🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Loofah is green, tender, fragrant, crisp, and sweet—a delicious summer dish for clearing heat, relieving fire, cooling blood, and detoxifying. Loofah is not only nutritious but also possesses medicinal value, making it a true treasure throughout its entire plant. According to Dr. Gao Guangyan, Director of Wuhan Guangyan Traditional Chinese Medicine Acupuncture Clinic, loofah contains abundant nutrients, including interferon inducers that stimulate the body to produce interferons, helping resist viruses and prevent cancer. Generally, younger loofah offers better taste, nutrition, and therapeutic effects.
Loofah is cold in nature and sweet in flavor, possessing functions such as cooling heat, promoting intestinal movement, removing wind and phlegm, cooling blood, detoxifying, unblocking meridians, activating qi, and resolving stasis. It can treat hematuria, melena, aid lactation in postpartum women, but excessive consumption may cause diarrhea due to its laxative effect. Those with weak constitution, poor spleen and stomach function, or digestive disorders should consume it sparingly.
Loofah is also a rare natural beauty agent for fading freckles, whitening skin, and reducing wrinkles. Regular consumption or applying loofah juice to the face can make the skin smooth, delicate, and offer special benefits such as anti-aging, anti-inflammatory action, and prevention and elimination of acne and melanin deposition.
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Here are several ways to use and treat with loofah:
1. Green-White Loofah: Sauté ginger threads, add loofah and stir-fry until fragrant, then add green peppers and a little garlic. Once the loofah is cooked through, briefly boil with lily bulbs before serving.
2. Ice-Skin Jade-Bone: Peel and wash the loofah, cut into 1.5 cm pieces, steam over high heat for 7 minutes using a steamer. Discard the juice, heat oil in a pan, sauté minced garlic, pour over the steamed loofah, then add a little soy sauce and sesame oil.
3. Fresh loofah juice: Wash and chop fresh loofah, wrap in gauze, squeeze out the juice, mix with equal amounts of medicinal alcohol and honey. Apply with cotton balls to face and arms nightly, leave on for 20 minutes, then rinse off with clean water. Use once daily for one month to reduce wrinkles and improve skin smoothness and elasticity.
4. Loofah Leaf Decoction Bath: Boil fresh loofah leaves and bathe in the decoction to cleanse skin, reduce wrinkles, cool down, detoxify, and prevent prickly heat.
5. Sores and Swelling: Crush a young loofah and apply externally.