The subject of Chinese herbs is a large, complex and interesting part of Chinese medicine. I hope as these pages build up over the months your questions and queries will be answered in an interesting and informative way, but in the meantime please feel free to Email me and I’ll try and answer your queries.
I am personally a vegetarian, and do NOT use any animal products in my herb prescriptions.
Chinese Herbs
One of my patients always says that it looks like I’ve swept up the ground of my local park!!! I thought I would include a picture of typical contents of a bag of herbs… It kind of proves her right!!!!
Chinese Herbs
The Chinese herbal pharmacopoeia is one of the most extensive in the world, the Art’ of prescribing and dispensing Chinese herbs can be traced back over five thousand years.
Working in this tradition gives you a feeling of a deep connection between natural substances and human health, touching and smelling the herbs is a soul-satisfying (or Tantian) experience. It fits beautifully within the Taoist understanding of Universal balance and harmony, you get tremendous joy discovering the correct balance of the herbal prescription that will help return and restore the patients balance to health.
Sometimes you feel a direct relationship with some of the herbs that you work with, you get to know and understand their personalities, strengths and powers. There is a certain feeling of reverence and tradition handling herbs or using a base prescription that may date back thousands of years.
A part of the process is the patient taking the time and troubles to prepare the decoction, in fact being part of their healing process. In this modern world we are so used to ‘popping’ a pill, the thought of having to store, prepare and cook our medication seems too much trouble, or not worth the effort.
But working with your doctor adjusting and refining the herb prescription is an important part of the healing journey and understanding the imbalance you are suffering at the moment. I normally prescribe herbs when daily visits to the surgery for acupuncture is not possible, or when the ingestion of herbs will assist the overall treatment or sometimes when the acupuncture treatment needs a helping hand.
Some practices only use Chinese herbs, I prefer to combine them with my other disciplines to obtain the most affective and fastest treatment to the problem. Remember Chinese medicine treats the whole body, so although my may be suffering symptoms in one area the imbalance may well be in another area.
Normally I will give you a brown bag containing between 5 -7 day’s supply of Chinese Herbs. Because Chinese medicine treats the whole person the herb prescription will have been specially prepared for you, it is not advisable to share or let any one else try the prescription even if you think they are suffering from a similar problem.
Chinese herbs are classified as Yin or Yang and are selected to provide balance, the qualities of the four energies in the herbs; hot, warm, cold and cool are used to balance the qualities of the illness or condition. Additionally the herbs are chosen for their appropriate flavours; hot, sweet, sour, bitter and salty, matching the five elements; metal, earth, wood, fire and water. The special affinity of an herb and its drying or moistening nature also affects the selection.
I thought that I would enclose some instructions on how to prepare the herbs, so we are making a strong tea or broth:
Step 1 Place the herbs in a clean saucepan and cover with cold water leave for 30 minutes.
Step 2 Bring the ingredients to a rapid boil, and boil off about a mug of water (Or until the herbs show)
Step 3 Replace the water with cold water and turn the pan down to a simmer for about 20 minutes.
Step 4 Turn off the heat and let the decoction cool.
The herbs are now ready to drink.
Take half a teacup of the strain warm decoction three times a day.
You can decant the tea into a bottle for storage in a fridge.
For best economic use add more cold water to cover the herbs left in the pan and repeat from step 3 to make an extra amount.
When being cooked herbs can sometimes give of a pungent smell, make sure the kitchen is well ventilated. Some patients have reported that they like to make their decoction a little stronger and then slightly dilute with hot water for easier consumption. It is not advisable to microwave as this may affect the energetic values.
One of the benefits of Chinese herbs is to get the patients involved in their own treatment, and to understand their own bodies, so be prepared to develop your own style (based on the above) of preparing and taking your herbs. The herbs can sometimes have a bitter taste, do not add sugar or honey as these changes the action of the prescription. If you are having difficulty at first, take a smaller amount and in one swallow. Usually after about 2/3 days you become used to the taste.
Herbs can sometimes slightly affect your bowls; this is normal and normally only lasts for a day or two. But it is important to understand if at any time you are unsure of the effect or the action on your body. Stop taking the herbs and contact me immediately.
There is a beauty involved in handing and taking herbs, which goes beyond our intellectual knowledge. When we prepare and take the herbs we are using parts of mother earth as a medium to touch our lives. Finding a balance between East and West, heaven and earth, inner and outer, body and spirit, yin and yang is truly experiencing the Tao in all its beauty.
Chinese Herb role in Chinese medicine
Herbology is the Chinese art of combining medicinal herbs.
Herbology is one of the more important modalities utilized in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).
Each herbal medicine prescription is a cocktail of many herbs tailored to the individual patient. The practitioner usually designs a remedy using one or two main ingredients that target the illness. Then the practitioner adds many other ingredients to adjust the formula to the patient’s yin/yang conditions.
Sometimes, ingredients are needed to cancel out toxicity or side-effects of the main ingredients. Some herbs require the use of other ingredients as catalyst or else the brew is ineffective. The latter steps require great experience and knowledge, and make the difference between a good Chinese herbal doctor and an amateur. Unlike western medications, the balance and interaction of all the ingredients are considered more important than the effect of individual ingredients. A key to success in TCM is the treatment of each patient as an individual.
Chinese Herbology often incorporates ingredients from all parts of plants, such as the leaf, stem, flower, root, and also ingredients from animals (I personally do NOT use animal parts) and minerals. The use of parts of endangered species (such as seahorses, rhinoceros horns, and tiger bones) has created controversy and resulted in a black market of poachers who hunt restricted animals. Many herbal manufacturers have discontinued the use of any parts from endangered animals.
Also the western Herbal doctor do not use any of these products, but always ask your doctor on their policy on using animal and endangered products.
Chinese pharmacopoeia
Chinese herbs have been used for centuries. The first herbalist in Chinese tradition is Shennong, a mythical personage, who is said to have tasted hundreds of herbs and imparted his knowledge of medicinal and poisonous plants to farmers. The first Chinese manual on pharmacology, the Shennong Bencao Jing (Shennong Emperor’s Classic of Materia Medica), lists some 365 medicines of which 252 of them are herbs, and dates back somewhere in the 1st century C.E. Han dynasty. Earlier literature included lists of prescriptions for specific ailments, exemplified by a manuscript “Recipes for 52 Ailments”, found in the Mawangdui tomb, sealed in 168 B.C.E.
Succeeding generations augmented on this work, as in the Yaoxing Lun also spelled Yao Xing Lun; literally “Treatise on the Nature of Medicinal Herbs”), a 7th century Tang Dynasty Chinese treatise on herbal medicine.
Arguably the most important of these was the Compendium of Materia Medica (Bencao Gangmu) compiled during the Ming dynasty by Li Shizhen, which is still used today for consultation and reference.
The Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic, a 2000-year old medicinal Chinese book considered today as the oldest book on oriental herbal medicine, classifies 365 species of roots, grass, woods, furs, animals and stones into three categories of herbal medicine:
- The first category, called “superior”, includes herbs effective for multiple diseases and are mostly responsible for maintaining and restoring the body balance. They have almost no unfavorable side-effects.
- The second category comprises tonics and boosters, for which their consumption must not be prolonged.
- The third category must be taken, usually in small doses, and for the treatment of specific ailments only.
Lingzhi ranked number one of the superior medicines, and was therefore the most exalted medicine in ancient times. The ancient Chinese use of medicinal mushrooms has inspired modern day research into mushrooms like shiitake, Agaricus blazei, Trametes versicolor, and of course lingzhi. Although a 2008 Review, by UC Davis, concluded that there is not enough evidence yet to promote the use of mushrooms or mushroom extracts in the treatment of disease, it stressed the urgency of further research and future clinical trials due to large numbers of promising in vivo and in vitro experiments.
Chinese physicians used several different methods to classify traditional Chinese herbs:
- The Four Natures
- The Five Tastes
- The meridians
The earlier (Han through Tang eras) Ben Cao (Materia Medicae) began with a three-level categorization:
- Low level — drastic acting, toxic substances;
- Middle level — medicinal physiological effects;
- High level — health and spirit enhancement
During the neo-Confucian Song-Jin-Yuan era (10th to 12th Centuries), the theoretical framework from acupuncture theory (which was rooted in Confucian Han theory) was formally applied to herbal categorization (which was earlier more the domain of Taoist natural science). In particular, alignment with the Five Phases (Wu Xing) and the 12 channels (meridian) theory came to be used after this period.
The Four Natures
This pertains to the degree of yin and yang, namely cold (extreme yin), cool, warm and hot (extreme yang). The patient’s internal balance of yin and yang is taken into account when the herbs are selected. For example, medicinal herbs of “hot”, yang nature are used when the person is suffering from internal cold that requires to be purged, or when the patient has a general cold constituency. Sometimes an ingredient is added to offset the extreme effect of one herb.
The Five Tastes
The five tastes are pungent, sweet, sour, bitter and salty, and each taste has a different set of functions and characteristics. For example, pungent herbs are used to generate sweat and to direct and vitalize qi and the blood. Sweet-tasting herbs often tonify or harmonize bodily systems. Some sweet-tasting herbs also exhibit a bland taste, which helps drain dampness through diuresis. Sour taste most often is astringent or consolidates, while bitter taste dispels heat, purges the bowels and get rid of dampness by drying them out. Salty tastes soften hard masses as well as purge and open the bowels.
The Meridians
The meridians refer to which organs the herb acts upon. For example, menthol is pungent, cool and is linked with the lungs and the liver. Since the lungs is the organ which protects the body from invasion from cold and influenza, menthol can help purge coldness in the lungs and invading heat toxins caused by hot “wind.”
Chinese patent medicine
Characteristic little black pills of Chinese patent medicine
Chinese patent medicine is a kind of traditional Chinese medicine. They are standardized herbal formulas. Several herbs and other ingredients are dried and ground. They are then mixed into a powder and formed into pills. The binder is traditionally honey. They are characteristically little round black pills.
Chinese patent medicines are easy and convenient. They are not easy to customize on a patient-by-patient basis, however. They are best used when a patient’s condition is not severe and the medicine can be taken as a long-term treatment.
These medicines are not “patented” in the traditional sense of the word. No one has exclusive rights to the formula. Instead, “patent” refers to the standardization of the formula. All Chinese patent medicines of the same name will have the same proportions of ingredients.
