Wiseman’s Chinese Medical Database

zhù má gēn / 苎麻根 / 苧麻根 / ramie [root];

Latin pharmacognostic name: Boehmeriae Radix

Alternate English names: boehmeria [root]; Chinese silk plant [root]

Alternate Chinese names: 苎根 zhù gēn

Origin: Plant

Use: medicinal

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

Properties: Sweet; cold.

Channel entry: heart and liver channels.

Indications:

• Cools the blood and stanches bleeding: Bleeding due to frenetic movement of hot blood, manifesting in coughing of blood, vomiting of blood (blood ejection), nosebleed, bloody urine, flooding and spotting, and purple macules.
• Clears heat and quiets the fetus: Stirring fetus or fetal spotting due to blood heat.
• Clears heat and resolves toxin: Swollen welling-abscesses due to heat toxin and snake bites.

Dosage & Method:

Oral: 10–30g in decoction. If the fresh root is used, the dose is 30–60g, crushed to extract the juice. For topical use, the dried product can be decocted as a wash, or the fresh product can be applied crushed.

Product Area:

Zhèjiāng, Jiāngsū, ānhuī, Shāndōng, and Shǎnxī (Shaanxi).