Yin Tonics
Yu Zhu (Fragrant Solomonseal Rhizome)
Name
Yu Zhu (Rhizoma Polygonati Odorati), from Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (Shen Nong's Herbal)
Source and quality
The rhizome of the perennial herbaceous plant Polygonatum odoratum (Mill.) Druce of the family Liliaceae. It is produced mainly in Zhejiang, Hunan and Jiangsu provinces, and is plucked in autumn or in spring.
It is sweet and sticky. The best grade has a long, thick, white-to-yellow, lustrous root.
It is used unprocessed.
Nature and action
Sweet and slightly cold. It enters the lung, stomach and heart meridians.
It nourishes the yin of the lung and stomach and clears heat from the lung and stomach.
Indications
Lung yin deficiency syndromes
It is indicated for dry cough with scanty sputum, coughing blood, and hoarseness due to yin deficiency, as well as dryness and heat in the lung, because it nourishes lung yin and clears lung heat gently. It is commonly combined with herbs that nourish yin, moisten dryness, clear the lung and relieve cough: Bei Sha Shen, Mai Dong and Sang Ye in Sha Shen Mai Dong Tang from Wen Bing Tiao Bian.
Because it nourishes without impairing the healthy qi, it is also indicated for fever, headache, slight aversion to wind-cold, cough and dry throat with stagnated phlegm when yin deficiency is complicated by wind-warm or winter-warm attack. In that case it is combined with herbs that disperse pathogens and clear heat, for example Bo He and Dan Dou Chi in Jia Jian Wei Rui (Yu Zhu) Tang from Chong Ding Tong Su Shang Han Lun.
Stomach yin deficiency syndromes
It nourishes stomach yin, generates fluids and relieves thirst, and it clears stomach heat marked by excessive drinking, hunger without appetite, dry stool, a tongue with no coating or a red tongue with little fluid, or by stomachache, distension in the stomach and retching.
For dryness of the tongue, thirst and hunger without appetite due to injured yin following a febrile disease, it is usually combined with herbs that nourish yin, clear heat, generate fluids and relieve thirst, such as Mai Dong and Bei Sha Shen in Yu Zhu Mai Dong Tang and Yi Wei Tang from Wen Bing Tiao Bian.
For diabetes due to yin deficiency, it is combined with herbs that nourish yin, moisten dryness, generate fluids and relieve thirst, such as Tian Hua Fen, Tian Dong, Mai Dong and Sheng Di Huang.
It is also indicated for heart yin deficiency syndromes.
Dosage and administration
Decoct 10~15 g.
Sources and further reading
We cite classical materia medica and modern reference works. This article is health education, not medical advice.
- Shennong Bencao Jing (The Divine Farmer's Materia Medica), Han dynasty.
- Bencao Gangmu (Compendium of Materia Medica), Li Shizhen, 1578.
- Chinese Pharmacopoeia, current edition — identity, quality and safety monographs.
- NCCIH and WHO reference material on traditional medicine safety.
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