The "love flower" described by Jin Yong that "scratched the beauty's face" and caused Yang Guo great suffering...what are these flowers?

The camellia that "scratches the face of a beauty", the "love flower" that cuts off love, the Tianshan Snow Lotus that can cure strange poisons... Do the "exotic flowers and plants" that often appear in martial arts works really exist in reality?

Reviewer

Li Biao (Researcher at the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences)

The name of the "scratch beauty's face" camellia, which makes people talk about it, the "love flower" that forces people to give up love if they are poisoned, and the Tianshan snow lotus that can cure the world's most poisonous poison and enhance "internal strength"... These familiar "exotic flowers and plants" in martial arts works are dazzling and fascinating, and as important "supporting roles" drive the development of the plot. However, do they really exist in reality?

The fragrant camellia shows its unique colors, and the "Eighteen Scholars" show their true colors

Speaking of the "master" in martial arts novels who knows camellia in detail, I believe martial arts fans have guessed that he is Duan Yu, one of the protagonists of "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils".

He entered Mantuo Villa by chance to escape from Jiumozhi's clutches, but unfortunately met Mrs. Wang who hated the people of the Duan family in Dali. The complex feelings of love and hate towards Duan Zhengchun made Mrs. Wang transfer this hatred to other people in Dali and wanted to kill them as soon as possible. On the other hand, she had a special liking for the camellia in Dali. The lush and blooming camellia in the garden may be a microcosm of the good memories of the two in the past, carrying Mrs. Wang's love.

However, Mrs. Wang, who loves camellia but does not know much about it, talks about it in front of Duan Yu, who has seen precious camellia since childhood. At the same time, Duan Yu escaped the disaster by knowing all the varieties of camellia, and changed from being a "fertilizer" to a "gardener".

▲In the 2003 TV series "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils", at Mantuo Villa, Wang Yuyan helped Duan Yu, who had suffered a great change.

The four pots of stunning white tea brought back by Mrs. Wang were all named "Full Moon" in her opinion, but Duan Yu said that one of them was called "Red Makeup and White Wrap" and the other was "Scratched Beauty Face". Talking about the difference between "Full Moon" and "Full Moon", he said: the white flower with faint black spots is called "Full Moon", the white petals with two olive-like black spots are called "Eye Charm", the white petals with red spots are called "Red Makeup and White Wrap", and the white petals with a touch of green and a trace of red are called "Scratched Beauty Face".

Among many white camellias, "Scratched Beauty Face" is the most talked about because of its vivid name. After seeing its true appearance, one cannot help but sigh at the magic of the Creator - it is just like a touch of red in the white. When looking from a distance, it is like admiring a gentle beauty with creamy skin. When looking closely, the unique touch of red adds a bit of liveliness to it, as if accidentally discovering the agility of a quiet beauty, as if inadvertently peeping into the passion and beauty beyond elegance, the name "Scratched Beauty Face" is nothing more than this.

▲Camellia: "Scratching the Beauty's Face"

In addition, when discussing the best camellia, Duan Yu talked about a multi-colored flower, with 18 different-colored flowers on the same plant, without a single mixed color, named "Eighteen Scholars", followed by "Thirteen Guardians", and then "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea", but there must be one dark purple and one light red flower, which are "Li Tieguai" and "He Xiangu". If these two colors are missing, it cannot be considered "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea", so it is called "Eight Treasures Makeup". If there are fewer, it can be replaced by "Seven Fairies", "Three Heroes of the Wind and Dust", and "Two Qiaos". Are camellias in reality as magical as in books?

In fact, "Eighteen Scholars" is indeed a very famous variety of camellia, but it does not refer to a plant with multiple colors, but is related to the arrangement of its petals. Compared with ordinary camellia, it has more petals, about 70-130 petals per flower. The numerous petals are arranged neatly and orderly, forming a regular hexagonal corolla. It is named because the petals of two adjacent corners are mostly arranged in 18 rounds.

▲Camellia "Eighteen Scholars"

Of course, there is indeed a multi-colored flower in the camellia family, such as the "Five-Colored Red Dan", but its color is more like the "Seventy-Two Transformations" based on basic colors such as pink and red, and is not composed of five different colors.

▲The "Five-Colored Red Camellia"

If you want to achieve camellias with different colors and sharp contrasts as in the book, you need the help of grafting technology. In spring, after the camellia blooms, select a strong rootstock with a large root system, make a groove of about three centimeters, and then select a variety of colors for scion. When grafting, peel one end in advance, and make sure that its thickness fits the groove on the rootstock like a mortise and tenon structure. With the continuous advancement of agricultural technology, it is now possible to achieve ten colors on one plant with the help of artificial means. I believe that the "eighteen scholars" mentioned by Duan Yu is no longer a distant dream.

With the development of science and technology, the imagination in the book has gradually become a reality. People have a deeper understanding of camellia and have gradually developed many functions other than ornamental, such as being an important raw material for food, beverages, cosmetics, and medical supplies. At present, the research on camellia mainly focuses on its flowers, leaves, and seeds. There are many studies on camellia seed oil at home and abroad, mainly focusing on its processing technology, active ingredients and efficacy. The research on its flowers and leaves mainly focuses on the antioxidant phenolic substances contained in them and their pharmacological effects.

Studies have shown that the plant polyphenols contained in camellia can provide protons through phenolic hydroxyl groups, and can also act on enzymes related to the production of free radicals, complexing excess metal ions that induce oxidation, and indirectly scavenging free radicals. Compared with vitamin E, tea polyphenols have stronger free radical scavenging ability. For example, the antioxidant value of the flavonoid tartaric acid is 4 times that of vitamin E. It can prevent the oxidative damage of biological macromolecules caused by active oxygen and protect biological macromolecules from damage induced by free radicals. Oxidative damage to the skin caused by free radicals is the main culprit of human skin aging.

Therefore, these antioxidant phenolic substances are often used as active ingredients in skin care products. Experiments show that under the optimal process conditions, the antioxidant components of camellia flowers and leaves are extracted using ultrasonic extraction technology. The content of antioxidant flavonoids is 19.24 mg/g, the content of total polyphenols is 15.76 mg/g, the yield of the extract is 17.61%, and the DPPH free radical scavenging rate is 81.25%. However, during storage, storage time and light will affect its antioxidant components.

It is bold to imagine that when Duan Yu escaped to Mantuo Villa, if he could master the current tea polyphenol extraction technology and help Mrs. Wang regain her beauty, perhaps her identity would no longer be the manor gardener, but she would probably not be able to enjoy the wonderful adventures in the book afterwards.

"Flower of Love" ruthlessly cuts off marriage, Mantuo contains poison and causes pain

If the camellia flowers at Mantuo Villa are a vivid picture album of Mrs. Wang's beautiful memories of their past love, then the "love flowers" in the Jueqing Valley are the sharp blades that intend to cut off the lingering love between Yang Guo and Xiaolongnu.

When it first appeared, the beautiful love flower was the "breakfast" that Gongsun Lue'e prepared for Yang Guo. It was sweet and fragrant like honey, with a slight smell of alcohol. But after chewing it a few times, it gave off a bitter taste, like the taste of love that was a mixture of sweetness and pain.

▲In the 2006 TV series The Return of the Condor Heroes, Xiao Longnu, trapped in the Unrequited Valley, wanders alone among the flowers of love

The unique smell made Yang Guo curious. He looked at the tree and saw that the branches and leaves were covered with small thorns, but the color of the petals was extremely delicate, like hibiscus but more fragrant, like camellia but more colorful. While picking flowers, his fingers were accidentally pierced by the small thorns hidden beside the flowers. He didn't care, but then he was happy with the comfortable environment in the valley. He couldn't help but feel relaxed and happy, and wanted to live here with Xiaolongnu for a long time. However, as soon as he was moved, his fingers hurt, and his chest felt like being hit by a big iron hammer. Gongsun Lue'e said: If you want to avoid an attack, you need to not think about your loved one for twelve hours.

At this time, even the readers had never expected that this seemingly harmless flower that could even be eaten as "breakfast" would have such a strong poisonous thorn. When falling into the flowers, the countless thorns would pierce the body, forcing people to break up and love each other, and also caused the pair of the Condor Heroes who had gone through hardships to be separated for 16 years. So, is there really such a strange flower in the world?

There are many things in the world. In real life, the prototype of the love flower is the white mandshurica, also known as Datura. Unlike the love flower in the book, it is almost poisonous all over, and its fragrance can even cause hallucinations.

▲White Mandala

In 2020, a girl in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, drank water soaked with Datura seeds. Soon after, she developed symptoms such as foaming at the mouth, convulsions in the limbs, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and incontinence. She was sent to the emergency room by her family. After examination, she was diagnosed with Datura poisoning. After gastric lavage and hemoperfusion, her vital signs recovered and she returned home to recuperate.

As the saying goes, medicine and poison are inseparable. Datura is not only a poison. Its active substances can also be used as raw materials for medicines if used properly. Since the early 1930s, people have been conducting phytochemical research on Datura. In the laboratory, researchers have isolated major phytochemical components such as propane alkaloids, atropine and scopolamine from Datura.

Scientific research shows that the scopolamine in it can quickly improve blood vessel microcirculation, relieve smooth muscle spasms, stimulate breathing, and reduce the production of respiratory secretions. This ingredient can also clear bronchial smooth muscle spasms, reduce the production of tracheal endothelial secretions, further improve the ventilation function of the lungs, relieve asthma attacks, and facilitate the early recovery of breathing.

In addition to the respiratory system, the ingredients in Datura can also act on the central nervous system, by inhibiting certain parts of the cerebral cortex and subcortical areas, accelerating heart rate, dilating blood vessels, improving brain microcirculation, exciting the respiratory center, and removing oxygen free radicals, which has a protective effect on brain tissue and has an effect of first exciting and then inhibiting the central nervous system. In short, the effective ingredients extracted scientifically from Datura can be used as medicine. If taken in excess, it can easily cause poisoning, and even death in severe cases. Although the poisoning methods of love flowers and Datura flowers are different, and the symptoms are also different, whether in fiction or reality, this "snake-hearted" vicious flower will torture people in great pain.

Tianshan Snow Lotus Gong is limited, Endophytic Fungi Innovation

In the imaginative world of martial arts, the use of poison and detoxification seem to be eternal topics. Sudden poisoning is like a sideways branch that often disrupts the protagonist's original direction.

Among the many "antidote magic drugs", Tianshan Snow Lotus is the "king" with a high frequency of appearance. It can be seen in many martial arts works such as "Flying Fox of Snow Mountain", "Book and Sword", and "Cloud Sea Jade Bow". In "Book and Sword", Chen Jialuo, who originally fell in love with the green-feathered yellow-shirted Huo Qingtong, put aside all misunderstandings and traveled a long distance to rescue her when he learned that the three demons from Guandong were about to seek revenge on his sweetheart. But on the way to Xinjiang, he met the Xiangxiang Princess Kasili and was overwhelmed by her beauty.

On the long journey, the two unexpectedly found the figure of Tianshan Snow Lotus. Looking up, on the cliff halfway up the mountain, there were two strange flowers as big as sea bowls, with green petals and snow all around. The white reflected the green, and with the golden light of the setting sun, it was gorgeous and beautiful. Chen Jialuo risked his life to pick the precious Tianshan Snow Lotus for her. At this moment, the isolated snow lotus lost its soil, and the balance in his heart began to tilt towards this new beauty.

▲ Tianshan Snow Lotus

Liang Yusheng also wrote in "The Sea of ​​Clouds and Jade Bow": The detoxifying elixir made from Tianshan Snow Lotus can not only detoxify, but also increase one's strength. Many other novels have also attributed the efficacy of Tianshan Snow Lotus to the miraculous healing of the dead, or even the efficacy of "reviving the dead and turning bones into flesh", adding a unique mysterious color to it. Beyond the story, can Tianshan Snow Lotus really enhance physical fitness, or even have the efficacy of bringing the dead back to life?

In fact, the medicinal value of Tianshan Snow Lotus is far from being as miraculous as described in novels. Tianshan Snow Lotus belongs to the Asteraceae family and is rich in flavonoids, lignans, coumarins and other biologically active compounds. Through component target prediction and the construction of the "component-target-pathway" network model, researchers have discovered the core component of Snow Lotus, quercetin, which has multiple effects such as antioxidant, anti-platelet aggregation, anti-viral, and anti-inflammatory, and also has a certain protective effect on myocardial cell damage after hypoxia. In addition, baicalin 7-methyl ether and β-sitosterol contained in Tianshan Snow Lotus have played an important role in its treatment of hypoxia.

With the deepening of research, the research focus of new medicinal plant resources such as Tianshan Saussurea has gradually shifted to its endophytes, which have an important influence on the formation of certain active ingredients in plants, and may even produce physiologically active ingredients that are the same or similar to those in its host, and have great development potential. Researchers selected six flavonoid reference substances and endophytic fungi from Tianshan Saussurea, including rutin, quercetin, kaempferol, isorhamnetin, apigenin, and luteolin, and conducted experiments. The results showed that a certain strain has the characteristics of producing rutin, which has multiple functions such as scavenging free radicals, anti-oxidation, and protecting gastric mucosa. In the future, research on endophytes may effectively alleviate the contradiction between medicinal demand and the scarcity of Tianshan Saussurea resources, innovate the application methods of new natural drug resources, and promote the modernization of my country's medicinal plant research.

The development of modern science and technology requires time to settle, and more importantly, the persistence and efforts of countless people. I believe that as time goes by, we can continue to move forward and turn the magical imaginations in literary works into reality.

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