Medicinals
ròu guì / 肉桂 / 肉桂 / cinnamon bark;
Latin pharmacognostic name: Cinnamomi Cortex
Alternate English names: cassia bark; Chinese cinnamon bark
Alternate Chinese names: 杜桂 dù guì; 紫桂 zǐ guì; 大桂 dà guì; 玉桂 yù guì; 辣桂 là guì
Origin: Plant
Use: medicinal
Category: Interior-warming agents
Properties: Acrid, sweet; hot.
Channel entry: kidney, spleen, heart, and liver channels.
Indications:
- Supplements fire and assists yáng: Debilitation of kidney yáng (life gate fire), with impotence, uterine cold, vacuity panting, and heart palpitation.
- Disperses cold and relieves pain: Cold mounting (hán shàn) abdominal pain, cold pain in the heart region and abdomen, cold impediment pain in the lumbus, chest impediment, yīn flat-abscesses.
- Warms the channels/menses and frees the vessels: Amenorrhea or menstrual pain.
- Additional uses: Ròu guì is added to formulas that supplement qì and blood because it enhances the engenderment of qì and blood. It is therefore used for enduring diseases with vacuity of qì and blood.
Dosage & Method:
(1.5–4.5g).
Warning:
Because its hot acrid properties stir the blood and damage yīn, ròu guì is contraindicated in yīn vacuity with effulgent fire, in bleeding due frenetic movement of hot blood, and repletion heat in the interior. It is contraindicated in pregnancy and should not be combined with chì shí zhī (Halloysitum Rubrum) because it ""fears"" it according to traditional theory.
Product Description:
This bark comes in strips 6–40 cm long and 1–3 mm thick and curled into trough or tube shapes. The outside is relatively smooth with inconspicuous lenticels. If the cork has not been stripped off, it is brown in color; if it has been stripped off, it is a dark, reddish-brown. It is hard and breaks into pieces when snapped. A pale line (the stone cell layer) can be observed on the fracture.
Quality:
A strong sweet pungent taste and powerful aroma are signs of good quality.
Product Area:
Guǎngxī, Guǎngdōng, Vietnam, Sri Lanka.
Etymology:
The name ròu guì 肉桂, literally ""fleshy cinnamon,"" reflects the thickness of this bark.