Medicinals
bái zhǐ / 白芷 / 白芷 / Dahurian angelica;
Latin pharmacognostic name: Angelicae Dahuricae Radix
Alternate English names: Dahurian angelica [root]
Alternate Chinese names:
Origin: Plant
Use: medicinal
Category: Exterior-resolving agents / Warm acrid exterior-resolving agents
Properties: Acrid; warm.
Channel entry: lung and stomach channels.
Indications:
- Resolves the exterior and disperses wind: External contraction of wind-cold, with headache and nasal congestion.
- Dispels wind and relieves pain: Yáng brightness (yáng míng) channel headache; eyebrow bone pain; head wind headache; toothache; and deep-source nasal congestion (paranasal sinusitis, chronic rhinitis).
- Disperses swelling and expels pus: Painful swollen
sore s; welling-abscesses. - Additional actions: Bái zhǐ also has an itch-relieving action that makes it suitable for topical application to itchy skin.
Dosage & Method:
Oral: 3–10g in decoctions. Also used externally.
Warning:
Contraindicated in yīn vacuity with blood heat.
Product Description:
This root is shaped like a mallet head, square at the upper end and tapering to the tip. It is about 10–20 cm long and about 1.5–2 cm in diameter at the head. There is an indentation on the head where the stalk was removed. The outer surface is a yellowish or pale brown with a longitudinal grain and scars on prominences where the fine roots were removed. This root is hard and heavy. The fracture is white and mealy with annular markings. The decocting pieces are 1 mm transverse slices, which reveal the annular markings even more clearly. This root has strong odor that is unpleasant despite its similarity to that of coffee.
Etymology:
The name bái zhǐ 白芷 is composed of zhǐ 芷, which in itself refers to the plant identified by botanists as Angelica dahurica, and bái 白, white, an additional qualification that refers to the color of this root.