Chinese Herbs

ANGELICA SINENSIS (Dang Gui)

Nature
Warm; bitter, sweet, slightly pungent; attributive to liver and spleen.

Characteristics
Roots of a fragrant perennial herb, highly aromatic and sold in flat, irregular pieces with brown spotted oil cavities. It is a general herb known as the great tonic for all female deficiencies. Modern scientific research validates it to contain estrogenic compounds called phytoestrogens, which account for its menstrual-regulating properties. The herb has also been proven to enhance immunity.

Theraputic Effects
Phytoestrogen effects for painful and abnormal menstruation and premenstrual syndrome; enrich blood and promote circulation; stimulate appetite; improve muscle tone; stimulate immune system; anti-bacterial; moisturize dryness and loose bowel.

ASTRAGALUS / ASTRAGALI RADIX (Huang Qi)

Nature
Slightly warm; sweet and slightly sour; attributive to spleen and lungs.

Characteristics
A superior tonic with a tough, fibrous, yellowish brown skin. It enhances immunity by stimulating the production and circulation and by protecting the body from invasion of the six evils or the six excesses. The American Cancer Society's study on this herb has reported 90% of restoration of normal immune response in cancer patients.

Theraputic Effects
Strengthen body for general weakness; invigorate vital energy and spleen; relieve skin infection and promote tissue regeneration; diuretic; impede perspiration for profuse sweating; lower blood pressure and blood sugar; improve circulation in flesh and skin.

CHINESE JUJUBE (Red Date) / ZIZYPHI FRUCTUS (Hong Zao)

Nature
Neutral and warm; sweet; attributive to spleen and stomach.

Characteristics
The medicinal fruit is oblong in shape and turn dark reddish brown when ripe. The kernels are hot in nature and it is common to cook jujubes without the kernels. It is a superior herb, most widely employed in the Chinese pharmacopoeia adding to herbal formulas to prolong, enhance, and harmonize the effect of the other ingredients; and to circulate the herbal essences in the bloodstream and in the meridians.

Theraputic Effects
Nourish blood and calm the mind for insomnia and restlessness; invigorate the spleen and stomach with poor appetite; promote secretions of vital fluids; retard aging; warming; moderating the toxicity of potent drugs. It is best for fatigue, hypertension, physical exhaustion and malnutrition.

CHINESE WOLFBERRY / FRUCTUS LYCII (Gou Ji Zi)

Nature
Neutral; sweet; attributive to liver and kidneys.

Characteristics
The fruits of a common shrub, small and oval in shape, reddish orange with a sweet but coarse taste. A superior herb, a popular health tonic since ancient times in China and is widely used in many longevity formulas. Particularly good for eyes and strengthen weak legs and knees for the elderly.

Theraputic Effects
Nourish kidney-yin; tonify liver-yin deficiency; treat deficiency of essence and blood manifested as dizziness, blurring of vision, hypopsia, tinnitus, emisssion and soreness of the loin and extremities; relieves chronic thirst and emollient to lungs; also for treating and preventing diabetes.

CHINESE YAM / DIOSCOREA OPPOSITE (Shan Yao)

Nature
Neutral; sweet; attributive to spleen, lung and kidneys.

Characteristics
The long tuberous roots of bean-like plants, which are cultivated for pharmaceutical use. It is a superior herb. The dried white flesh of the tuber is sliced into long thin slabs, containing nutrient which can restore and enhance immune functions throughout the system.

Theraputic Effects
Invigorate the spleen and stomach with poor appetite, loose stools or chronic diarrhea; invigorate the lung with chronic cough or tuberculosis; stimulate endocrine secretions for immune deficiency; strengthens kidney functions for frequent urination and leucorrhagia and nourish semen-essence.

GINSENG / PANAX GINSENG (Ren Shen)

Nature
Warm, sweet, slightly bitter, attributive to spleen and lungs.

Characteristics
The fleshy roots of a perennial herb. There are many types and grades of ginseng depending on the source, age parts of root used and the methods of preparation. They come in white and red varieties and the red ones are more potent and more expensive. Ginseng is an energy tonic; a superior herb that has long been regarded as the King of herb that can "cure-all" because of its double-direction activity. It will bring back the right balance in any situation of excess or deficiency. However, it should not be taken while having cold, flu or other lung infections.

Theraputic Effects
Invigorate vital energy, spleen energy and lung energy; promote production of vital fluid and balance hormones; calm the mind, anti-fatigue and anti-stress; enhance immune response; improve circulation and function; regulate blood pressure and blood sugar; anti-tumor and anti-cancer; stimulate liver functions; regulate central nervous system; anti-aging; antioxidant.

LING-ZHI / GANODERMA LUCIDUM (ling Zhi / reichi)

Nature
Neutral and slightly warm; bitter; attributive to heart, liver, lungs and kidneys.

Characteristics
Mushroom like fungi, huge in size, woody but light in weight. There are at least six varieties: red, purple, black, white, green and yellow. Red and black ling-chi are most common and purple is extremely rare. It is the supertonic herb, the "supreme protector" in Chinese herbal medicine. The health benefits are extremely broad. It is most famous for its anti-aging property and strengthening of the immune system. Most ling-chi are cultivated because the wild ones are extremely difficult to find.

Theraputic Effects
Tranquilize the mind; enrich vital energy and blood; regulate and strengthen immune system; treat hypertension and coronary heart disease; anti-aging; anti-stress; reverse leukopenia; relieve cough and dyspnea.

NOTOGINSENG / PANAX NOTOGINSENG (san qi)

Nature
Warm; sweet and slightly bitter, attributive to liver and stomach.

Characteristics
Roots with surface grey-yellow, waxily lustrous, with caudex at the apex and tubercular branch root scars at the upper part. Extremely effective styptic action when applied directly to traumatic wounds; heals with out leaving clots and scars; internally and externally, best drug for serious bleeding.

Theraputic Effects
Promote blood circulation to remove blood stasis, stop bleeding, relieve swelling and alleviate pain. For various kinds of bleeding due to trauma and blood-stasis syndrome.

HORNY GOAT WEED / EPIMEDIUM SAGITTATUM (yin yang huo)

Nature
Warm; pungent and sweet; attributive to kidneys and liver.

Characteristics
Leaves of a perennial herb, oval in shape and grow in clusters of three leaflets. It is a general herb prescribed mainly for its aphrodisiac properties. Scientific studies have confirmed that the herb is a direct stimulant to semen production and sexual drive in males.

Theraputic Effects
Invigorate kidney and strengthen yang to treat impotence, male and female infertility; strengthen tendons and bones and expel wind-dampness with numbness in extremities, muscular spasm; relieve cough and asthma; strengthen nerves; lower blood pressures; treat coronary heart disease.