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.