Asparagus
1、 Pharmacopoeia standard of Asparagus       This product is the dried root of Asparagus cochinchinensis (lour.) merr., a lily plant. Excavate in autumn and winter, wash, remove the stem base and fibrous roots, boil or steam in boiling water until penetrating, remove the skin while hot, wash and dry.
      [properties] this product is long spindle shaped, slightly curved, 5-18cm long, 0.5-2cm in diameter. The surface is yellowish white to yellowish brown, translucent, smooth or with longitudinal wrinkles of varying depth, and occasionally has residual gray brown skin. It is hard or soft, viscous, with horny section and yellowish white middle column. It tastes sweet and bitter.
      . The cortex is broad, and there are stone cells scattered or intermittently arranged in a ring on the outside. The stone cells are light yellowish brown, long strip, long oval or quasi circular, with a diameter of 32-110 μ m, a thick wall, and very fine pits and pore grooves; Mucus cells are scattered, and calcium oxalate needle crystal bundles exist in oval mucus cells, with needle crystal length of 40 ～ 99 μ M. The endothelial layer was evident. The phloem bundles and xylem bundles of the stele are 31-135 each, arranged at intervals from each other. A few vessels go deep into the pulp, and the pulp cells also contain calcium oxalate needle crystal bundles.
      [check] moisture   Not more than 16.0% (the second method of general rule 0832).
      Total ash   .
      Sulfur dioxide residue   According to the determination method of sulfur dioxide residue (general rule 2331), it shall not exceed 400mg/kg.
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      Decoction pieces
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      [inspection] sulfur dioxide residue is the same as that of medicinal materials.
      [nature, taste and meridian tropism] sweet, bitter and cold. Return to lung and kidney channels.
      [functions and indications] nourishing yin and moistening dryness, clearing lung and generating fluid. It is used for lung dry cough, sudden cough with phlegm and mucus, waist and knee soreness, bone steaming and hot flushes, internal heat and thirst quenching, fever and body injury, dry throat and thirst, intestinal dryness and constipation.
      [usage and dosage] 6 ～ 12g.
      [storage] store in a ventilated and dry place to prevent mold and moth.


2、 Chemical constituents of Asparagus
Asparagine - Ⅳ - Ⅶ (ASP - Ⅳ - Ⅶ) containing a variety of helical steroidal glycosides;L-asparagine、L-citrulline、l-serine And nearly 20 kinds of amino acids, as well as oligosaccharides Ⅰ ~ Ⅶ; And contains 5-methoxy-methylfurfural.

3、 Pharmacological action of Asparagus
Nourish yin and generate fluid, moisten lung and clear heart. .