Witnessed by: TCM
Water chestnut (Eleocharis dulcis), of the Cyperaceae family. Tufted aquatic sedge with round hollow leafless culms, the corms formed at the stolon-tips in the mud; native range: marsh and shallow water across southern China and Southeast Asia; grown in flooded fields in the Yangtze provinces and southward. Globally recognized as bi qi (荸薺) · ma ti (馬蹄, 'horse's hoof') · bi qi zhi (荸薺汁, the juice) in Chinese, and Chinese water chestnut in English. The part used is corm, and its expressed juice. A flattened dark-brown corm ringed with scales and topped by a bud, peeling to a white crisp flesh; sweet, watery and cool, and it stays crisp however long it is cooked.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
WATER CHESTNUT
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- water chestnut
- Scientific name
- Eleocharis dulcis (Burm.f.) Trin. ex Hensch.
- Family
- Cyperaceae
Form
- Part used
- corm, and its expressed juice
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- TCM
- sweet
Temperature
- TCM
- cold
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- TCM
- Lung · Stomach
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- clears heat and generates fluids, transforms phlegm, cools the blood, promotes urination, brightens the eyes
Cautions
- Contraindications
- Spleen and Stomach deficiency-cold, loose stools, and any cold pattern of the middle burner — the raw cold juice will worsen them; caution in pregnancy
- Toxicity
- none — a food; but the raw corm grown in field mud may carry the fasciolopsis fluke and should be peeled and, where that is a risk, scalded
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