LONGAN BERRIES (Long Yan Rou)
Dragons Eye
Warm and sweet.
Class: Herbs that tonify the blood
Family: Sapindaceae
Pharmaceutical Name: Arillus Euphoria Longanae
Parts Used: Fruit (berries)
Dosage: 6-15 grams, but are also eaten simply as a food
This one is for all of you mental giants who use your brain alot at work and often times might feel that yorure mentally fried for the day by the time you get to martial arts in the evening...
Longan fruit works on the heart and spleen channels and is used to nourish the blood, and calm shen (the spirit). It relieves fatigue, especially in reference to *mental* fatigue. It is often times used for anxiety and neurosis, and less commonly for insomnia. It can relieve heart palpitations if caused by blood deficiency, or exhausting caused by spleen deficiency. The Materia Medica claims it is a very useful herb for couteracting exhaustion caused by "worry, over-thikning or overwork".
Much of this herbs ability to nourish the blood comes from its high glucose and sucrose content, which makes this fruit particularly sweet and much easier to eat than many other herbs, which can often have very penetrating acrid, sour, or bitter tastes. Because this is a food grade herb, it can simply be eaten as a sweet little snack to counteract the mental fatigue of a tough day at work.
Longan berries are often combined in traditional forumulas with herbs such as Chinese Red Ginseng (Ren Shen) as discussed previously, to help treat symptoms such as insomnia and heart palpitations as a result of defiicent qi and blood.
More information on Longan Beries:
http://tcm.health-info.org/Herbology...properties.htm
Always great herb information here:
http://alternativehealing.org/long_yan.htm