Medicinals
chuān xiōng / 川芎 / 川芎 / chuanxiong [rhizome]
Latin pharmacognostic name: Chuanxiong Rhizoma
Alternate English names:
Alternate Chinese names: 芎藭 xiōng qióng; 川藭 chuān xiōng
Origin: Plant
Use: medicinal and alimentary
Category: Blood-Quickening Stasis-dispelling agents / Blood-quickening pain-relieving agents
Properties: Acrid; warm.
Channel entry: liver, gallbladder, and pericardium channels.
Indications:
- Quickens the blood and moves qì: Pain due to blood stasis and qì stagnation.
- Dispels wind and relieves pain: Headache; wind-damp impediment pain. Chuān xiōng is used to treat wind-damp impediment pain because it is acrid and dispersing and warm and freeing in nature; it dispels wind, quickens the network vessels, and relieves pain. In this application, chuān xiōng is combined with dú huó (独活 Angelicae Pubescentis Radix, pubescent angelica;), qín jiāo (秦艽 Gentianae Macrophyllae Radix, large gentian [root];), fáng fēng (防风 Saposhnikoviae Radix, saposhnikovia;), and guì zhī (桂枝 Cinnamomi Ramulus, cinnamon twig;), as in the formula
duhuojishengtang .
Dosage & Method:
Oral: 3–10g in decoctions, or 1–1.5g per dose as a powder. Mix-fried with wine to enhance its warm freeing, upbearing, and dispersing action.
Warning:
To be used with care in patients with the following conditions: yīn vacuity with effulgent fire, profuse sweating, profuse menstruation, bleeding patterns with exuberant heat or without blood stasis, and pregnancy. It is contraindicated in headache due to yīn vacuity and yáng hyperactivity.
Product Description:
This is an irregular fist-shaped noded rhizome, 3–10 cm long and 2–5 cm in diameter. The exterior surface is brown, with numerous ringed nodes, each with a large depression marking the place where the stem was attached. The nodes also have many protuberant scars where the roots were attached. This rhizome is firm and solid and has a distinct aroma. It is cut in longitudinal slices, which on the cut edge appear yellow brown, or paler at the medulla, with darker brown speckles (oil sacs). Slices are darker in color when stir-fried with wine.
Quality:
Large fat heavy rhizomes with white interiors and a strong aroma are the best.
Product Area:
Sìchuān, Yúnnán, Guìzhōu, Jiāngxī, Húběi.
Etymology:
The original name xiōng qióng 芎藭 may explained by this agent's ability to treat headache if xiōng 芎 is taken to mean qióng 穹, a vault or the sky, the latter being an analogy for the head. Now called chuān xiōng 川芎 since Sichuanese is the best (川 for 四川).