Functions and Indications:

• Promotes digestion and remove food stagnation. When indigestion and food retention characterized by abdominal distention or pain, diarrhea, etc.  Is the number 1 herb for indigestion due to meat. Stir-fry with Mai Ya (sprouted barley), then make a tea for indigestion and cook fresh Shan Zha (hawthorn fruit) for tea.

• Alleviates diarrhea. Burn 10 g Shan Zha into charcoal. Grind to powder, add to water and drink.
• Promote blood circulation, resolving blood stagnation. Help in cases of delayed menstruation, or dysmenorrhea due to blood stagnation. Coronary heart disease, cook with brown sugar and drink. Use over a long period of time.

• Lower blood pressure and cholesterol. Hypertension and hyperlipidemia. Decoct Shan Zha, Bin Yang Jian (6g Shan Zha), and add crystal sugar to taste. Make a warm tea for Hypertension: 12 g Shan Zha, 3 pieces He Ye  (lotus leaf). Decoct. Make a tea for  Hyperlipidemia,

• Corrects blood coagulation, and expels tapeworms. To relieve abdominal pain due to acute and chronic gastritis, enteritis and dysentery grind 6 –  9 g charcoaled hawthorn fruit into powder. Take the powder with warm water daily

Directions: one common recipe: 4 ounces Shan Zha (hawthorn fruit), 4 ounces Gu Ya (sprouted rice), 4 ounces Mai Ya (sprouted barley), and 1 1/2 cups of sugar are simmered in 8 cups of water until the ingredients break down into a thin paste. The paste is strained out and a teaspoon added to hot water to make a drink taken twice a day.

Precaution: Week digestion in the absence of food stagnation or when acid regurgitation.

From The Tao of Tummy © book, in the Chapter of Digestive Foods