Warm in nature, pungent in taste, promoting blood circulation, removing blood stasis and relieving pain. Used for amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, lochia, abdominal lump, and traumatic injury. The ancients often added a handful of red flowers when there was blood in their bodies. After the gauze bag is boiled, you can soak your feet twice a day, which is suitable for various varicose veins, peripheral neuritis, poor blood circulation, numbness of legs and feet or cyanosis.
Note that the fruit is called Ping Zi and contains "safflower seed" oil, which can reduce cholesterol and hyperlipidemia; Softening and dilating blood vessels, preventing aging and regulating endocrine.
Although madder was used in menstrual period in ancient times, a single madder was earthy red, which required a complicated mordant dyeing process. Safflower was dyed as "Zhen Hong", which can be directly dyed on fibers, so it occupied an extremely important position in red dyes. Red was once a popular color in Sui and Tang Dynasties. In the Tang Dynasty, Jong Li's poem "The color of safflower covers thousands of flowers, but the blood of orangutans is not added" vividly outlines the extraordinary gorgeous effect of safflower. According to modern scientific analysis, safflower contains yellow and red pigments, of which yellow pigment is soluble in water and acidic solution, which has no dyeing value in ancient times, but is often used as a safety additive for food pigments in modern times; However, the red pigment is easily soluble in alkaline aqueous solution, and can be precipitated in neutral or weakly acidic solution, forming a bright red lake and depositing it on the fiber, thus obtaining red clothes with certain fastness.
The ancient people used safflower to brew red dye like this: after picking the safflower stained with dew, they "smashed" it into slurry and then soaked it in water. Under neutral conditions, the yellow pigment is dissolved, and the yellow pigment (that is, yellow juice) is twisted together with a cloth bag, so that most of the remaining flowers are red pigment. Then washing with acid juice such as sour millet or rice washing water to further remove the residual yellow pigment, thus obtaining the residual flower cake containing red pigment. This method of extracting safflower pigment was called "flower killing method" by the ancients and spread to Japan and other countries in Sui and Tang Dynasties. If you want to use safflower for a long time, just cover it with Artemisia annua (which has antibacterial effect) overnight, knead it into a cake, then dry it in the shade and make it into a "safflower cake" for preservation. When you want to use it, you only need to clarify it several times with alkaline water or plant ash, and the red pigment will dissolve, so you can dye it. Finally, the first step is to treat water with ebony acid, which is equivalent to fixing color, forming a red lake and ending the dyeing process. "Safflower Cake" became popular after the Song and Yuan Dynasties.
In addition, in ancient times, safflower was soaked in starch and could also be used as rouge.