Plantain Seed, a name in traditional Chinese medicine, refers to the dried, mature seeds of the plants Plantago asiatica L. or Plantago depressa Willd. of the Plantaginaceae family. It is produced in most regions of China.This herb has the effects of clearing heat, promoting urination, relieving urinary obstruction, draining dampness, stopping diarrhea, improving vision, and eliminating phlegm. It is primarily used to treat painful and difficult urination due to heat, edema and abdominal distension, summer-dampness-induced diarrhea, red and swollen eyes, and coughs caused by phlegm-heat.
Plantain Seed
Plantain Seed, a name in traditional Chinese medicine, refers to the dried, mature seeds of the plants Plantago asiatica L. or Plantago depressa Willd. of the Plantaginaceae family. It is produced in most regions of China.This herb has the effects of clearing heat, promoting urination, relieving urinary obstruction, draining dampness, stopping diarrhea, improving vision, and eliminating phlegm. It is primarily used to treat painful and difficult urination due to heat, edema and abdominal distension, summer-dampness-induced diarrhea, red and swollen eyes, and coughs caused by phlegm-heat.
Chinese Name : 车前子
Latin Name : Plantaginis Semen
Aliases : Plantain Seeds, Toad Skin Seeds, Pig’s Ear Spikes, Phoenix Eye Kernels
Authentic Producing Area : Found in most regions of the country
Nature, Flavor & Meridian Tropism : Sweet in taste, cold in nature; enters the Liver, Kidney, Lung, and Small Intestine meridians
Benefits & Efficacy
Benefits
Clears heat, promotes urination, and relieves dysuria; drains dampness and stops diarrhea; improves vision; and eliminates phlegm.
Indications
Plantain Seed is primarily used to treat painful and scanty urination due to heat, edema and distension, summer-dampness-induced diarrhea, red and swollen eyes, and phlegm-heat cough.
Usage and Dosage
1. Internal use: Decoct 5–15 g in a separate bag; or incorporate into pills or powders. 2. External use: Use an appropriate amount; decoct in water for washing, or grind into a powder and apply as a poultice.
Precautions
1. Avoid spicy foods; limit consumption of scallions, garlic, chili peppers, and fried or spicy dishes; abstain from smoking and alcohol. 2. Patients requiring treatment with Chinese herbal medicine should first consult a licensed Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) hospital, where a TCM practitioner will conduct a professional pattern differentiation and prescribe an herbal formula.
Chemical Constituents
It primarily contains cycloether terpenoids (such as corallifolide and genipinic acid) and phenethyl glycosides (such as trichosanthin). Additionally, it contains racemic plantaginose, plantaginic acid, succinic acid, plantaginic mucopolysaccharide A, and sterols.
Pharmacological Actions
This product has diuretic, uric acid-lowering, and anti-gouty arthritis effects, as well as laxative, anti-inflammatory, antitussive, and expectorant properties.
Relevant Discussions
1. *Shennong Bencao Jing*: “Treats dysuria, relieves pain, promotes urination, and eliminates dampness-induced arthralgia.”
2. *Mingyi Bielu*: “For men with internal injuries and women with prolonged, scanty menstrual bleeding accompanied by loss of appetite. Nourishes the lungs, strengthens the kidneys, and enhances essence; promotes fertility; improves vision and treats redness and pain in the eyes.”
3. *Compendium of Materia Medica*: “It clears heat from the small intestine and stops diarrhea and dysentery caused by summer heat and dampness.”
Applications
Related Compatibility
1. Plantain Seed Combined with Akebia: Plantain seed is sweet, cold, and slippery, capable of promoting diuresis, relieving dysuria, and clearing damp-heat; Akebia is bitter and cold, capable of clearing heat from the Heart Meridian above and clearing and promoting the function of the Small Intestine below, as well as promoting urination and relieving dysuria. When these two herbs are used together, their effects in clearing heat, draining dampness, promoting diuresis, and relieving dysuria are enhanced. This combination is suitable for conditions such as scanty, red urine, frequent, painful, and difficult urination, and edema caused by the accumulation of damp-heat in the bladder.
2. Plantain Seed Combined with Atractylodes: Plantain Seed excels at clearing and draining damp-heat; Atractylodes excels at drying dampness and strengthening the spleen. When used together, these two herbs have the effect of strengthening the spleen and drying dampness. They are used to treat leukorrhea or diarrhea in women caused by damp pathogenic factors.
3. Plantain Seed Combined with Prepared Rehmannia Root: Plantain Seed excels at clearing and draining liver heat to improve vision; Prepared Rehmannia Root excels at tonifying the liver and kidneys. When used together, they clear liver heat to improve vision and tonify the liver and kidneys. This combination is used to treat symptoms such as blurred vision, visual obscuration, and scanty urination caused by liver and kidney yin deficiency.
4. Plantain Seed Combined with Sea Sand: Plantain Seed is sweet and cold in nature, excelling at clearing and draining damp-heat to relieve dysuria; Sea Sand excels at relieving dysuria, expelling stones, and alleviating pain. When used together, these two herbs enhance the efficacy of clearing and draining damp-heat to relieve dysuria. They are used to treat painful and difficult urination caused by damp-heat accumulation in the bladder or stones caused by damp-heat.
Medicinal Identification
1. Raw Plantain Seed and Salted Plantain Seed: Both are different processed varieties of Plantain Seed. Due to differences in processing methods, their therapeutic effects have distinct emphases. Raw Plantain Seed excels at promoting diuresis and relieving dysuria, clearing the lungs and resolving phlegm, and clearing the liver to improve vision. It is used for edema, dysuria, summer-dampness-induced diarrhea, phlegm-heat cough, and red eyes due to liver fire.Salt-processed Plantain Seed clears heat and promotes urination without depleting yin; it also directs the action of other herbs downward, enhancing their effects on the Kidney meridian. It is used for kidney deficiency-induced leg swelling, blurred vision, and consumptive disorders with nocturnal emissions.
2. Plantain Seed and Alisma: Both herbs can promote diuresis, reduce swelling, and clear and drain damp-heat; for conditions such as edema and abdominal distension, scanty and painful urination, and summer-damp diarrhea, they are often used together to enhance therapeutic efficacy;Both herbs enter the Kidney meridian, but the former is paired with kidney-nourishing herbs and is commonly used for kidney deficiency with infertility; the latter enters the Kidney to clear and drain “ministerial fire” and is frequently used for conditions of yin deficiency with excessive fire. Additionally, Plantain Seed can clear heat from the Liver and Lung meridians to improve vision and resolve phlegm, and is used for conditions such as red eyes due to liver heat or cough caused by phlegm-heat.
Related Medicines
Fushenning Tablets, Bazheng Compound, and Paixi Granules.
Related Prescriptions
Bazheng Powder (*Taiping Huimin Heji Jufang*), Jisheng Shenqi Pills (*Jisheng Fang*).
Medicinal Diet Therapy
Plantain Seed Porridge (Medicinal Dish):
1. Benefits: Promotes diuresis and reduces swelling; nourishes the liver and improves eyesight; eliminates phlegm and relieves cough. Suitable for the elderly with chronic bronchitis, as well as those with hypertension, urethritis, and cystitis.
2. Ingredients: 20g Plantain Seeds, 100g Japonica Rice.
3. Preparation: Wrap the Plantain Seeds in a cloth and decoct to extract the juice; then add the Japonica Rice and simmer together to make porridge.
4. Usage: Consume warm every morning and evening.
Processing & Preparation
Harvesting & Processing
Harvest the seed heads when the seeds ripen in summer and autumn; sun-dry them, rub them to extract the seeds, and remove impurities.
Processing Methods
1. Plantain Seed: Take the raw herb, remove impurities, and sift out ash and debris.
2. Roasted Plantain Seed: Place the cleaned plantain seeds in a pan and roast over low heat until they puff up, darken slightly, and crackle; then remove and let cool.
3. Salted Plantain Seeds: Place the cleaned plantain seeds in a pan and stir-fry over low heat until they puff up and crackle. Spray with salt water, continue stir-frying until dry, and remove to cool once a fragrant aroma is released. Use 2 kg of table salt per 100 kg of plantain seeds.
4. Wine-Roasted Plantain Seeds: Take cleaned plantain seeds, mix thoroughly with yellow wine, place in a pan, and roast over low heat until they take on a slight golden hue. Remove and let cool. Use 12.5 kg of yellow wine for every 100 kg of plantain seeds.
Storage Methods
Store in dry containers. Keep salted plantain seeds and wine-treated plantain seeds tightly sealed in a cool, dry place to protect against moisture and insect infestation.
Crude Drug Identification
Identification
1. Microscopic Identification
(1) Plantain: The powder is deep yellowish-brown. In cross-section, the outer epidermal cells of the seed coat appear square or slightly tangentially elongated, with mucilaginous cell walls. When viewed from the surface, the inner epidermal cells of the seed coat appear rectangular, with a diameter of 5–19 μm and a length of up to approximately 83 μm; they have thin, slightly wavy walls and are often arranged in a mosaic pattern.The endosperm cells have very thick cell walls filled with minute starch grains.
(2) Plantain: The inner epidermal cells of the seed coat are smaller, with a diameter of 5–15 μm and a length of 11–45 μm.
2. Physicochemical Identification
Take 1 g of the crude powder of this product, add 10 mL of methanol, subject to ultrasonic treatment for 30 minutes, filter, evaporate the filtrate to dryness, and dissolve the residue in 2 mL of methanol to prepare the test solution. Separately, take reference standards of genipinic acid and trichosanthin, and prepare solutions containing 1 mg per mL of each in methanol, respectively, as the reference solutions.Perform the test according to the thin-layer chromatography method (General Chapter 0502). Pipette 5 μL of each of the three solutions and apply them separately onto the same silica gel GF254 thin-layer plate. Develop with a mobile phase of ethyl acetate–methanol–formic acid–water (18:2:1.5:1), remove the plate, allow it to air-dry,and examine under ultraviolet light (254 nm). In the test sample chromatogram, spots of the same color appear at positions corresponding to those in the reference standard chromatogram; after spraying with a 0.5% vanillin-sulfuric acid solution and heating at 105°C until the spots become clearly visible, spots of the same color appear at positions corresponding to those in the reference standard chromatogram.
Properties of Crude Drugs
Oval, irregularly oblong, or triangular-oblong in shape, slightly flattened, approximately 2 mm long and 1 mm wide. The surface is yellowish-brown to dark brown with fine wrinkles; one side bears a grayish-white, pitted seed scar. Hard in texture. Slight odor; bland taste.
Properties of Processed Slices
1. Plantain Seed: Same as “Characteristics of the Herbal Material.”
2. Roasted Plantain Seed: Resembles Plantain Seed in shape, but is slightly darker in color and has a roasted aroma.
3. Salted Plantain Seed: Resembles Roasted Plantain Seed in shape and has a faint salty taste.
4. Wine-processed Plantain Seed: Resembles Roasted Plantain Seed in shape and has a slight aroma of wine.
Botanical Information
Botanical Classification
Plantago (or Common Plantain), a member of the genus Plantago in the family Plantaginaceae.
Morphological Characteristics
1. Plantain: A perennial herb that can reach up to 50 cm in height, including the flower stalk. It has fibrous roots.Basal leaves: long-petiolate, nearly as long as or longer than the leaf blade, with an expanded base; leaf blades ovate or elliptical, 4–12 cm long and 2–7 cm wide, with an acute or obtuse apex, narrowing at the base into a long petiole, entire or with irregular, shallow, wavy teeth, usually bearing 5–7 arcuate veins.Several flower stalks, 12–50 cm tall, angular, sparsely hairy; the spike-like inflorescence is 2/5–1/2 the length of the flower stalk; flowers pale green, each with one persistent, triangular bract; calyx with 4 lobes, slightly fused at the base, elliptic or ovate, persistent;Corolla small, membranous; corolla tube ovate, 4-lobed at the apex, with triangular lobes that are outwardly reflexed; stamens 4, attached near the base of the corolla tube, alternate with the corolla lobes; anthers oblong, with a triangular projection at the apex; filaments linear; pistil 1; ovary superior, ovoid, 2-chambered (pseudo-4-chambered); style 1, linear, hairy.The capsule is ovoid-conical; upon maturity, it splits along the outer circumference at approximately the lower 2/5, with the lower 2/5 persisting. There are 4–8 or 9 seeds, which are nearly elliptical and blackish-brown. Flowering occurs from June to September, and fruiting occurs in October.
2. Flat Plantain: It differs from common plantain in that the plant has a cylindrical taproot. The leaves are elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate, or ovate-lanceolate, with a narrow base. The calyx lobes are approximately equal in length to the bracts. The capsule is conical. The seeds are oblong and brownish-black.
Distribution Area
1. Plantain: Distributed throughout the country. 2. Flat-leaved Plantain: Distributed throughout the country, but more common in the north.