Morning glory, an amazing medicine for wind or stagnated qi

What is morning glory (Qian Niu Zi)?
Morning glories are native to American continent. But today there are more than 1,000 morning glory varieties distributed all over the world. However, medicinally it mainly refers to the dried mature seeds from Pharbitis nil (L.) Choisy or Pharbitis purpurea (L.) Voigt. They are members in the family Convolvulaceae. Therefore, other names of this herb include Semen Pharbitidis, Pharbitis Seed, Pharbitis nil seed, Hei Chou, Bai Chou, Er Chou, and so on. It grows in most of the regions in China and is usually collected in late autumn when the fruits are ripe but the husk doesn’t crack yet. Used as a drug it still needs to be dried in the sun and used smashed in the raw or fried form.

Pharbitis nil is an annual, twining herb that is densely covered with white hair. Alternate leaves are broadly heart-shaped and entire; petiole and peduncle are nearly equal in length. Inflorescence is with 1 to 3 flowers; sepals are 5-parted. Lobes are lanceolate and about 1cm long. The apex is pointed; funnel-shaped corolla is white, bluish violet, or purplish red in color, 5 to 8cm long; stamens are 5; ovary has 3 chambers. Spherical capsule has 5 to 6 seeds. Seeds are oval, black or yellowish white, with 1 shallow longitudinal groove on back and 1 punctate, slightly concave hilum at the proximal end of the ventral connecting line; it is hard and easy to burst and crack once soaked in water; inside there are 2 pale yellow cotyledons that wrinkle because of closely overlapping; it is spicy, bitter, and with a tingling sensation.

Pharbitis purpurea resemble to Pharbitis nil in size and shape. The major differences are the leaf blade and flowers. Its leaf blade is in the shape of round heart or wide ovate, 4 to 18cm long, 3.5cm wide, and usually entire. Flowers are axillary. Single or 2 to 5 of them form the umbrella cyme. Sepals are ovate-lanceolate.

Health benefits of morning glory flower seeds
Morning glory flowers are with good ornamental value thanks to their beautiful colors. The darker flowers, like purplish red, are generally with black seeds; the lighter flowers, like white and pink, are usually with white seeds. However, it is necessary to point out that seed colors have nothing to do with the species.

When it comes to physicians who are good at exerting morning glories seeds, Li Shizhen, the famous pharmacologist in Ming Dynasty, will be the best of the best. He is familiar with not only drug properties but also principles of medical science. And clinical practice told him that this herb could go to qiphase, unblock Triple Burner, arrive at life-gate, and enter essence tunnel. More than that, he also realized that it could be an amazing medicine for wind or stagnated qi induced Constipation. Thus, it can be seen that this is a good purgative medicine.