Functions:
Astringe and control bleeding
Promote blood circulation
Disperse stagnant blood

Indication:
External bleeding, internal bleeding, amenorrhea, sluggish flow of blood and qi, sharp pain in the heart and abdomen, postpartum pain due to stagnant blood, stagnant blood due to a fall, carbuncle, hemoptysis, epistaxis, hematochezia, functional bleeding, traumatic injury.

The root can be boiled and eaten like potatoes or macerated and then boiled to yield a sweet syrup. The roots can also be dried, ground into a powder and then used as a thickener in soups etc or added to cereal flours. Rich in protein, this powder is used to make biscuits etc.

The seed is very small and fiddly to harvest, but it has a pleasant nutty taste when roasted. An edible oil is obtained from the seed. Due to the small size of the seed this is probably not a very worthwhile crop.

Pollen - raw or cooked. A protein rich additive to flour used in making bread, porridge etc. It can also be eaten with the young flowers, which makes it considerably easier to utilize.

The pollen can be harvested by placing the flowering stem over a wide but shallow container and then gently tapping the stem and brushing the pollen off with a fine brush.

The pollen is diuretic, emmenagogue and haemostatic. The dried pollen is said to be anticoagulant, but when roasted with charcoal it becomes haemostatic.

It is used internally in the treatment of kidney stones, internal haemorrhage of almost any kind, painful menstruation, abnormal uterine bleeding, post-partum pains, abscesses and cancer of the lymphatic system.

It should not be prescribed for pregnant women.