There is a medicine called "gallnut" in traditional Chinese medicine. Have you ever seen this plant among rural friends?

Galla chinensis is a parent plant of the sumac family. Some places directly call it Rhus chinensis. In addition, its nickname also includes five times firewood, mountain wutong, black peach leaf, black salt bubble, black smoked peach, black sour peach, red leaf peach, salt tree root, toona sinensis, sour sauce head, red salt fruit, times firewood, horn times, skin poplar, salt skin seed, hydrochloric acid white, etc. Each province has its own name.

In China, except for Northeast China, Inner Mongolia, and Xinjiang, all other provinces and regions have a general distribution, growing in sparse forests or shrubs on sunny slopes, valleys, and streams at an altitude of 170-2700 meters. Worldwide, it is mainly distributed in China, India, Indochina, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, and North Korea. China has the highest production and best quality of Chinese gallnuts, and is internationally known as the "Chinese gallnuts". Since the Qing Dynasty, it has become a traditional export commodity in China. In China, the production areas of gallnuts are distributed in nearly 20 provinces and regions, with the main production areas in Sichuan, Guizhou, Hubei, Shaanxi, and Yunnan, accounting for about 90% of the total production in the country. The main production areas are concentrated in mountainous and hilly areas such as the Qinling Mountains, Daba Mountains, Wudang Mountains, Wushan Mountains, Wuling Mountains, Emei Mountains, Dalou Mountains, and Daliang Mountains.

Many people think that gallnuts are the fruit of plants in the genus Salicornia, but in reality, this seemingly plant bearing fruit is actually the fruit of animals. Gall galls are actually formed by the horned aphids of the family Aphidae on their host trees such as Salicornia, Populus davidii, or Populus rubra. It is a "nest" created by the wingless, unisexual female of the horned aphid or polyploid aphid, which parasitizes on the tender branches of the salt wood, for the purpose of "giving birth to children".. This type of female insect sucks the juice from tender branches and leaves in this sealed nest to feed itself, while also giving birth to children inside. As the larvae grow from few to many, from larvae to adults, this nest continues to grow. When the larvae all grow into winged adults, they can break out of the nest. There are more than ten species of aphids in China, which parasitize on the leaves of Rhus chinensis, Rhus chinensis, Red Poplar, and Green Poplar in the Rhus family. Aphids stimulate the proliferation and enlargement of leaf tissue cells, resulting in galls. These galls are collectively referred to as galls

Ancient science was not yet developed, and ancient people mistakenly believed that gallnuts were the fruits of trees. It was not until the Ming Dynasty that Li Shizhen had a scientific understanding. According to the "Compendium of Materia Medica", the Chinese gallnut was included in the "Kaibao Materia Medica" section of the Song Dynasty. The Jiayou Materia Medica was moved to the Ministry of Wood, although it was known that it was born on the skin wood, it was not known that it was made by insects. Skin wood, also known as salt skin wood. In this woody jungle, in May and June, there are insects like ants that feed on their juice. When they grow old, they leave behind their seeds and form small balls between the leaves, just like a crow making a sparrow jar or a wax insect making wax seeds. At first, it is very small and gradually grows strong. It is as big as a fist or as small as a diamond, and its shape varies in length. At the beginning, it was green and fine yellow, hanging on the branches and leaves as if it had formed a knot. Its shell was hard and brittle, and it was empty, with small insects like a midge. Before the frost falls, the mountain people take measures to steam and kill the goods. Modern research has shown that this type of salt wood tree parasitized by the aphids of the family Aphidae, such as the horned aphid or the egg aphid, was formerly known as the double tree. There are mainly five types of polyploids, so galls that grow on polyploids are called galls. Gallnuts are harvested in autumn, boiled or steamed in boiling water until the surface turns gray to kill aphids, removed, and dried. According to different appearances, it can be divided into "belly size" and "corner size".

Gallnuts can be extracted from chemical raw materials such as tannic acid, gallic acid, and gallic acid coke. China has a history of using gallnuts for over 2000 years, mainly in medicine. Its nature is cold and its taste is sour and salty. It has the functions of astringent cough, astringent intestines to stop diarrhea, and astringent sweating to stop bleeding. At the same time, it also has the effects of reducing swelling, detoxifying, relieving pain, and contraception. With the development of medical science, drugs made from gallic acid and tannic acid have significant therapeutic effects on cardiovascular diseases such as coronary heart disease, angina pectoris, and myocardial infarction. Tannic acid, gallic acid, and pyrogallic acid extracted from gallnuts are widely used in industries such as medicine, beverages, textiles, leather making, petroleum, drilling, metallurgy, rare metal extraction, ink, navigation, rubber, etc. They are important industrial raw materials.

When I was a child, I often went to the mountains to pick Chinese gallnuts and sell them for money, but I always thought they were fruits and often played with them. If I had known that they were all aphids, I probably wouldn't have been so happy picking them. Haha, have you ever picked Chinese gallnuts when you were a child?