Greenlife Chinese herb database - Radix Angelicae Dahuricae (Bai Zhi)

Greenlife Chinese herb database - Radix Angelicae Dahuricae (Bai Zhi)

English Name

Dahurian Angelica Root

Chinese Name

Picture

Origin

Dahurian Angelica Root is the dried root of Angelica dahurica (Fisch. Ex Hoffm.) Benth. Et Hook. f. or Angelica dahurica (Fisch. Ex Hoffm.) Benth. Et Hook. f. var. formosana (Boiss.) Shan et Yuan (Fam. Umbelliferae).

Nature and Affinity

Pungent in taste and warm in nature, and distributed to the Stomach, large Intestine and Lung Channels.

Main Active Ingredient

Precaution

Storage

Preserve in a cool and dry place, protected from moth.

	DESCRIPTION
	Long-conical, 10~25 cm long, 1.5~2.5 cm in diameter. Externally grayish-brown or yellowish-brown, the root stock obtusely quadrangular or subrounded, with longitudinal wrinkles, rootlet scars and lenticel-like transverse protrudings, some of them arranged in 4 longitudinal rows. Apex with dented stem scars. Texture compact, fracture white or grayish-white and starchy, cambium ring brown, subsquare or subrounded,scattered with many brown oil dots in bark. Odour, aromatic; taste, pungent and bitterish.
	ACTION
	To dispel wind, to remove damp, to clear the stuffed nose, to relieve pain, and to promote the subsidence of swelling and drainage of pus.
	INDICATIONS
	Headache, particularly pain in the forehead, and stuffed nose due to cold; sinusitis; toothache; excessive leucorrhea; sweeling and pain of sores and wounds.
	REFERENTIAL ADVICE
	1.Dispersing evil cold from superficies In treating cold due to invasion of wind and cold, with headache over the frontal part of the head, the drug is often combined with Herba Schizonepetae, Radix Ledebouriellae, Fructus Viticis, Rhizoma seu Radix Notopteryii, etc. 2. Dispelling wind and arresting pain It is indicated in vertigo, Migraine, supraorbital neuralgia, headache with nose sinusitis, toothache, For the treatment of vertigo or headache due to invasion of wind, it can be used as a single medicine or combined with Rhizoma Ligustici Chuanxiong, Flos Chrusanthemi, Radix Ledevouriellae and Rhizoma seu Radix Notopterygii; for heacache due to nose sinusitis, with Fluctus Xanthii, Flos Magnoliae; for toothache due to invasion of wind and fire, with Gypsum Fibrosum. 3. Relieving swelling and letting out pus It is indicated in furuncle or pyogenic infection; besides, it can be used to relieve swelling and disperse evils when the local lesion is at its beginning; it can be used to let the pus out; therefore it is commonly used in the field of tradional Chinese surgeruy. For the treatment of mastitis, it is often combined with Fructus Trichosanthis, Bulbus Fritillariae Thunbergii, Herba Taraxaci etc.; for the treatment of other carbuncles of pyogenic infection, with Flos Lonicerae, Frucus Rorsythiae and so on. 4. Resolving dampness and leukorrhea For the treatment leukorrhagia due to invasion of cold and dampness, marked by white watery vaginal discharge, it is often combined with Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae, Poria, Os Sepiellae seu Sepiae and so on.
	TIPS
	Important ingredient in antisote potions for poisonous snake-bite.