Xi Yang Shen (American Ginseng)

Name

Xi Yang Shen (American Ginseng), recorded in Zeng Ding Ben Cao Bei Yao.

Source and quality

Plant

The root of the perennial Panax quinquefolium L., family Araliaceae.

Where it is grown

Mainly produced in the USA and Canada; also cultivated in Beijing city, Jilin and Liaoning provinces in China.

Harvest

The root is lifted in autumn after three to six years of cultivation, and dried in the sun.

Smell and taste

Slightly fragrant; bitter with a slightly sweet flavor.

Better grade

Even root, firm, with fine close lines on the skin, a white-yellow cross-section, a delicate fragrance and a strong flavor.

Processing

Used unprocessed, sliced, or ground.

Nature and action

Sweet with a slight bitterness, and cool; enters the lung, heart, kidney and spleen channels. Tonifies qi, nourishes yin, clears heat and promotes the generation of body fluid.

When it is used

Combined qi and yin deficiency, and diabetes

Xi Yang Shen resembles Ren Shen, tonifying qi and promoting the generation of body fluid, so it is used for combined qi and yin deficiency and for diabetes.

Its qi-tonifying action is weaker than Ren Shen's, but because of its bitter taste and cool nature it also clears heat, nourishes yin and generates body fluid. It is therefore used mainly where heat has injured qi and yin.

For fever with profuse sweating, thirst, restlessness, lassitude and fatigue, and a weak, rapid pulse, caused by the summer-heat pathogen, it is combined with herbs that clear heat and nourish yin: with Xi Gua Cui Yi, Shi Hu and Zhi Mu in Qing Shu Yi Qi Tang from Wen Re Jing Wei, or with Mai Dong and Wu Wei Zi in Sheng Mai San from Hou Ke Jin Yao. For diabetes showing combined qi and yin deficiency it is combined with herbs that tonify qi, nourish yin and generate fluid, and taken together with Huang Qi, Shan Yao and Tian Hua Fen.

It is also indicated for palpitations, insomnia and dream-disturbed sleep from heart qi and heart yin deficiency, for soreness and weakness of the lumbar region and knees, and for seminal emission and spermatorrhea from kidney qi and kidney yin deficiency.

Combined qi and yin deficiency with effulgent fire, cough with hemoptysis

It does not merely tonify lung qi; it also nourishes lung yin and clears lung heat, so it is used for chronic cough with little phlegm, hemoptysis, dry throat and lassitude from lung qi and lung yin deficiency. It is used alone or together with Bei Sha Shen, Chuan Bei Mu and others.

Dose

Decoction 5~10g. Smashed into powder, 0.5~1 g a time, twice a day. When decocted in herbal tea it should be decocted together with, and mixed into, the other herbs.