Common Carpesium Fruit

Primarily produced in the Chinese provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu, Shanxi, Henan.

Cylindrical, tiny, 3~4mm long, less than 1mm diameter. Externally yellowish-brown to dark brown, with numerous longitudinal ridges. One end wrinkled like thin beak-shaped leaf, tip expands to grayish-white ring; another end is slightly pointy, with scars. Fruit skin is thin, fibrous; seed coat is very thin and transparent, with 2 cotyledons, off-white, oily. Distinctive odor; slightly bitter taste.

Superior medicinal material has even and full body, granular feeling when chewed, lustrous externally.

Bitter, acrid; neutral; slightly toxic.

Kills worms, clears heat, resolves toxin, promotes spleen, harmonizes stomach. Apply to stomach pain due to worm accumulation, trichomonas vaginalis.