What is Hua Jiao?

Hua Jiao, which is also called
Zanthoxylum bungeanum or
Sichuan pepper, the name of traditional Chinese medicine. It is the dried and mature peel of green pepper Zanthoxylum schinifolium Sieb.et Zucc. or Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim. of Rutaceae plant. Zanthoxylum bungeanum is a perennial plant of small deciduous trees of Rutaceae and Zanthoxylum genus. With tall stems, branches with short thorns, small leaves, opposite leaves, sessile. Inflorescences terminal or lateral branches terminal; tepals yellow-green, roughly the same shape and size; female flowers rarely develop stamens. The fruit is purplish red, with scattered slightly raised oil spots on a single mericarp. Flowering in April-May, fruiting in August-September or October. Because the fruit skin has tiny protruding oil spots that look like flowers in spots, it is named " Hua Jiao ".
Sichuan pepper
Sichuan pepper is recorded in Chinese herbal medicine books of all dynasties. It first appeared in "Book of Songs", and it was first used as medicine in "Shen Nong's Materia Medica". Vomiting and diarrhea. It is often used for symptoms such as cold and pain in the abdomen, vomiting, diarrhea, and lack of appetite. In addition, Hua Jiao can also drive roundworms and kill insects, and can be used for children with abdominal pain caused by infestations. However, if you eat too much pepper, you will be poisoned. The camphor contained in pepper has certain toxicity, which can damage the liver function in mild cases, and can cause poisoning and syncope in severe cases. Sichuan pepper is a typical light yellow, deep yellow in the air, the xylem structure is dense, uniform, and bright, and the wood has artistic and craft value.
Types of Hua Jiao
Hua Jiao
Also known as Qinjiao, Fengjiao and Shujiao, referred to as pepper tree, it is the most widely cultivated variety with the highest economic value in my country, almost all over the country.
Wild Hua Jiao
Wild Hua Jiao is one of the main types of pepper skin. It has the same function as pepper, but the taste is slightly worse. Mainly distributed in the mountain shrubs in the south of the Yangtze River and North China, mostly wild, rarely cultivated.
Chuan-Shan Hua Jiao
Also known as Dajin pepper. This species can be used as the rootstock of Hua Jiao, aromatic oil can be extracted from the peel, and oil can be extracted from the seeds. Distributed in the southern part of Gansu and Shaanxi provinces and the northern part of Sichuan.
Bamboo leaf Hua Jiao
Bamboo leaf Hua Jiao is called bamboo leaf pepper for short. The use is the same as that of Hua Jiao, but the numbness of the peel is stronger and the fragrance is slightly worse. It is mainly distributed in southwest, east, central and north China, and is cultivated in a small amount in mountainous areas, or as pepper rootstock.
Qing Hua Jiao
Also known as cliff pepper, wild pepper, and pepper, referred to as green pepper. The use is the same as that of Hua Jiao. Distributed in most provinces in the north and south of the Yellow River.
Growth environment of Hua Jiao

Huajiao is a widely distributed species, and Huajiao is native to China, native to the Himalayas. Now Japan, South Korea and other countries also have distribution. In China, Huajiao is distributed from the north to the southeast of the northeast, to the north slope of Wuling Mountains in the south, to the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the southeast, and to the southeast of Tibet in the southwest; Taiwan, Hainan and Guangdong do not produce it, and it is distributed in other provinces.
Huajiao is found in the plains to the mountains with higher altitudes. In Qinghai, it is found in slopes at an altitude of 2,500 meters and is also planted. Drought-tolerant, sunshine-loving, planted in many places.
Processing methods of Hua Jiao
Collection and processing
Harvest ripe fruits in autumn, dry them in the sun, and remove seeds and impurities.
Processing method
Hua Jiao
Remove impurities such as pepper eyes and fruit stalks.
Fried Hua Jiao
Take the clean Hua Jiao and stir-fry them according to the clear frying method until fragrant.
Hua Jiao TCM

Medicine part
The dried ripe fruit peel of a plant.
Taste
Spicy in the mouth, warm in nature.
Tropism
Return spleen, stomach, kidney channel.
Effect
Warming middle-JIAO to relieve pain, killing parasites and relieving itching.
Attending
For epigastric cold and pain, vomiting and diarrhea, abdominal pain due to worm accumulation; external application: eczema, pruritus vulvae.
Related compatibility
1. Hua Jiao can be used with ginger and white cardamom, which can be used for external cold and internal invasion, stomach cold, abdominal pain, and vomiting.
2. Hua Jiao can be used with ebony plum, dried ginger, Phellodendron cortex, etc. It can be used for abdominal pain caused by insect accumulation, rebellious hands and feet, depression and vomiting of roundworm.
3. Hua Jiao can be used with Sophora flavescens, Cnidium mongolica, Kochia scoparia, Cortex Phellodendron, etc., and can be used for eczema itching.
Dosage
3~6g.
Appropriate amount for external use, decocted for fumigation and washing.
Taboo
Contraindicated for those with yin deficiency and hyperactivity of fire. Pregnant women take it with caution.
Physiological characteristics
Hua Jiao: The pods are mostly solitary, with a diameter of 4-5mm. The outer surface is purplish red or brownish red, scattered with many warty protruding oil spots, 0.5-1mm in diameter, translucent when observed by light; the inner surface is light yellow. Strong aroma, spicy and persistent taste.
Related discussion
1. "Shen Nong's Materia Medica": "The main evil cough is reversed, warming the middle, expelling the dead muscles of the joints and skin, cold and damp arthralgia, and lowering the qi."
2. "Compendium of Materia Medica": "Pepper, a pure yang thing, its taste is pungent and numb, and its temperature is hot. It enters the lungs to dispel cold and treat cough; enters the spleen to dehumidify, treats wind-cold-damp arthralgia, edema and diarrhea; enters the right kidney Supplements fire, treats symptoms of yang decline, urticaria, foot weakness, and chronic dysentery."
Hua Jiao benefits
Dispelling cold and invigorating the spleen
Hua Jiao is warm in nature, pungent in taste, enters the lung, spleen, and kidney channels, and has the effects of dispelling cold, stopping diarrhea, warming the middle and dispelling cold, and invigorating the spleen. Appropriate consumption can dispel cold and invigorate the spleen.
Sterilization
Hua Jiao contains laurocapram and dimethyl sulfoxide, which can effectively inhibit fungi and can enter fungal cells to accelerate fungal death. Appropriate consumption of Sichuan pepper can play a role in sterilization, and can also inhibit the growth of fungi and treat beriberi.
Anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving
Hua Jiao is astringent in nature, can temporarily paralyze nerves, and has the effect of local anesthesia and pain relief. Appropriate consumption of pepper water can promote blood circulation in the affected area, eliminate inflammation, relieve pain of patients, and temporarily play the role of anti-inflammatory and pain relief.
Hua Jiao side effects
1. Excessive oral administration of Hua Jiao can cause poisoning. The symptoms are: dizziness, nausea, vomiting, dry mouth, and even convulsions, delirium, coma, dyspnea, and finally died of respiratory failure.
2. If pregnant women use it frequently, it will easily cause fetal movement.
3. People who have had eczema are likely to stimulate the recurrence of eczema.
4. Eating too much will consume gas and hurt yin.
5. The content of geraniol in the volatile oil in the immature Hua Jiao is very high, which may cause lung and bronchial hemorrhage in a short period of time after eating, making breathing extremely difficult, and even causing human poisoning and fainting.
Hua Jiao uses

Decoction
Hua Jiao decoction can be taken internally and fumigated.
Hua Jiao Dried Ginger Licorice Soup
Ingredients: 6 grams each of Hua Jiao and dried ginger, 3 grams of roasted licorice.
Method: Add appropriate amount of water to decoct and drink, 2 times a day.
Boil water
Hua Jiao water 1
Prepare 500 grams of water and 50 grams of Hua Jiao. Pour the water into the pot, put in the washed peppercorns, boil it, and cook it over medium heat until the fragrance comes out. When about half of the water in the pot is left, filter the soup, put it into a glass bottle after cooling, seal it and store it in the refrigerator, and take it when you need it.
Hua Jiao water 2
Take 5g of Hua Jiao and a bowl of boiling water, put the Hua Jiao in the boiling water, wait until the boiling water is cold, remove the Hua Jiao and throw it away, the Hua Jiao water is ready.
Soup, Cooking, Porridge
You can cook porridge with Hong Hua and bird’s nest or black rice. Cooking porridge with safflower and bird’s nest has the functions of beautifying and beautifying, relieving pain, promoting blood circulation, and removing stasis; For women with irregular menstruation and blood deficiency.
External use
Hua Jiao can be used to treat eczema and itching.
How to choose Hua Jiao?
Smell
Grab a small handful of Hua Jiao and hold them for a while. The peppercorns that can smell the aroma are good peppercorns. The peppercorns that have no fragrance are likely to have been soaked in water.
Appearance
The source of the numbing taste of Hua Jiao is Xanthoxylin, which mainly exists in the bumps (small bumps) on the surface of Zanthoxylum bungeanum fruit. Generally speaking, Hua Jiao with large bulges on the surface, a large number, dense and full, has a stronger taste and a heavier numbness.
Feel
Good-quality Hua Jiao will make a "rustling" sound when it is shaken, and it will be broken when you twist it with your hands, and it will feel rough, hard, and dry.
Poor-quality Hua Jiao is not easy to break. If you rub the peppercorns, if your fingers are red or sticky, it means that the Zanthoxylum bungeanum contains coloring agents or other additives.
Color
Hua Jiao that are too oily and red may contain additives, so it is recommended not to buy them.
How to buy Hua Jiao?
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