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Evodia [fruit]
吴茱萸 〔吳茱萸〕wú zhū yú
Latin pharmacognostic name: Evodiae Fructus
Alternate Chinese names: 左力 zuǒ lì; 吴芋 wú yù; 吴茱 wú zhū; 吴萸 wú yú; 茱萸 zhū yú; 茱萸肉 zhū yú ròu
Kingdom: Plant
Origin in PRC Pharmacopoeia: Evodia rutaecarpa (Juss.) Benth.; Evodia rutaecarpa (Juss.) Benth. var. officinalis (Dode) Huang; Evodia rutaecarpa (Juss.) Benth. var. bodinieri (Dode) Huang. (PRC Pharmacopoeia)
Origin (other sources): Evodia rutaecarpa (Juss.) Benth.*; Evodia officinalis Dode [= E. rutaecarpa (Juss.) Benth. var. officinalis (Dode) Huang]; Evodia rutaecarpa (Juss.) Benth. var. bodinieri (Dode) Huang*; Evodia rutaecarpa (Juss.) Benth. var. officinalis (Dode) Huang*
Use: Medicinal
Category: Interior-warming agents
Properties: Acrid, bitter; hot; mildly toxic.
Channel entry: Liver, spleen, stomach, and kidney channels.
Indications:
- Disperses cold and relieves pain: Pain due to cold stagnating in the liver channel.
- Warms the center and checks vomiting:
Vomiting and retching due to stomach cold. - Assists yáng and checks diarrhea: Diarrhea due to vacuity cold.
- Additional uses: Ground wú zhū yú may be mixed with vinegar and applied topically to the sole of the foot, on the acupoint KI-1 (yǒng quán) to treat
mouth sores . This method has also been used recently for hypertension.
Dosage & Method: Oral: 1.5–6g in decoctions; also used externally.
Warnings: Wú zhū yú is hot, acrid, dry and harsh in nature. It wears qì and stirs fire, making it unsuitable for frequent or prolonged use. It is contraindicated in yīn vacuity with heat. Grossly excessive quantities of wú zhū yú pose a theoretical risk of interaction with monoamine oxidase-inhibiting drugs; this is due to the presence of the constituent 5-methoxy-dimethyltryptamine.
Product Description: This dried unripe fruit is spherical, 2–5 cm in diameter, with stalk. The outside is dark brown or black in color and hard in substance. It splits into five loculi, each containing one globular brown seed.
Quality: Full hard strong-smelling acrid-tasting fruits without stalks are the best.
Product Area: Guìzhōu, Guǎngxī, Húnán, Yúnnán, Shǎnxī (Shaanxi), Zhèjiāng, Sìchuān.
Etymology: The name wú zhū yú 吴茱萸 means the zhū yú from Wú,
the area said to produce the best. The combination 茱萸 occurs also in shān zhū yú 山茱萸 and shí zhū yú 食茱萸 whose mature fruits, like that of evodia, are all red (朱).