Sweet gum tree ball indicated for postpartum breast distension

What is a sweet gum tree ball(Lu Lu Tong)? Medicinally it refers to the dried ripe infructescence of Liquidambar formosana Hance, which is a plant in the family hamamelidaceae. Note, however, that this is not the fruit from liquidambar styraciflua. And other names include Sweetgum Fruit, Fructus Liquidambaris Taiwanianae, Beautiful Sweetgum Fruit, Taiwan Sweetgum, and so on. It is usually collected during winter when the fruits are ripe. Next steps are to remove impurities and dry.

Sweet gum trees are deciduous trees, 20 to 40 meters in height. Bark is brown and often peeled off in cubes. Leaves are alternate; petiole length is from 3 to 7cm; linear stipules are caducous; heart-shaped blade is often 3-lobed. Flowers are unisexual, monoecious, and without perianth; yellowish green male flowers form catkin and once again arrange into acrogenous racemose; stamens are many but in different length; female flowers arrange into spherical capitulum. Capitate infructescence is spherical, pricky, and 2.5 to 4.5cm in diameter. Capsule is with persistent calyx and style, 2-valvate, and 2-lobed each valve. Seeds are numerous, small, and flat. Flowering time is from March to April and fruit time is from September to October.

Sweet gum tree balls health benefits
Breast swelling and pain is one of common postpartum symptoms, which often appear within 3 to 7 days after delivery. It is usually caused by the failure of timely and effective breastfeeding or sucking because of poor suck in preterm infants, neonatal disease treatment, wound pain after cesarean, fatigue after childbirth, etc. The common clinical manifestation include oppression and distention, induration, and pain in breasts. This is mainly due to the retention of the breast lymphatic, venous turgor and swelling, interstitial edema, and blocked mammary duct. From April 2005 to October 2006, gynecology and obstetrics, in the 92th Hospital of People’s Liberation Army, ever used sweet gum ball to treat 44 cases of postpartum breast distension and the curative effect was quite satisfactory.