Medicinals

ài yè / 艾叶 / 艾葉 / mugwort [leaf];

Latin pharmacognostic name: Artemisiae Argyi Folium

Alternate English names: moxa

Alternate Chinese names: 艾蒿 ài hāo; 艾 ài

Origin: Plant

Use: medicinal

Category: Blood-stanching agents / Channel-warming blood-stanching agents

Properties: Bitter, acrid; warm.

Channel entry: liver, spleen, and kidney channels.

Indications:

Dosage & Method:

Oral: 3–10g in decoctions. ài yè may be char-fried to warm the channels (menses) to stanch bleeding. For other purposes, it is used fresh.

Product Description:

This leaf is feather-shaped with deep incisions. When dried for pharmaceutical use, it becomes shrunken and broken. It is yellowish green on the upper surface with scant white down and a grayish white on the lower surface with dense down. The short leafstalk is sometimes still attached. This product turns a brownish green when stir-fried and blackish when char-fried. Moxa pounded to light woolly consistency, called moxa floss (ài róng 艾绒), is used for moxibustion. This is purchased loose and formed into cones (ài zhù 艾炷) for direct and indirect moxibustion prior to use. It is also available in in paper-wrapped sticks—moxa sticks, moxa cigars, or moxa poles (ài tiáo 艾条, ài juǎn 艾卷)—which are used for indirect moxibustion.

Quality:

Leaves that are grayish-white on the underside and have a thick downy covering and a strong odor are the best.

Product Area:

ānhuī, Guǎngdōng, Mongolia.

Etymology:

The name ài yè 艾叶 literally means ""mugwort leaf."" The character ài 艾 is composed of the grass radical cǎo 艹 mounted over the character 乂, which means to cut (of grass) or to set in order, suggested in this context as to cure disease.

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