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.