1. Aliases

Indigo, indigo flower, indigo foam, blue indigo, blue dew, green clam powder, indigo foam flower.
2. Plant morphology
Annual herb, 50-80 centimeters tall, with a cylindrical stem and a light purple red color. It has fibrous roots at the lower nodes. Single leaf alternate. Inflorescence spike shaped, terminal or axillary, flowers light red, dense; The perianth is deeply split. Achenes ovate, with 3 edges, black brown, containing 1 seed, enclosed within the persistent perianth.
3. Origin distribution
More cultivated or semi wild state. Mainly distributed in Northeast China, North China, Shaanxi, Shandong, Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi, and Guangdong.
4. Harvesting and processing
Harvest in summer and autumn, cut the aboveground stems and leaves, remove impurities, cut into sections, and sun dry. Put it in a wooden bucket or jar, immerse it in water for 2-3 days and nights, remove the branches when the leaves fall off from the branches, add an appropriate amount of lime and fully stir it, until the infusion changes from dark green to dark purple red, remove the blue foam generated by the liquid level, and dry it in the sun.
5. Characteristics of medicinal herbs
Extremely fine powder, gray blue or dark blue, easily flying in texture, sticky to paper, floating on the water surface when thrown into water, and also appearing as porous small pieces. There is a special grassy smell and a slightly sour taste.
6. Nature, taste, and meridian tropism
Cold in nature and salty in taste. Guigan Meridian.
7. Effect and function
Clear heat and cool blood, calm shock. A heat clearing and blood cooling medicine classified under the category of heat clearing medicine.
8. Clinical applications
Dosage: 0.9-1.5 grams, swallowed or diluted. Used to treat warm toxins, hair spots, blood heat vomiting and bleeding, chest pain and hemoptysis, oral ulcers, mumps, sore throat, pediatric convulsions, etc. Qingdai Biejia Tang is used to treat chronic myeloid leukemia: 62 grams of Qingdai and Biejia each, 32 grams of raw earth, 31 grams of turtle shell, raw oyster, ginseng, raw medicine, and ground bone bark each, 12 grams of chicken inner gold, danpi, and red peony each, 15 grams of Angelica sinensis and Paoshan jia each, 9 grams of safflower and Guangmu xiang each, 3 grams of ground licorice, refined honey into pills, 9 grams per pill, and 4-6 pills per day.
9. Main components
Contains indigo red and indigo 3%~7%, as well as tryptophan, indigo ketone, isoindigo blue, N-phenyl - α - naphthylamine, entomolol, and β - sitosterol. Indigo carmine has a high inhibitory rate on mouse leukemia, with a total of 6-7 days of subcutaneous and intraperitoneal injection of 200 mg/kg of 256 rat Wackett's tumor. The inhibitory rates are 47% -52% and 50% -58%, respectively. Stomach administration of 500 mg/kg has an inhibitory rate of 23% -33%. Subcutaneous injection of 200 mg/kg twice can prolong the survival time of rat Wackett's tumor ascites type rats by 43%, and also has a significant inhibitory effect on mouse lung cancer.
10. Taboos for use
Those with spleen and stomach deficiency and cold should not take it.