Lemongrass, also known as Baomao, Latin name Cymbopogon citratus, is a perennial herb in the family Cyperaceae and the genus Cymbopogon. The stems are thick and slender, scattered, upright, nearly hairless, and the nodes are large. The petioles are hairless, and the tips are often开裂; the upper ones are shorter than the node position; the ligule is钝圆, membranous, and often irregularly开裂; the leaves are narrow and linear; both sides are nearly hairless and have a white frost.

Lemongrass has a long history of cultivation in Indonesia and Singapore. The Dutch used lemongrass as a seasoning for fish dishes. It can generally be used as a seasoning for pickled vegetables and in making curry sauce, fruit juice, soup, and rice wine. It can also be used as a substitute for tea, and lemongrass can also be extracted to produce lemongrass oil and soap spices.

Formerly known as Baomao, it was used to distill wine, worship the ancestors of heaven and earth, and during the Zhou Dynasty, the ruler of Chu, Baomao, presented lemongrass to the Zhou Dynasty. The parts used: the leaves are the main part, and the stem can also be used when extracting essential oil. Lemongrass is a type of grass with a spicy aroma that grows in subtropical climates, naturally containing the fragrance of green lemon, and has the effects of harmonizing the stomach, promoting respiration, and invigorating the mind.

Effect

Known for its fragrant scent of green lemon, it is also called lemon grass. Belonging to the family of Cyperaceae, it is a woody plant that grows for many years. It not only has ornamental value but also can be used in landscaping, scenting home furniture, as it contains citral, which has actual effects of disinfection, sterilization, and treating neuralgia and muscle pain, hence it is known as the ‘Pain Relieving Hero’. Drinking tea made from it can enhance digestion, achieve the effect of strengthening the stomach, digesting food, and removing fat, and can alleviate bone and muscle pain, abdominal colic, or spasms, and can also solve digestion problems; it can also treat diarrhea, fever, common cold, and other discomforts. In addition, it also has beneficial effects for women, such as promoting urination, preventing anemia, and moisturizing the skin, making it an indispensable good thyme for women’s beauty and health. Its side effects are that due to the strong aroma of lemongrass, pregnant women should not use it.

Anti-asthma

For the guinea pig bronchospasm caused by histamine spray, the volatile oil (eucalyptol) commonly contained in the herb elsholtzia (2.4ml/kg, intramuscular injection) has a significant resistance effect, and the black pepper ketone extracted from eucalyptol also has the same or stronger effect at 1.2ml/kg, while the effect of sodium bisulfite black pepper ketone is not significant. Both eucalyptol and black pepper ketone have a significant immediate dilating effect on the smooth muscles of paraffin section guinea pig bronchitis, and the latter has an effect more than one and a half times stronger than the former, and stronger than doxylamine. The effect of sodium bisulfite black pepper ketone is poor and unstable.

Expectorant and cough-suppressing

Eucalyptol and black pepper ketone (2.4ml/kg, intramuscular injection) have a significant inhibitory effect on the cough reflex induced by the upper cervical nerve of electrically stimulated guinea pigs, and the latter still has a stronger effect than eucalyptol when the dosage is reduced by half. Sodium bisulfite black pepper ketone has no significant effect. Eucalyptol or black pepper ketone at high doses has a significant central nervous system depressant effect on guinea pigs, and the latter has a significant enhancement of pentobarbital sodium anesthesia when it reaches 2.4ml/kg. Therefore, their expectorant and cough-suppressing effects are either selectively inhibiting the cough center or due to their general central nervous system depressant effects, which has not been concluded.

Antibacterial

Eighteen kinds of bacteria, including Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus agalactiae, and Staphylococcus aureus, were isolated from the sputum of elderly chronic bronchitis patients, and the paper strip method confirmed that eucalyptol and black pepper ketone have certain antibacterial effects, while sodium bisulfite black pepper ketone does not. The contained black pepper ketone has a significant resistance to guinea pig allergic bronchospasm caused by egg white protein, and intramuscular injection of 0.8ml/kg can prevent the occurrence of convulsive reactions, but some guinea pigs still have respiratory discomfort or slight cyanosis. If intramuscular injection of 1.2ml/kg, it can completely protect guinea pigs from any reaction; inhaling black pepper ketone aerosol for one minute can counteract the spasm of smooth muscles in guinea pig bronchitis caused by histamine, and there is no significant enhancement of antispasmodic effect; using its saturated solution for guinea pig paraffin section bronchitis perfusion.

For all normal or spastic effects, increasing the inhalation time does not enhance the antispasmodic effect; using its saturated solution for guinea pig paraffin section bronchitis perfusion has a significant dilating effect on smooth muscles in both normal and spastic conditions; the experiment with guinea pig paraffin section bronchitis suggests that the effect of black pepper ketone on relaxing smooth muscles is not a general blocking of nitrosamine or acetylcholine protein kinase.