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Latin pharmacognostic name: Sophorae Flos

Alternate English names: pagoda tree flower Chinese scholar tree flower

Alternate Chinese names: 槐蕊 huái ruǐ

Kingdom: Plant

Origin in PRC Pharmacopoeia: Sophora japonica L. (PRC Pharmacopoeia)

Origin (other sources): Sophora japonica L.

Use: Medicinal

Category: Blood-stanching agents / Blood-cooling blood-stanching agents

Properties: Bitter; slightly cold.

Channel entry: Liver and large intestine channels.

Indications:

• Cools the blood and stanches bleeding: Bleeding (vomiting of blood (blood ejection), nosebleed, bloody stool, and bleeding hemorrhoids) due to blood heat.
• Clears liver fire: Red eyes and headache from liver fire flaming upward.

Dosage & Method: Oral: 10–15g in decoctions. The char-fried herb may be used to stanch bleeding; the raw form is used to clear liver fire.

Warnings: Use with care in vacuity cold of the spleen and stomach.

Notes: This is the immature sophora bud, which is used interchangeably with 槐花 and seldom differentiated.

Product Description: These small buds are oval in shape, 4–8 mm long, and 2–3 mm thick, and sharply pointed at one end. The calyx, which accounts for two thirds of the overall length, is grayish brown, with longitudinal furrows, and with five shallow lighter-colored lobes at the extremity. The unopened corolla is a flattened sphere about 2 mm long and reddish-brown in color. There is a short stalk at the base of the bud.

Quality: The best buds are the size of grains of rice, are a greenish yellow in color, and when soaked in water, the color becomes bright yellow.

Product Area: Héběi, Shāndōng, Hénán, Jiāngsū, Guǎngdōng, Guǎngxī.

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