Prunus domestica, Plumtree, Prune
Prunus domestica, Plum-tree, Prune
Aalu Bukhara (Unani)
P. domestica
Dioscorides Materia Medica, Mathias, 1563
P. sylvestris
Krauterbuch, Lonitzer, 1578
Botanical name:
Prunus domestica
Many types of Plums were used: Garden or Wild (Sloes); great, small, long, round, white, red, yellow, purple, black; sweet or sour Damascens (with a long kernel) were regarded as best
Parts used:
Fruit; Dried fruit is Prune
Temperature & Taste:
Cool, moist
Classifications:
2F. PURIFYING 2G. CLEANSING
3B. FEBRIFUGE & ANTIPYRETIC
4e. STOMACHIC
E. Laxative, Purgatives and Cathartics
Preparers and Purgers of Bile
Preparers and Purgers of Melancholy
TCM:
B. Clear Heat
Uses:
1. Clears Heat, Opens the Bowels:
-good to clear Heat and open the Bowels in Fever and Heat disease
-allay sharp Humors (Damascens are best)
-‘They cool excellently in Fevers’. (especially Prunellaes)
-Steep in water and the water drunk, they quench Thirst
Dose:
3–5 fruits as a normal dose; 7 taken at night work as a laxative; 10–15 act as a purgative
Comment:
Correctives:
Substitutes:
Main Combinations:
1. To clear Heat and open the belly,
i. Prune with … available in PRO version
ii. Prune, … available in PRO version
iii. Prunes, … available in PRO version
iv. Prunes with … available in PRO version
2. To clear Heat in Fevers, Prune, … available in PRO version
3. To purge Bile:
i. Prune, … available in PRO version
ii. Prune … available in PRO version
iii. Purge Bile and Phlegm, Prune … available in PRO version
4. To purge Melancholy, Prune, … available in PRO version
5. Heart Fire with Insomnia and Palpitations, Prune … available in PRO version
Major Formulas:
Common Decoction
Decoction of Fruit
Decoction of Fruit and Flowers
Decoction of Myrobalan (Mesue)
Decoction to Cool
Cordial Decoction (Florentini)
Decoction of Senna
Decoction to Expel Bile (Andernacus)
Syrup of Dodder of Thyme (Mesue)
Electuary of Prunes (Diaprunis lenitiva) (Nicholas)
Arabian Confect Purging Melancholy (Confectio Hamech) (Mesue)
Triphera Persica (Mesue)
Cautions:
1. Not suitable for those with Cold and weak digestion.
-‘The fresh and crude loosen the Belly, but they easily putrify, and therefore are not to be eaten much, especially after meat’. (Schroder)
Main Preparations used:
Preserved Plums, Pulp of Plums, Electuary Diaprunus, Diaprunum compound
