Medicinals
jīng jiè / 荆芥 / 荊芥 / schizonepeta
Latin pharmacognostic name: Schizonepetae Herba
Alternate English names:
Alternate Chinese names:
Origin: Plant
Use: medicinal
Category: Exterior-resolving agents / Warm acrid exterior-resolving agents
Properties: Acrid; slightly warm.
Channel entry: lung and liver channels.
Indications:
- Dispels wind and resolves the exterior: Wind-cold and wind-heat exterior patterns.
- Outthrusts papules and relieves itching: Measles failing to erupt; itchy papular rash in rubella (
German measles , traditionally called ""wind papules,"" 风疹 fēng zhěn, in Chinese medicine). - Disperses sores: Initial-stage sores with concurrent exterior patterns.
- Stanches bleeding: Bleeding patterns.
Dosage & Method:
Oral: 3–10g in decoctions. It should not be decocted for long. Use raw to effuse the exterior and outthrust papules and to disperse sores. Use stir-fried or char-fried to stanch bleeding.
Product Description:
The dried herb has a squared stalk with a longitudinal furrow on each face, and branches on the upper part. It is about 45–90 cm long, and 3–5 mm in diameter. The exterior surface has a purple hue and is covered in short hairs. It is light and snaps easily, revealing a yellow, white fibrous transverse section with a white medulla in the center. The leaves, which are opposite-growing, with deep incisions forming long lobes, are brittle and break off easily. At the top of the stalk is a green verticillate cylindrical inflorescence, 7–10 mm in diameter, with green calyx tubes from which the corollas have fallen and which contain four black seeds.
Quality:
Herbs with a pale purple hue, fine stalks, and numerous inflorescences are the best.
Product Area:
Jiāngsū, Zhèjiāng, Jiāngxī, Húběi, and Húnán.