Essential Chinese Herbal Medicine: A Concise Guide

Author: Chief Editor: Liu Qing
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2001-08-01
Features: Excerpt:
Perilla is a medicinal herb that expels wind, harmonizes the stomach, promotes the Yang Qi, and promotes diuresis and reduces swelling. It is used for cases of summer heat trapped by cold, drinking cold in summer, difficult urination, and edema of the feet.
Pharmacological Characteristics
Perilla is pungent and slightly warm, and it belongs to the Lung, Spleen, and Stomach meridians. Its functions include inducing sweating to expel wind, transforming dampness to harmonize the stomach, and promoting diuresis to reduce swelling. This herb, being pungent and warm, disperses and promotes Yang Qi. Its aromatic properties, when entering the Spleen and Stomach meridians, transform dampness and dispel summer heat, harmonizing the stomach. Its pungent and warm properties are good at promoting Yang Qi, dispersing water, and strengthening the Spleen to promote diuresis and reduce swelling.
Clinical Applications
① Summer heat trapped by cold: In summer, if one cools down by drinking cold and contracts wind-cold externally while internally suffering from summer dampness, symptoms such as chills, fever, headache without sweating, vomiting, diarrhea, restlessness, thirst, stuffy chest, and greasy tongue may occur. It is often combined with Magnolia bark, Dolichos seeds, etc., such as Perilla Decoction.
② Spleen deficiency edema: For difficult urination and edema of the feet, it can be used alone or combined with Atractylodes macrocephala, such as Perilla and Atractylodes Pills.
Dosage
3–10 grams. For diuresis and reducing swelling, decoction should be concentrated.
Modern Research
Perilla contains volatile oils. It has diaphoretic and antipyretic effects, stimulates the secretion of digestive glands and gastrointestinal peristalsis. It also has expectorant, antitussive, and diuretic effects.
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Author: Chief Editor: Liu Qing
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2001-08-01
Features: Excerpt:
Notopterygium is pungent and slightly warm, and it primarily targets the Taiyang meridian. Its main functions are to expel wind-cold and dampness and relieve pain. It is highly effective for wind-cold colds, headaches, stiff necks, and joint pain.
Pharmacological Characteristics
Notopterygium is pungent and bitter, and it belongs to the Bladder and Kidney meridians. Its functions include dispelling wind-cold and dampness and relieving pain. This herb, being pungent, dispels wind; bitter, it dries dampness; and warm, it disperses cold. It primarily dispels wind and cold pathogens in the surface of the Taiyang meridian and also spreads to the limbs and joints, relieving numbness and pain.
Clinical Applications
① Wind-cold colds: Chills without sweating, headache, stiff neck, and limb pain are often combined with Saposhnikoviae, Asarum, and Atractylodes, such as Decoction of Nine Herbs with Notopterygium.
② Wind-cold and dampness bi: For headaches and body heaviness, it is often combined with Rhizoma Saposhnikoviae, Rhizoma Ligustici, and Ligusticum chuanxiong, such as Decoction of Notopterygium for Dispelling Dampness and Wind.
② Wind-cold and dampness bi: For shoulder, arm, and joint pain, it is often combined with Saposhnikoviae, Curcuma, and Angelica sinensis, such as Decoction for Dispelling Numbness and Pain.
Dosage
Decoction, 3–10 grams.
Modern Research
Notopterygium contains volatile oils, alkaloids, etc., and has antibacterial effects.
Notopterygium Notes
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a strong ethnic minority called the Qiang people in northwest China, living in areas such as Gansu, Qinghai, and northern Sichuan, who lived a nomadic life. There was a medicinal herb locally known as "Ambassador for Protecting the Qiang," which people used to treat headaches, high fever, wind-colds, or joint pain. This is what is known today as Notopterygium.