop swelling and pain and frequent urination; banana peel can treat hemorrhoids and bloody stools; longan peel can treat dizziness and expel pathogenic wind; and sunflower seed peel can treat tinnitus. Some of these are also important traditional Chinese medicinal herbs.