海金沙

Naming

Hai Jin Sha (Spora Lygodii)——Jia You Ben Cao (Jia You Materia Medica)

The Processing of 海金沙

Origin

The mature spore of the perennial climbing fern Lygodium japonicum (Thunb.) sw. of family Lygodiaceae.

Location

In Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces, etc.

Harvest

Collected the leaf in autumn when the spore is mature but not falling.

The true smell and taste

Slight smell and bland in taste.

Best quality

Dry, yellow-brownish, light and smooth, able to float in water, no impurity, sound can be heard when it is fired.

Processing

Get rid of impurity and unprocessed.

The Effect of 海金沙

Property

Sweet, bland and cold; bladder and small intestine meridians entered.

Actions

Induce diuresis to treat stranguria.

Indications

Stranguria

It has the actions of clearing damp-heat from bladder and small intestine. It is good at inducing diuresis to treat stranguria and alleviating pain in urinary tract, so it is the essential herb for all stranguria syndromes. It should be combined with other herbs to strengthen the curative effect according to syndromes. For heat-stranguria with acute pain, it is ground into powder and taken with Gan Cao decoction to increase the actions of clearing heat and treating stranguria in Quan Zhou Ben Cao (Materia Medica of Quanzhou). For blood-stranguria, it can be used with the herbs of clearing heat and inducing diuresis, cooling blood and stopping bleeding such as Xiao Ji, Bai Mao Gen and Shi Wei. For urolithic stranguria, it can be used with Ji Nei Jin and Jin Qian Cao to treat stranguria and remove stone.

Additionally, it can also induce diuresis to alleviate edema. For edema, it is usually combined with Ze Xie, Zhu Ling and Fang Feng to strengthen the actions of inducing diuresis to alleviate edema.

Dosage and Administrations

Decoct 6~15 g. It should be decocted with wrapping.