Long cylindrical, usually branched in lower part, 10~30cm long, 1~2cm in diameter. Externally grayish-brown or brownish-yellow, exhibiting longitudinal wrinkles and transverse elongated lenticels. Outer bark thin, mostly broken and recurred, easily exfoliated, the exposed surface appearing yellow and smooth. Texture hard, uneasily broken, fracture fibrous. Slices 3~6mm thick; transversely cut surface yellowish-white with radial lines and cracks, some exhibiting concentric striations. Odor slight; taste bitter.

Acute dysentery with bloody stools; jaundice with oliguria; bloody and purulent leucorrhea; pudendal swelling and itching; eczema, sores with exudation, itching of the skin, scabies, and leprosy. Externally use for trichomonas vaginitis.

1.Clearing away heat and resolving dampness:

For the treatment of dysentery due to invasion by damp-heat, it may be combined with Radix Scutellariae, Herba Portulacae or Radix Puerariae and Fructus Crataegi; for bloody stools or hemorrhoids, with Radix Sanguisorbae, Fructus Sophorae.

2.Killing parasites and stopping itching:

For the treatment of scabies or tinea, eczema, pruritus, etc., it is often combined with Cortex Dictamni Radicis, Fructus Cnidii, etc.; for seborrheic dermatitis, impetigo, etc., 60g of the drug in combination with 45g of Radix Angelicae Sinensis may be used by making them into pills with honey, and it is advisable that the pills should be taken for a long time; for trichomonas vaginitis, pruritus valvae with leukorrhagia, it is often combined with Radix Pulsatillae, Fructus Cnidii, etc.; for leprosy, with Semen Hydnocarpi, Fructus Xanthii,etc.

Besides, it can be used to treat jauntice. And since it has the function of promoting diuresis, it can also be used to treat stranguria or disorder of urination due to accumulation and retention of damp-heat.