What are the effects and functions of corn silk

Corn silk

Corn silk is also known as corn silk (Southern Yunnan Materia Medica), corn core (Modern Practical Chinese Medicine), and corn hair (Hebei Medicinal Materials).

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that corn silk is sweet, light, and neutral in nature. It enters the bladder and gallbladder meridians. It has the functions of diuresis, heat relief, liver calming, and gallbladder promotion. Modern medical research believes that corn silk has multiple functions such as diuresis, lowering blood pressure, lowering blood sugar, gallbladder promotion, hemostasis, antibacterial, and immune enhancement and anti-cancer.

[Chemical composition of corn silk] Contains 2.5% fatty oil, 0.12% volatile oil, 3.8% gum-like substance, 2.7% resin, 1.15% bitter glycoside, 3.18% saponin, 0.05% alkaloid. It also contains cryptoxanthin, ascorbic acid, pantothenic acid, inositol, vitamin K, sitosterol, stigmasterol, malic acid, citric acid, tartaric acid, oxalic acid, etc.

[Nature and flavor of corn silk] Sweet, flat, non-toxic.

[Main functions of corn silk] Diuresis, heat dissipation, liver calming, and gallbladder promoting. Mainly used for nephritis edema, beriberi, jaundice hepatitis, hypertension, cholecystitis, gallstones, diabetes, hematemesis, epistaxis, sinusitis, and mastitis.

The benefits of corn silk

①Diuretic effect

Corn silk has a diuretic effect on humans and rabbits and can increase chloride excretion, but the effect is weak. The methanol-insoluble part of its water extract that has been dialyzed (A) has the strongest diuretic effect, and has significant effects whether taken orally, subcutaneously or intravenously. The diuretic effect is mainly extrarenal, and the effect on the kidney is very weak.

②Cholestatic and hemostatic effects

Corn silk preparations can promote bile excretion, reduce its viscosity, and reduce its bile pigment content, so they can be used as choleretics for patients with chronic cholecystitis without complications and cholangitis with bile excretion disorders. They can also accelerate the blood coagulation process, increase the content of prothrombin in the blood, and increase the number of platelets, so they can be used as hemostatics and diuretics for bladder and urinary stones.

③Effects on the circulatory system

Intravenous injection of the decoction in anesthetized dogs has a significant hypotensive effect, but in dogs with chronic carotid skin grafts, daily medication for 3 consecutive weeks has no hypotensive effect. A in low concentrations has a dilating effect on peripheral blood vessels.

④Lowering blood sugar

The fermented preparation of corn silk has a very significant effect of lowering blood sugar in rabbits.