Windweed Rhizome
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Heat Clearing Herbs to Clear Heat and Purge Fire
Windweed Rhizome
Latin:
Rhizoma Anemarrhenae
Origin:
As the rhizome of Anemarrhena asphodeloides Bunge, a perennial plant, of the Liliaceae family. In North america, there are two species of this plant.
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The western species, X. tenax, also is known as elk grass, squaw grass, and fire lily. It is a smooth, light-green mountain perennial with a stout, unbranched stem, from 0.6 to 2 metres high, which rises from a woody, tuber-like rootstock and cordlike roots. The stem bears a dense basal tuft of narrow, grasslike, rough-edged leaves, about one metre long; the leaves of the upper part of the stem are similar but much smaller. Flowering occurs at five to seven years. The top of the stem develops a large cluster of many small, creamy white flowers.
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The turkey beard (X. asphodeloides) of southern North America is a similar plant that grows in dry pine barrens. In the southern and southwestern United States the name bear grass is given to various kinds of yucca, especially to Yucca filamentosa and Y. glauca; also to the camas (Camassia scilloides) and the aloelike Dasylirion texanum, all of which have grasslike leaves.
In China, this plant is mainly produced in Hebei, Shanxi, the Northeast of China, etc. It can be picked and dug in spring and autumn. The windweed rhizome is dried in the sun with stems and fibrous roots removed is known as crude windweed rhizome, while that which is skinned and dried in the sun is known as windweed rhizome pulp. It is sliced, included in preparations and used when raw or after being marinated and fried.
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Properties:
Pungent and sweet in flavor, cold in nature, it is related to the lung, stomach and kidney channels.
Functions:
Clears heat and purges fire from the body, replenishes yin (body fluids) and moisturizes the viscera.
Applications:
1. Used for febrile diseases with excessive thirst:
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Being sweet, cold and moistening, this herb is good at clearing and purging excessive heat in the qi system from the lung and stomach channels in order to relieve thirst and restlessness. It is often used in mutual action with gypsum, e.g., Baihu Tang, for excess heat syndromes of the lungs and stomach, i.e., febrile diseases with exuberant pathogenic heat, high fever with excessive thirst and surging pulse.
2. Used for coughs due to lung-heat and irritating dry coughs due to yin deficiency:
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This herb can clear and purge fire from the lungs and nourish yin to moisten them. It is often used together with Mongolian snakegourd (Fructus Trichosanthis), thunberg fritillary bulb (Bulbus Fritillariae Thunbergii) and jack-in-the-pulpit (Rhizoma Arisaematis) with bile for coughing with yellow and sticky sputum due to lung-heat. Or, it is used together mostly with thunberg fritillary bulb (Bulbus Fritillariae Thunbergii), e.g., Er Mu San, for irritating dry coughing due to yin deficiency with scant sputum.
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3. Used for hectic or tidal fever due to yin deficiency:
This herb can nourish yin in the kidneys and moisten them in order to reduce hectic fever due to yin deficiency, giving rise to the effects of replenishing yin in and removing fire from the kidneys. It is often used together with corktree bark (Cortex Phellodendri) in a yin-nourishing medicine, e.g., Zhi Bai Dihuang Wan, for ailments such as hyperactivity of fire due to yin deficiency, hectic or tidal fever due to the same deficiency, night sweats and vexation in order to reinforce the said effects.
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4. Used for diabetes due to yin deficiency and constipation with intestinal dryness:
This herb can replenish yin to moisturize the viscera and promote the production of body fluids to quench thirst. It is often used in combination with Chinese trichosanthes root (Radix Trichosanthis), kudzu vine root (Radix Puerariae), e.g., Yu Ye Tang, for diabetes caused by impairment of body fluids by interior heat and excessive thirst that draws fluids. For constipation with intestinal dryness, it is often used with raw multiflower knotweed tuber (Radix Polygoni Multiflori), Chinese angelica, hemp seed, etc., in order to achieve the effect of loosening the bowels to relieve constipation.
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Dosage and Administration:
6-12 g.
Decoct the ingredients for drinking. It should be used when raw to clear heat and purge fire from the body, and marinated and fried to replenish yin to reduce fire.
Cautions on Use:
This herb should be avoided by those who have loose stools due to insufficiency of the spleen because it is cold in nature, has moistening properties and suffers the drawback of laxation.
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Reference Materials:
'Shen Nong's Herbal Classic' :
"It is indicated for diabetes and edema of the limbs and it removes pathogenic factors, induces diuresis and invigorates qi."
'Methodology of Medication' :
"It purges rootless fire from the kidneys, treats hectic fever with sweat, alleviates consumptive fever and replenishes yin at the source of transformation."
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'Compendium of Materia Medica' :
"Being pungent/bitter and cold/cool, windweed rhizome moistens the kidneys at the lower part to replenish yin and clears lung-heat at the upper part to purge fire, so it is an herb for the qi systems of the two channels."
Toxic or Side Effects:
Modern Researches:
The rhizome of this herb contains a large variety of steroid saponins and a large amount of phlegm. Its decoction can inhibit a variety of pathogenic bacteria such as Bacillus dysenteriae, Bacillus pneumoniae, etc., to different extents., 百拇医药