In addition to star anise, the health benefits of kitchen ingredients include these...

Recently, the statement that "Tamiflu, a special anti-influenza drug, is extracted from star anise" has attracted widespread attention online. Chinese medicine often says that "medicine and food have the same origin", and many foods can be used as medicine. The medicinal value of some ingredients that appear in our kitchens all year round should not be underestimated.

Simply put, medicine and food have the same origin, which means that Chinese medicine and food have the same origin. Most of them have both therapeutic effects and can be eaten as food, that is, they are both medicinal and edible. For example, hawthorn, black plum, walnut, almond, pepper, honey, etc. are commonly eaten. They are both Chinese medicines with good therapeutic effects, and they are also foods with therapeutic effects that we use as cooking ingredients in daily life.

The 2013 edition of the “Catalogue of Substances Traditionally Used as Food and Chinese Medicinal Materials” includes 87 substances that can be used as food ingredients, spices and condiments, such as cloves, star anise, sword beans, cumin, etc. The 2014 edition of the catalogue added 15 more substances, including ginseng.

Let’s take a look at star anise first!

Star anise, also known as star anise, is the dried mature fruit of the Magnoliaceae plant Illicium verum and is often used as a condiment.

Star anise is pungent and warm in nature. It enters the liver, kidney, spleen and stomach meridians and has the effects of dispelling cold and relieving pain, regulating qi and harmonizing the middle. This product has a good therapeutic effect on pain caused by cold and qi stagnation, and can be used to treat cold pain in the lower abdomen, abdominal distension and pain, kidney deficiency and low back pain, etc.

Let’s take a look at pure fennel!

Fennel, also known as cumin, is a plant of the Umbelliferae family. Its stems and leaves are often eaten as vegetables, and its ripe fruits are often used as condiments after being dried.

Fennel is pungent and warm in nature. It enters the liver, kidney, spleen, and stomach meridians. It has the effects of warming the kidney and dispersing cold, harmonizing the stomach and regulating qi. It can be used to treat abdominal pain caused by cold hernia, cold pain in the lower abdomen, dysmenorrhea, etc.

Finally, let’s take a look at the medicinal functions of those small ingredients in the kitchen!