Is bitter heart vegetable dandelion?

Ixeris angustifolia is a kind of perennial herbaceous wild vegetable, which is distributed in most areas of China. This kind of wild vegetable is very similar to dandelion and tastes very bitter. Many people confuse the two, so is bitter vegetable a dandelion?

1. The species difference between bitter cabbage and dandelion

Ixeris angustifolia is not dandelion, but the whole grass or root of Asteraceae plant. Harvest, wash, fresh or dry in early spring. Born in mountains and wilderness, it is a weed in the field. Dandelion is a perennial herb, lobes toothed or triangular, leaves of the whole plant contains white milk, bitter taste. It is a common wild vegetable with the same origin in medicine and food. Yellow flowers, seeds like small parachutes. The main difference between the two is that dandelion seeds have a fluttering tail, while sowthistle does not have such seeds.

Although sowthistle is a natural wild thing, its growth is very demanding on the environment, and its producing area must be in a place with distinct seasons and pleasant climate. Due to the limitation of the growing environment and the climate change in recent years, its yield has decreased year by year. Dandelion has strong adaptability and is widely born in hillsides, grasslands, roadsides, fields and beaches in middle and low elevations.

Second, the difference between the efficacy of bitter cabbage and dandelion

Both bitter cabbage and dandelion can be used in medicine, both of which have high medicinal value in traditional Chinese medicine, but their effects are not the same. Here is a brief introduction.

Dandelion plants contain many kinds of healthy nutrients such as dandelion alcohol, dandelion, choline, organic acid, inulin and so on. It has the effects of diuresis, relieving diarrhea, relieving jaundice, cholagogic and so on. Dandelion also contains protein, fat, carbohydrates, trace elements and vitamins, has rich nutritional value, can be eaten raw, fried food, soup, is both medicine and food plants.

The main effects of bitter heart vegetables are soothing the liver and gallbladder, tonifying qi and tonifying the kidney, dispelling wind and dampness, promoting blood circulation and relieving pain. It mainly treats qi deficiency and weakness, kidney deficiency and impotence, epigastric pain, thirst, insomnia and dreaminess, rheumatism, waist and knee weakness, heat-clearing and detoxification, constipation, gastroenteritis, chronic cholecystitis, cholelithiasis, heart disease, hepatitis, hemorrhoids and so on.

These are the main differences between bitter cabbage and dandelion, so don't get confused.