Clear Heat / Relieve Toxicity: Tu Fu Ling

Tu Fu Ling

Tu Fu Ling looks like a wooden tongue. In Chinese "fu" can mean skin, and this is what the herb is good for. Funny enough, though, that the particular "fu" of Tu Fu Ling actually doesn't mean skin. The name of the herb simply refers to where it is grown and what it is:

Tu=earth
Fu=undercurrent
Ling=fungus

It is sweet, bland and neutral and it looks sweet, bland, and neutral, too. Recommended dosage is higher than normal-- 15 to 60g. It's functions are fairly simple:

Eliminating dampness / resolving toxicity for joint pain, turbid urination, damp heat jaundice, and syphilis. And for clearing damp heat from the skin, as in recurrent ulcers or hot skin lesions.

Clear Heat / Relieve Toxicity: She Gan

She Gan means "arrow shaft." Again, not sure why. Perhaps the throat is like a shaft, and a deep sore throat feels like an arrow going down it. But the root doesn't look arrow shaft-y at all. It looks like little clouds made of wood or something.

She Gan is simple. It goes only to the lung, and is bitter and cold. Its main function is to transform phlegm. Looking at it, and the little circular wheels that appear on some of the root sections, I can see it moving around to transform phlegm. It clears the lungs when they have phlegm heat. Because it is so cold, it is cautioned / contraindicated in those with loose stools or who are pregnant.

Clear Heat / Relieve Toxicity: Shan Dou Gen

Shan Dou Gen means "Mountain Bean Herb." It looks a lot like Ban Lan Gen, but it is darker. It also has a similar function of benefiting the throat. Just as it is deeper in color, it goes deeper into the body than Ban Lan Gen. Ban Lan Gen is more for wind-heat and Shan Dou Gen is stronger for clearing toxic heat. Shan Dou Gen is also an anti-cancer herb. It goes to the Lung and Large Intestine (metal) which tells us that it will be good for upper respiratory things (like throat cancer), and also will disperse downwards (it drains fire downwards). Specifically, it is helpful for a swollen painful throat with phlegm that is difficult to expectorate.

Clear Heat / Relieve Toxicity: Qing Dai

Qing Dai

Qing Dai has a lot of unusual characteristics. For one, it is salty. Not many of our herbs have been salty so far. It has the consistency of salt. Blue salt. It is also very cold. Just a few these herbs in this group are very cold. Qing Dai is one of them. Because it is so cold, it is recommended in very small doses, 1.5 to 3 grams, and even then it is recommended in pill or powder form because it is difficult to dissolve in water. The other odd thing about it is that it is actually Da Qing Ye, but soaked and treated with Lyme, and the stems removed.

So this pretty blue powder is unusual but also powerful. Because it is very cold, it cools the blood, addressing toxicity. It looks like the kind of substance that you could dump on a fire and it would put it right out. Also, since it goes to the blood level, it reduces maculae, constipation, incoherent speech, and convulsions, common with blood level heat. It's blood cooling function also reduces swellings like mumps and mouth sores.

Qing Dai goes to the lung, stomach, and liver. Therefore, it serves to drain liver fire and extinguishes wind to stop tremors, such as the kind in palsies. The lung function means that it is also useful for coughs, chest pain, streaked sputum and yellow sputum.

No pictures or clever associations. I'm running out of study time!

Clear Heat / Relieve Toxicity: Pu Gong Ying

Pu Gong Ying is a dandelion flower. I won't go into the Chinese translation. It's so odd I'm not sure I have it correct.

This herb goes to the Stomach and Liver channels. It is bitter (liver) and sweet (stomach). These channels go through the breast, and that is exactly what dandelion is good for -- breast and intestinal abscesses.

Dandelion sends things down. It dissipates nodules. Clears the liver and eyes, reducing redness and swelling, and resolves dampness from painful urinary dribbling and damp-heat jaundice.

I'm not coming up with any clever memorization tricks with this one. Sorry. Here's a list with some interesting pictures.

nodules/abscesses (breast & intestinal)

clears Liver and eyes

resolves damp (urinary dribbling and damp-heat jaundice)

Clear Heat / Relieve Toxicity: Ma Chi Xian

Ma Chi Xian, fresh (above), dried (below). Doesn't look like horse teeth to me!

Ma= Horse
Chi= Teeth
Xian=amaranth

It is a wild vegetable grown throughout China and known as a long-life vegetable. What this has got to do with horse's teeth, I have no idea.

This herb is sour, slippery, and cold. It cools the blood and goes to the Liver and Large Intestine channels. It is one of the herbs that treats dysentery, specifically the kind manifesting as burning sudden turmoil with a feeling of incomplete bowel movements (colicky tenesmus). It's slippery nature lines the large intestine preparing the way for the accumulated damp heat toxin to easily be flushed out. The slippery nature also unblocks painful urinary dribbling (UTIs).

So, poop and pee.

But also Ma Chi Xian is good for damp-heat toxic sores (carbuncles), as well as wasp stings and snake bites. The zoo card shows a wasp pulling diarrhea out of the butt of a whale. That kind of says it all, don't you think?

Because of its damp heat clearing function, and the fact that it is a purgative, it is contraindicated in pregnancy.

And I still don't know what it has to do with horse's teeth.

Clears Heat / Relieves Toxicity: Ma Bo

Ma Bo.

Ma=morphine
Bo=sudden
spicy and NEUTRAL
goes to the LUNG
looks like a puffy poo lump

The zoo card for this shows a hot whale resting atop an ice cube that has a big T on it. It is trying to hail a taxi, but all that comes out of its mouth is a flame. It also has bloody lips. What does this all mean? It means that resolves fire toxicity (the big T on the ice cube); is good for loss of voice (only fire comes from the throat, no sound); and that it is used to stop bleeding from the oral cavity or lips (the whale's bloody lips). Why a whale? Just because.

You need only a small dose (1.5 to 6 g).

My question is, why does it mean sudden morphine in Chinese?

Clears Heat / Relieves Toxicity: Jin Yin Hua

Jin Yin Hua

Jin = gold
Yin = silver
Hua = flower

Also known as honeysuckle.

It is sweet (is that a surprise?) and cold. It goes to the LU/LI, and ST. Since it's a flower, it treats the upper parts of the body, lung, face, head (sore throat, sore eyes, fever), and since it goes to the LI as well it clears damp heat in the lower burner (dysentery, intestinal abscesses).

What it is noted for is that it disperses exterior wind heat. It is the "Yin" in Yin Qiao San. Fevers, headaches, sore throat.

Charred it can stop bleeding disorders and be helpful with mastitis, clogged breast ducts. Jin Yin Hua cools the blood.

Clears Heat / Relieves Toxicity: Hong Teng

Hong Teng. The most beautiful herb in the bunch. I want to make it into a bracelet. This reminds me, too, that it invigorates blood in the extremities.

It is not so surprising that this beautiful herb is so friendly, too. It is NEUTRAL. And it stops pain. Pain due to intestinal abscesses, pain due to trauma, pain in the joints. But because it is a blood mover, dispersing blood stasis, it is cautioned in pregnancy.

The words mean Red Vine. That also helps to know it moves blood (red) in the extremities (arms like vines). It goes to the Liver and Large Intestines.

I am almost ashamed to put this picture up, because the pictures on the internet did not do the herb justice. My sample from Mayway is simply beautiful with the most intricate lovely designs on the root.

Clear Heat / Relieve Toxicity: Guan Ye Lian Qiao

Guan Ye Lian Qiao - St. John's Wort

Looking up the Chinese characters, I think this means:

Guan=link
Ye= leaf
Lian=connect/join
Qiao=elevate

Not in Bensky, not in our herb kit, but all over the Western world as an anti-depressant. Weird. And it's cautioned w/ SSRIs, and may increase photo sensitivity.

So, why is it in our list? Well, it is said to clear heat toxins, even though it is one of the four NEUTRAL herbs in this group. The heat clearing function helps with swellings, UTIs, eye redness, insect bites, tonsillitis. The only one of those that makes real sense to me is the eye redness (along with the photo sensitivity) -- these make sense because the only channel to which it travels is the LIVER.

Speaking of the Liver, it regulates Liver Qi (depression/anxiety). That makes sense, too, given its common usage.

It is also said to dispel wind-damp (muscle bi syndrome). The way I am thinking of this is if you have Lv Qi stagnation, you might get tightness in the muscles, so by regulating the LV Qi, it is also helping to dispel the bi syndrome in the muscles.

It is also said to stop bleeding. Coughing up blood, trauma.

It is bitter, spicy, and the first of our herbs to be astringent I do believe.

Clear Heat / Relieve Toxicity: Chuan Xin Lian

Can you guess the herb?
It is known for resolving fire toxicity, particularly good for high fevers:

It clears heat and resolves fire toxicity due to snake bite:



It stops diarrhea (dysentery) due to damp heat in the lower jiao:


Resolves fire toxicity causing a sore throat and urinary tract infections:


It looks like this fresh:
And looks like little green sticks when dried:


It's name means penetrating the heart lotus, and it is Chuan Xin Lian.

Chuan = Penetrate, Xin = Heart, Lian = Lotus

This herb is clearly stick like. Used for penetrating the heart to resolve fire toxicity that results in high fevers. It goes to the LU/LI (metal), SI (fire), and ST (earth). Because it penetrates the heart and resolves fire toxicity, this helps to clear the SI heat which might be causing UTI. In the LU/LI it is both relieving cough and sore throat as well as stopping diarrhea due to dysentery (it is drying the dampness).

The herb is pretty cold and it is bitter. In comparing this herb used to treat UTIs and dysentery to some of the other dysentery herbs, it seems to me that this one is not so much for killing parasites as it is for clearing heat and infection in the lower G.I. tract. Heat disorders. Like Dennis said, high fevers. And other problems caused by heat: snakebite, sores, eczema (topically), UTI, etc.

Clear Heat / Relieve Toxicity: Chang Shan

Made it out of the herbs in this category that start with B! There are five of them. Now we're into the Cs. There are two of them, Chang Shan and Chuan Xin Lian.

Chang Shan is all the way on page 1015 in Bensky. It was in bag 31 in the Mayway samples. This herb hails from the land of "Herbs that Expel Parasites." Chang Shan = Malarial Treatment. It has been used to kill the parasites that cause malaria.

It also has the extra gross function of inducing vomiting to expel phlegm. It is an emetic, probably because it is toxic. Yeech. I hate throwing up.

According to Dennis, it is toxic at doses from 15-75 grams, as well as being bitter, spicy, and cold. Use it with caution during pregnancy.

You know what Chang Shan is? It's a kind of hydrangea. You see these all over the place. Here is the hydrangea plant that I am used to:


And here is the hydrangea plant that Chang Shan comes from--kinda dainty for having such a chunky looking woody root, eh?:

Clear Heat / Relieve Toxicity: Ban Zhi Lian

Ban Zhi Lian is "Barbed Skullcap" (Ban means half, Zhi means branch -- I think this together that means "barbed" -- and lian here means to remove or transport, which is what this barbed branch does!) and has been used for centuries in Asia to treat tumors. This is one of the herbs being explored at Bionovo in Emeryville for cancer treatment. Here is a link to an article in Time magazine about Ban Zhi Lian:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1671684,00.html

Why is Ban Zhi Lian being used to treat cancer? It's properties are to clear heat, resolve toxicity, invigorate the blood, and to reduce swellings. It travels to the Lung, Stomach, and Liver, and in addition to being used for cancers, it is also used for chronic hepatitis.


Ban Zhi Lian will promote urination and reduce edema (clearing toxins and heat), and has a mild effect at dispelling blood stasis and stopping bleeding (urinary bleeding, or from trauma).

Because of the blood invigorating, dispelling blood stasis functions, it is cautioned for use in pregnancy. The recommended dosage is somewhat higher than most herbs at 9 to 30 grams. The herb is cool.

Clear Heat / Relieve Toxicity: Bai Tou Weng

Bai Tou Weng looks messy. The other root herbs in this Relieve Toxicity group look nice and clean and neat. But what do you expect for an herb whose job it is to treat "hot dysenteric disorders"? If you have a heat toxic accumulating in clumps in your stomach and large intestine, the bitter cold nature of Bai Tou Weng will clear them out! Key word here is Dysentery (which is a catch-all word for diarrhea and sometimes vomiting of blood due to some sort of parasite, bacteria, etc. It is also known as "Traveler's Diarrhea").



Malarial disorders also apply. I've never had malaria, so I looked it up. Here are its symptoms:

• Fever.
• Chills.
• Headache.
• Sweats.
• Fatigue.
• Nausea and vomiting

There are two other herbs in this group that can provide relief from dysentery: Ma Chi Xian and Ya Dan Zi. Bensky speaks to the fact that these herbs all pretty much do the same thing, but they each have their special powers:

Ma Chi Xian: for bloody and mucus-y diarrhea (power to cool blood, stop bleeding)
Ya Dan Zi: for chronic, reoccurring diarrhea that alternates between mild and severe (this one also noted for malaria)
Bai Tou Weng: Useful in treating both types of dysenteric disorder! Good to know!

About the plant:

I found this interesting description for Bai Tou Weng (pulsatilla chinensis):

Pulsatilla chinensis is A greedy plant, inhibiting the growth of nearby plants, especially legumes,but a useful root with nickname "White Haired Old Man". Why "White Haired Old Man"? Because it is "found everywhere" with "white hair near its root just like an old white-haired man." "Bai" means white, "Tou" means head, and "Weng" means elderly person.

Look how pretty it is:

Clear Heat / Relieve Toxicity: Ban Lan Gen

Is it a tongue depressor? No, but close! It's Ban Lan Gen -- the root of the isatis and it's good for sore throats! Ban means flat surface / lan means indigo / gen means root. Makes sense. Also helps to know it's one of the three herbs this week that are part of the Isatis indigotica root.


I decided to go through this group of herbs alphabetically. I already did a couple of them before I made this decision, but I will still put them in their alphabetical place when I get to them. There are five herbs that begin with "B" in this bunch. Ban Lan Gen is the third B herb. (Question: What begins with B and is good for the throat? Ban Lan Gen!)

It is also one of those triplet herbs that are part of the isatis plant. Ban Lan Gen is the root. The other two isatis members are Da Qing Ye (the leaf of the isatis) and Qing Dai (the blue eyebrow powder made by way of some fancy footwork with the leaves). Ban Lan Gen is kind of the oddball of the three because it doesn't look "qing-y" at all -- no blue green in this one -- because it is the root. The root is the color, and sort of the shape, of a tongue depressor which is good to know because Ban Lan Gen is one of the three herbs in this group as a whole that goes to the throat -- funny enough the other two also end similarly: She Gan and Shan Dou Gen.




Above: A most nasty sore throat. Ban Lan Gen to the rescue!


Ban Lan Gen is bitter and very cold. It carries this bitterness and coldness to the Heart, Lung, and Stomach channels. While traveling through it resolves fire toxicity and cools the blood. By way of the lung channel, it benefits the throat, as in painful, swollen throat conditions like warm epidemic disorders (external wind-heat), mumps, and also damp-heat jaundice.

Bensky says the root of this plant can substitute for the leaf (Da Qing Ye), but the leaf is better at venting rashes while the root is better for mumps and sore throat (upper respiratory infections). The pretty blue powder, Qing Dai, excels at toxic sores, rashes, coughing up blood and childhood convulsions.

Clear Heat/Relieve Toxicity: Bai Jiang Cao

Bai Jiang Cao is cool (and also bitter and spicy). Let's see if it lives up to its reputation. Is it really "cool"? Well, unfortunately it's not really cool looking. It looks like dried up grass clippings, like about ten other herbs in this bunch. Though one herb selling site says it's "so fun in the garden" because it's one of those "see through flowers" meaning it is kind of spindly and not very bushy. See:
Also, it is not cool that the little spindly flowers that are so fun in the garden are rumored to smell like spoiled bean paste. Lovely. The other not "cool" thing is that the images on the Internet of the dried herb don't look like they do in my little Mayway packet. Here's what it looks like on the Internet:



Okay, but you can't tell a book by its cover. This herb is pretty cool, I suppose, because it gets rid of pus (abscesses and sores) and stops pain (due to heat in the abdomen and chest). Anything that can stop pain is pretty cool in my book.


And it is a blood mover in the abdomen, and it is used with dandelion for the breasts. But the coolest thing about Bai Jiang Cao is its "ability to generate flesh" -- according to Dennis. Therefore it is good post-operatively for pain and also to help the wound heal. The pain relieving stuff is due to its ability to move blood in the abdomen. It goes to the Stomach, Liver, and Large Intestine.
Because it is a blood mover, it is cautioned in pregnancy. But that doesn't mean you can't take it after the C-section.

Later that week...I had a chance to look at Bai Jiang Cao again. Bai means white, Jiang is the name for fermented soy beans. This is helpful because the herb is reported to smell like fermented soy beans when fresh. Think Bai Jiang and tofu. This association reminds me of eating (in fact I was compelled to go make some breakfast thinking about this). The herb travels to the abdomen (ST, LIV, LI -- all organs necessary in the digestive process) and dispels blood stasis there, invigorating the blood in the abdomen. It is also a flesh generator (and good for stopping pain post surgery) just like if you eat too much tofu it will generate flesh. See the connection I am making here? Its primary function, however, is to clear heat/relieve toxicity by expelling pus -- fermented soy bean kind of looks like pus (tofu). Now I'm not sure if I'll be able to eat tofu for awhile, but maybe, just maybe, I'll remember the functions of Bai Jiang Cao.

Clear Heat / Relieve Toxicity: Bai Hua She She Cao

Bai Hua She She Cao:

I think it looks something like ephedra, but it was named for its leaves looking like a snake's tongue. "She" means both tongue and snake. And funny thing is that it is also famous for treating snake bites due to its heat clearing and resolution of fire toxicity functions--snake bites form a toxic heat, and Bai Hua She She Cao is cold and also bitter (liver) and sweet (stomach).

The herb will also clear toxic heat from various cancers and will reduce abscesses. It works both in the interior and exterior (meaning, I believe, topically).

Besides heavy duty toxins like snake bites and cancer, Bai Hua She She Cao also clears heat and helps get rid of dampness by promoting urination if you have "hot painful dribbling." It goes to both the small and large intestine, as well as the stomach and liver.

I like Bensky's phrase "it is used for toxic accumulation." The functions all make sense to me with that phrase-- working on cancer ("toxic accumulation") and clearing the accumulation through urination.

Above: Bai Hua She She Cao -- White Flower Snake's Tongue. It does look like a snake's tongue an will relieve you of the toxic heat from being being bit by a snake (or by the cancer!)

Clear Heat / Relieve Toxicity: Yu Xing Cao

Yu Xing Cao - dried medicinal herb, above (looks like most of the other dried up herbs that are leaves), below is what it looks like fresh:




Yu Xing Cao is the herb whose name means "fishy smelling herb." Disappointingly, though, in the herb bag it smells like all the rest. The Latin name for the herb is Houttuynia cordata herb. It has the distinction of being the only plant in the genus Houttuynia. I'm curious about what makes it so special. Yu Xing Cao is a flowering plant that is native to Asia, likes the shade and thrives in moist, or even wet, conditions. Perhaps this is why the fishy smelling herb promotes urination as one of its primary functions? By promoting urination, Yu Xing Cao will drain damp heat.

It's primary function as a medicinal herb, however, is lung abscesses with thick yellow-green sputum. Here is a lung with an abscess:
I was tempted to put a picture of thick yellow-green sputum as well, but just couldn't go there.

Since clearing heat and toxicity from the lungs and draining damp heat through the promotion of urination are its primary functions, it makes sense that the two channels it travels to are the Lung and Large Intestine. Like the shady, moist areas where it grows, Yu Xing Cao is a cool herb. It is also spicy.

In Vietnam Yu Xing Cao is used like parsley is used in America, as a fresh herbal garnish. They call it "fish mint." Since it has this odd fishy taste, it is not necessarily the most used herbal garnish in the pantry. Using your imagination, the name might be pronounced "You stink so."
Above: a fish peeing (Yu Xing Cao smells fishy and promotes urination)
In the U.S. and Australia, the herb is considered an invasive alien species. A weed that spreads rapidly. Its nickname is heartleaf. You can see why.

Clear Heat / Relieve Toxicity: Da Qing Ye

The Cliff Notes version added following my earlier post, below:

This is a very cold herb, related to Ban Lan Gen (same plant, different parts) and Da Qing Ye (also the leaf, but prepared differently). Da Qing Ye goes deeper into the blood than Ban Lan Gen. Ban Lan Gen is good for epidemics and external wind-heat disorders, great for the throat, and also cools the blood, but Da Qing Ye goes even deeper. It is used for severe contagious diseases, according to Bensky, especially involving the lungs and throat. Da Qing Ye is also powerful for dissipating maculae due to heat in the blood. High fevers, insatiable thirst, skin eruptions, loss of consciousness due to the heat going deep into the blood. "Especially effective for blazing fire toxin of the Heart, Lung, and Stomach which attacks upward and outward, causing swollen, sore throat, ulcers of the mouth and tongue...mumps" according to Bensky.

So, for severe deep heat (think Red) break out the Big Green Leaf (Da Qing Ye).


Above is a picture of Da Qing Ye (living, before it is dried) I found on Flickr taken by someone at the Botanical Garden in Berkeley. We should take a fieldtrip there as a class, don't you think? It'd be great to see, touch, and smell the herbs before they are dried, charred, and whatever else happens to them before we use them.

And here it is, dried:
Simply, Da Qing Ye also clears heat and relieves fire toxicity (febrile disease) from epidemics and infections. It is considered to be a very cold herb. I guess one reason why I want to know more about the plants -- how and where they're grown, what they look like when they're alive, etc. -- is because I want to find some kind of pattern, some reasoning to understand their properties. For example, what makes Da Qing Ye very cold? What about it directs it to the Heart, Lung, and Stomach channels? Why is it bitter? Why is it salty?

Because it is very cold it cools the blood, and this function leads to the dissipation of macules--those flat red rash looking spots that were all over that guy's back in the picture in Dennis's PowerPoint.
Macules: the flat rash (above)

And so as far as what we need to know about it for class, that's about it. Da Qing Ye (the big green leaf) is in standardized epidemic formulas for infections "from strep to pneumonia to SARS." Feverish conditions where the blood gets hot.

But I want to know more! Apparently, lots of other people do, too. In a brief search for Da Qing Ye, or isatis indigotica, on the Internet, I found a group of Chinese scientists who analyzed the chemical compounds in the leaf (made no meaning to me, at all) and a woman who grows plants in her garden and makes dyes from them. She compared isatis indigotica (otherwise known as Chinese Woad otherwise known as Da Qing Ye) to its cousin isatis tinctoria (just plain "Woad"). She found that indigotica makes a bluer dye. You want to see her experiment? Look here: http://growingcolour.blogspot.com/2008/08/comparison-between-chinese-woad-isatis.html
It's even more esoteric than studying herbs for medicine.

Okay, a little more from Bensky. He says this herb is for any severe febrile disease that "affects people regardless of their constitution." Meaning, this herb is for those diseases that can kick any one's ass. Also, Bensky says it may be used for "a fire toxin anywhere in the body." He notes that mouth ulcers and throat painful obstruction are two problems it can help to cure.