Long cylindrical, much-branched, 30~75 cm long, thick end 0.3~1 cm in diameter. Externally brown to reddish-brown, with longitudinal ridges, fine wrinkles, dotted leaf-scars, branch-scars and bud-scars, lenticels dotted. Texture hard and fragile, easily broken. Slices 2~4 mm thick, cut surface showing reddish-brown in bark, yellowish-white to pale yellowish-brown in wood, pith subsquare. Odour, characteristically aromatic; taste, sweet and slightly pungent, relatively strong for bark.

Common cold; epigastric pain with cold feeling; amenorrhea due to cold in blood; arthralgia; edema; cardiac palpitation; gastro-intestinal neurosis with a feeling of masses of gas rushing up through the chest to the throat from the lower abdomen.

1.Sweating and dispersing exopathogens from the muscles

It can be used as a diaphoretic for the syndrome due to attack by wind and cold, whether the patient perspires or not. It is often combined with Racix Paeoniae Alva to treat the asthenia-syndrome of the superficies with spontaneous perspiration by mediating Ying and Wei systems; and it can also be combined with Herba Ephedrae to reinforce each other's actions for sthenic syndrome of the superficies with anhidrosis.

2. Warming the channels and arresting pain

It is often combined with such antirheumatics as Rhizoma seu Radix Natopterygii, Radix Ledebouriellae and Radix Paeoniae Alba, Racix Axoniti Praeparata, Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae and Rhizoma Anemarrhenae for the treatment of arthralgia syndrome due to attack of the upper limbs by cold and dampness. For instances, it is often used with Radix Aconiti Praeparat for the treatment of sycduome due to invasion of superficies by cold wind, and deficiency of Yang in the exterior; with Racix Astragali seu Hedysari, Radix Paeoniae Alba,etc., for the syndrome of arthralgia due to blood disorder manifested as numbness of the extremities; with Radix Paeoniae Alba, maltose, etc.,for wpigastric or abdominal pain due to invasion of the stomach by cold; and eith such drugs for promoting blood flow and regulating menstruation as Radix Angelicae Sinensis, Racix Paeoniae Alba, Rhizoma Ligustici Chuanxiong, Semen Persicae, Cortex Moutan Radicis, etc. for irregular menstruation due to blood stasis caused by invasion of cold, or for amenorrhea with abdominal pain.

3. Promoting Yang and reinforcing vital energy

It is often combined with Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae and Poria for the treatment of cough and expectoration of watery phlegm due to retention of dampness-phlegm in the lung and a blockage in the passage of Qi; with Poria, Polyporus Umbellatus, Rhizoma Alimatis, etc. for disorder of urination caused by dysfunction of thr urinary bladder; and with Fructus Trichosanthis, Bulbus Allii Macrostemi for angina pectoris or thoracic pain; with Radix Glycyrrhizae, Radix Ginseng, Colla Colla Asini, etc., for palpitation eith knotted or intermittent pulse by promoting thoracic-Yang and restoring the normal pulse.