Niu Huang: Chinese Herb Guide

Name

Niu Huang (Calculus Bovis), from Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (Shen Nong's Herbal)

Source and quality

The stone found in the gallbladder, bile duct or hepatic duct of Bos taurus domesticus Gmelin or Bubalus bubalis Linnaeus of the family Bovidae. It is produced in northeast, northwest and northern China, and collected throughout the year.

It is fragrant, with a bitter taste that turns sweet and leaves a cool sensation. It crushes easily when chewed and does not stick to the teeth. The best grade is complete and yellowish, crisp and clear in quality, with a fine striation on the cross section.

The cow is slaughtered, the stone is taken from the gallbladder and removed from the bile, the membrane is stripped off, and it is then dried in the shade. Grind it into a fine powder for pills or powder.

Nature and action

Bitter and cool. It enters the liver and heart meridians.

It extinguishes wind and stops spasm, resolves phlegm for resuscitation, clears heat and relieves toxicity.

Indications

Stirring of wind by extreme heat

Because it is bitter and cool and enters the liver and heart meridians, it clears the heart and liver and also extinguishes wind and stops spasm. It suits the intense heat of epidemic warm diseases, generation of wind by extreme heat, infantile convulsions due to phlegm-heat, and coma with high fever, spasm and convulsions. It is often combined with herbs that clear heat and relieve toxicity and herbs that extinguish wind and stop spasm, such as Huang Lian, Zhi Zi and Gou Teng.

Coma due to heat blockage

It is good at clearing heart heat, relieving toxicity and resolving phlegm for resuscitation. It suits coma due to inward invasion of intense heat into the pericardium or inward invasion of epidemic warm disease heat into the pericardium, and coma due to clouding of the pericardium by congestion of phlegm-heat in conditions such as wind stroke, infantile convulsions and epilepsy.

• It can be used on its own as a powder dissolved in Zhu Li and taken by mouth.
• It is also combined with herbs that clear heart heat for resuscitation, such as She Xiang, Bing Pian, Yu Jin and Zhi Zi in Angong Niuhuang Wan from Wen Bing Tiao Bian.

Heat-toxin syndromes, including swelling and pain in the throat, abscess and deep-rooted boils

With its good actions of clearing heat and relieving toxicity, it can be used on its own both internally and externally, and it can also be combined with herbs that reinforce these actions.

• For swelling and pain in the throat and sores on the oral mucosa and tongue, it is often combined with Huang Qin and Xuan Shen.
• For swelling and pain in the throat with ulceration, it is blown into the throat as a powder together with Zhen Zhu.
• For abscess and deep-rooted boils, it is often combined with herbs that relieve toxicity and reduce swelling and herbs that activate blood and dissipate accumulations, such as She Xiang, Ru Xiang and Mo Yao in Xihuang Wan from Wai Ke Quan Sheng Ji (Life-Saving Manual of Diagnosis and Treatment of External Diseases).

Dosage and administration

Take 0.15~0.35 g in pills or powder. For external application, take a proper dose and apply the fine powder to the affected area.

Cautions

It should be used with caution in pregnant women.