Amazing Health Benefits of Fox Nut – Ben Cao Medical Book
1. Description
1.1 What is a fox nut?
Fox nut (botanical name: Euryale ferox, also known as foxnut, gorgon nut, makhana; Chinese Pinyin: Qian Shi, Simplified Chinese: 芡实), is a species of large, annual, aquatic, flowering, fruit-bearing, herbaceous plant in genus Euryale in the water lilies family, Nymphaeaceae. The term fox nut can refer to the plant as well as the seeds of the plant. The flowers are purple, white or red. The leaves are large and round or oval, usually more than 1 meter in diameter, with a leaf stalk attached in the center of the lower surface. The edible seed is white, round, small in size. Native to eastern Asia and extensively cultivated in China, Korea, Japan, eastern Russia and India, habitats of fox nut include pounds, swamp, shallow water, wetlands and lakes.