1. Single-Ingredient Asparagus Cochinchinensis Formula

1. Single-Ingredient Asparagus Cochinchinensis Formula

(1) Asparagus Decoction (from “Taiping Shenghui Fang”)

Indications: Leprosy.

Take five jin of Asparagus cochinchinensis (remove the core), place in a porcelain vessel, seal tightly, wax the opening, bury in dry soil for one year. After opening, grind into powder, mix with honey to form a paste, take one tablespoon twice daily.

“Taiping Shenghui Fang” also contains another formula with the same name, which uses fresh Asparagus cochinchinensis—five jin, remove the core, chop finely, soak in three dou of wine, squeeze out the juice, put in a copper pot, mix with white honey, cook until it becomes like candy, take one spoonful mixed with warm wine three times a day. It is said to “strengthen energy, prolong life, and prevent hunger.” You can also add Rehmannia to enhance the effect.

(2) Asparagus Paste (from “Medical Orthodoxy”)

Indications: Blood deficiency and lung dryness, cracked skin, pulmonary atrophy, coughing up pus and blood.

Take any amount of freshly dug Asparagus cochinchinensis, wash thoroughly, remove the core and skin, pound finely, squeeze out the juice, clarify it, filter out coarse impurities with cloth, put in a sand pot, simmer over low heat until it becomes a paste. Take one to two tablespoons on an empty stomach, mixed with warm wine.

In addition, Meng Shen of the Tang Dynasty wrote in “Food Therapy Compendium” that Asparagus cochinchinensis (peeled and cored) could be cooked and eaten, or dried and ground into powder, mixed with honey to make pills to treat pulmonary tuberculosis and wind-heat, or used to quench thirst and reduce heat. The Northern Song Dynasty’s “Taiping Shenghui Fang” recommended grinding Asparagus cochinchinensis into powder, mixing with wine and taking it frequently as a “formula to strengthen muscles and marrow, maintain youthful appearance,” but no specific formula names were given.