Medicinals
hú huáng lián / 胡黄连 / 胡黃連 / picrorhiza [root]
Latin pharmacognostic name: Picrorhizae Rhizoma
Alternate English names:
Alternate Chinese names: 胡莲 hú lián; 胡连 hú lián
Origin: Plant
Use: medicinal
Category: Heat-clearing agents / Vacuity-heat–clearing agents
Properties: Bitter; cold.
Channel entry: liver, stomach, and large intestine channels. (also enters the heart channel according to some sources.)
Indications:
- Abates vacuity heat: Steaming bone
tidal heat effusion . - Eliminates gān heat effusion: gān accumulation with heat effusion (malnutrition with fever).
- Clears damp-heat: Damp-heat dysentery; painful swollen hemorrhoids.
Dosage & Method:
Oral: 3–10g in decoctions.
Warning:
Use with care in spleen-stomach vacuity cold.
Quality:
P. kurrooa: Thick bitter-tasting rhizomes that produce a powder on snapping and are blackish gray on the fractured surface are best. P. scrophulariaeflora: Thick rhizomes without fine roots are the best.
Product Area:
Picrorhiza kurrooa: Indian Himalayas. Picrorhiza scrophulariaeflora: Tibet and western Yúnnán.