Fu Ping (Duckweed or Spirodela Polyrhiza)

Fu Ping (Duckweed or Spirodela Polyrhiza)

What Is Fu Ping

Fu Ping is also known as Duckweed or Spirodela polyrhiza, which is a perennial aquatic plant belonging to the family Araceae. It first appeared in <Shennong Ben Cao Jing> in the late Western Han Dynasty (around 100 BCE).

This plant is widely distributed in temperate and tropical regions. They often grow in paddy fields, ditches, lakes, or ponds. They have certain economic value and can be used as pig feed, duck feed, and grass carp feed.

In summer, people gather Spirodela polyrhiza, wash them with water, remove impurities, dry them in the sun, and make them into Chinese herbal medicines.

Spirodela polyrhiza

Fu Ping contains orientin, vitexin, apigenin, luteolin, carotene, lutein, sterols, lipids, tannins, amino acids, polysaccharides, organic acids, potassium acetate, and potassium chloride.

According to the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, the medicinal nature of Fu Ping is relatively cold, with a pungent taste. It has a certain therapeutic effect on pathological changes of the lung and bladder meridians.

In traditional Chinese medicine, it is often used to promote sweating and relieve exterior symptoms, promote eruption and relieve itching, induce diuresis and reduce edema, and treat colds, measles, rubella, acne, eczema, urticaria, allergic rash, chronic hepatitis, acute jaundice hepatitis, polycystic ovary syndrome. It is an important component of Jin Suan Ping syrup and Xiao Er Ling Yang San.

Benefits

  • Anti-inflammation, inhibiting xylene-induced swelling of mouse ears.
  • Raising the pain threshold and reducing the number of writhing times in mice caused by acetic acid.
  • Anti-oxidation, scavenging superoxide anion free radicals, hydroxyl free radicals, and DPPH free radicals.
  • Inhibiting herpes simplex virus, adenovirus, hepatitis B virus, and influenza virus.
  • Inhibiting the production of melanin and reducing pigmentation.
  • Inhibiting the aggregation of platelets, preventing atherosclerosis and thrombosis.
  • Promoting sweating and treating fever with anhidrosis caused by wind-heat, and fever with anhidrosis, body feeling cold caused by wind-cold.
  • Promoting eruptions and treating the insufficient outbreak of early measles.
  • Dispelling wind, relieving itching, treating rubella, eczema, and urticaria.
  • Inducing diuresis and treating edema and oliguria caused by wind-heat.
  • Inhibiting Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, and Enterococcus faecalis.
  • Studies have found that apigenin can reduce renin activity and the content of angiotensin II receptor antagonists in plasma, inhibit the activity of the angiotensin-converting enzyme, and lower blood pressure.

Combinations

Side Effects

  • At present, there are no reports in the literature that Fu Ping has toxic effects, and there are no reports of serious adverse reactions when it is taken according to the prescribed dose.

Precautions and Warnings

  • The dosage of Fu Ping should be controlled at 3-9g.
  • It can be made into decoctions, lotions, or ground for external use.
  • People who are allergic to Fu Ping should not take it.
  • People with spontaneous sweating due to exterior deficiency should not take it.
  • People with weakness of the spleen and the stomach should not take it.
  • Pregnant women and breastfeeding women should take it under the guidance of a doctor.