Medicinals
qiàn cǎo / 茜草 / 茜草 / madder [root];
Latin pharmacognostic name: Rubiae Radix
Alternate English names: rubia [root]
Alternate Chinese names: 茜根 qiàn gēn; 茜草 qiàn cǎo; 茜草根 qiàn cǎo gēn
Origin: Plant
Use: medicinal
Category: Blood-stanching agents / Stasis-transforming blood-stanching agents
Properties: Bitter; cold.
Channel entry: liver channels.
Indications:
- Cools the blood, transforms stasis, and stanches bleeding: Bleeding due to blood heat complicated by stasis, manifesting in vomiting of blood (blood ejection), nosebleed, flooding and spotting, bloody urine, or bloody stool.
- Frees the channels: Blood stasis amenorrhea,
injury from knocks and falls , wind-damp impediment pain.
Dosage & Method:
Oral: 10–15g in decoctions. It may be char-fried to stanch bleeding, but it should be used raw or wine-fried to quicken the blood and free the channels.
Quality:
Large roots that are reddish brown on the outside and bright red on the inside, with few branch roots or stems are the best.
Product Area:
Mainly produced in Shǎnxī (Shaanxi), Hénán, Hénán, and Shāndōng, the first two of these producing the most and the best; produced on a lesser scale in Húběi, Jiāngsū, Zhèjiāng, Gānsū, Liáoníng, Shānxī, Guǎngdōng, Guǎngxī, Sìchuān.