After the first bright red, the mulberry fruit gradually changes to purple, black, sweet, astringent and highly poisonous. don't eat it by mistake.

Horseradish fruit

Mulberry fruit, also known as poisonous empty wood, water horseradish mulberry, duck eating wood, chicken plague wood, saddle and so on, is a plant of Coriaceae, growing in hillsides or gullies, which is common in southern provinces of our country. The pea is the size of a pea, round and succulent, and it is green when it is not ripe.

Common shrubs, occasionally found in Lichuan, Hubei Province, branching horizontally, branchlets are four-angled or four narrow wings, mature every May to June, initially bright red, then gradually purple-black, sweet and astringent, highly toxic, often poisoned by children picking by mistake, even causing death.

Alias

Ma Sang (Sichuan) thousand years red, saddle, water horse mulberry, wild horse mulberry (Yunnan), Ma Sangchai (Guiyang), oolong beard, drunken fish, noisy fish (Chengdu), black tiger king (Qujing, Yunnan), purple mulberry (Wenshan, Yunnan)

Morphological characteristics

Common shrubs, occasionally arboreal in Lichuan, Hubei Province, branching horizontally, branchlets quadrangular or four narrowly winged, young branches sparsely puberulent, posterior hairs, often purplish, old branches purplish brown, with prominent round lenticels

Bud scales membranous, ovate or ovate-triangular, long mm, purplish red, glabrous.

Leaves opposite, papery to thinly leathery, elliptic or broadly elliptic, 2.5-8 cm long, 5-4 cm long, apex acute, base rounded, entire, both surfaces glabrous or sparsely hairy along veins, basal 3-veined, curved extension, retuse on leaf surface, leaf back raised

Leaves short stipitate, 2-3 mm long, sparsely hairy, purple, base with cushion-like protuberances.

Inflorescences on biennial branches, male inflorescences open, 1.5-2.5 cm long, densely flowered, rachis glandular pilose; bracts and bracteoles ovoid, ca. 2.5 mm long, ca. 2 mm wide, membranous, translucent, concave, upper margin fimbriate denticulate

Pedicel ca. 1 mm, glabrous; sepals ovate, 1.5-2 mm long and 1-1.5 mm wide, margin translucent, distally fimbriate denticulate

Petals very small, ovate, ca. 0.3 mm, keeled inside

Stamens 10, filaments linear, ca. 1 mm, elongated at flowering, 3-3.5 mm long, anthers oblong, ca. 2 mm, finely verrucous, connective protruding, anther base short caudate; sterile pistil present; female inflorescences 4-6 cm long, rachis glandular puberulent

Bracts slightly larger, ca. 4 mm, purplish; pedicels 1.5-2.5 mm long; sepals the same as male flowers

Petals fleshy, smaller, keeled; stamens shorter, filaments ca. 0.5 mm, anthers ca. 0.8 mm, carpels 5, auriculate, ca. 0.7 mm long, ca. 0.5 mm wide, laterally compressed, style ca. 1 mm, verrucose, stigma upper curved, purplish red, with many verrucous rests.

Fruit globose, fleshy petals enlarged in fruit, changing from red to purple-black at maturity, 4-6 mm in diameter; seeds ovate-oblong.

Distribution range

Produced in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hubei, Shaanxi, Gansu, Xizang. Distributed in India and Nepal.

Growing environment

Born in thickets 400-3200 meters above sea level.

Drug information

The main components in the fruit of mulberry are coriaria toxin, hydroxycoriaria toxin, hydrogenated coriaria toxin and so on. The toxicology is similar to that of Tetrandrine, and it is more intense. It causes a series of toxic symptoms such as excitement, spasm and vomiting by stimulating the cerebral cortex. Frequent tetanic convulsions can cause brain edema and respiratory failure, and other organs such as lung, liver, heart and kidney are also damaged.

The incubation period of mulberry poisoning is from half an hour to three hours. The main symptoms of poisoning are headache, dizziness, chest tightness, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and so on. The serious person is numb all over the body, the heartbeat slows down, the blood pressure rises, the pupil narrows, the breath increases quickly, the reflex strengthens, often suddenly screams, then faints, then appears paroxysmal convulsions, during the interval the patient's consciousness can be semi-awake or lethargic. If you see restless, hands scratching the chest and other performance, that is, the harbinger of another twitch. In general, consciousness gradually recovered after the cessation of convulsions and returned to normal 2-3 days later. In severe cases, breathing can be stopped after repeated seizures. Those who take a large amount at one time can cause cardiac arrest due to the excessive excitement of the vagus nerve center.

In the event of poisoning, parents should immediately urge vomiting, and then take 10 grams of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) dissolved in warm water, can also be filled with egg whites, serious poisoning should be immediately sent to the hospital for treatment.

Although mulberry trees are poisonous, goats like to eat them, including tidbits and fruits, and there are no signs of poisoning. They grow rapidly, and the faster they cut down new branches, the faster they are suitable for herdsmen to plant. There is basically no withered leaf in the Yangtze River valley in winter. According to the older generation of sheep herders, it is said that the leaves and fruits of horseradish mulberry have high nutritional value, and the sheep will gain fat quickly and can afford to kill two kilos.

Main value

Alcohol can be mentioned. Seed oil can be used for paint and ink. Tannin extract can be extracted from stems and leaves. The whole plant contains horserine, which is toxic and can be used as an soil pesticide.