More on the Aubergine

Posted on | September 4, 2008 |

About the eggplant, the Shen Nong Ben Cao says this:

“一名茄根．味甘寒．生山谷．治勞傷虛羸．補中益氣．除??;血血閉寒熱．利小便．其苗．下水.”

yī míng qié gēn. wèi gān hán. shēng shāngǔ. zhì láoshāng xū léi. bǔ zhōng yìqì. chú ??; xuè xuè bì hánrè. lì xioǎbiàn. qí miáo. xiàxhuǐ.

With my less than mediocre understanding of Classic Chinese, I would translate this as, “It’s name is Qiegen. It’s flavor is sweet and it is cooling. It increases the circulation. It cures internal lesions, especially those caused by overexertion, and weakness. It mends the center and increases the Qi. It divides (congealed blood?). It moves the blood that is congealed with cold and fever. It acts as a diuretic. It’s seedlings push the water downward.”

I’m sure that someone else has a much better understanding of that passage, but I figured I would give it a try. The flavor of eggplant is considered to be sweet in Chinese medicine, and it has a cooling action. There is certainly a bitter component to raw eggplant, though much of it has been bred out of the domesticated version. According to Pitchford, eggplant reduces swelling and breaks up congealed blood. It is highly beneficial for treating congealed blood in the uterus and because it is so rich in bioflavanoids, it can help renew arteries and prevent hemorrhage and stroke (perhaps why the Ben Cao says it helps with ‘weakness’?). Charred eggplant is great to use as a tooth powder when cancer sores are present and a compress of eggplant tea at room temperature will help to resolve frostbite.

Eggplant is known in modern Chinese as Qiezi (茄子). The character Qie (茄) can be broken down a bit - It’s a picture of grass (艹) above the character Jia (加). Jia has the meaning of increase, add or confer and is made of the radicals for power (力) and mouth (口). What any of this means is really anyone’s guess, but I’ll give it a shot, since this is my blog and all. How do you get the meaning “increase” out of the radicals for power and mouth? My limited understanding tells me that we arrive there because when we use the power of our mouth, growth results. So, if that’s the case, we’ve got a grass/plant that either grows through the power of it’s own consumption, or a grass/plant that can cause growth through it’s consumption. Because of it’s high potassium content, the consumption of eggplant can help with adrenal fatigue, as well as muscle weakness, etc… so this character as a plant that brings strength through consumption is certainly appropriate.

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I'm a Chinese medicine student who uses this blog as a place to store my thoughts and occasionally rant and rave about things I trip over in life.

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