bubble_chart Source This product is the root bark of the deciduous shrub plant Barbary Wolfberry Fruit (Lycium chinensis Mill.) or Ningxia Barbary Wolfberry Fruit (Lycium barbarum L.) from the Solanaceae family. It is distributed throughout the northern and southern regions of mainland China. It is harvested in early spring or after autumn, the root bark is peeled off, dried in the sun, and cut into sections for medicinal use. As recorded in the
Benjing, a top-grade medicinal text, Barbary Wolfberry Fruit: "also known as Qi root, also known as Digu," indicating that it does not refer to the fruit of the Barbary Wolfberry, but rather to the Chinese Wolfberry Root-bark.
bubble_chart Properties and Meridians
Sweet and bland, cold. act on lung, liver and kidney channels.
bubble_chart Efficacy
Cooling blood, reducing steaming, clearing the lungs, and lowering fire.
bubble_chart Indications
- Used for yin-deficiency fever, night sweat steaming bone fever. This product is sweet and cold in nature, with a moistening effect, capable of clearing deficiency heat in the liver and kidneys, and eliminating sweating steaming bone fever. It is an excellent product for reducing deficiency heat and treating steaming bone fever, often combined with Anemarrhena, turtle carapace, Starwort Root, and other medicinal combinations, such as Chinese Wolfberry Root-bark Decoction.
- Used for lung heat cough. This product is sweet and cold, good at clearing lung heat, eliminating latent fire in the lungs, thus promoting the natural function of clearing and descending. Therefore, it is often used to treat lung fire stagnation, qi counterflow not descending, cough and panting, skin steaming heat, and other symptoms, often combined with White Mulberry Root-Bark, Liquorice Root, and others, such as White-Draining Powder.
- Used for blood heat causing hematemesis, nosebleed, hematuria, and other blood heat bleeding symptoms. This herb is sweet in taste and cold in nature, clearing away heat, cooling blood, and stopping bleeding. It can be used alone decocted with wine, or combined with lalang grass rhizome, Platycladus, and other blood-cooling hemostatic herbs.
- In addition, this product, while clearing heat and eliminating steaming fire, also has the effect of promoting fluid production to quench thirst. It can be combined with Unprocessed Rehmannia Root, Snakegourd Root, Schisandra Fruit, and others to treat internal heat consumptive thirst.

bubble_chart Documentation
- Benjing: "Governs the five viscera pathogenic qi, heat middle consumptive thirst, Zhoubi."
- Zhenzhunang: "Resolves steaming bone fever, muscle heat, consumptive thirst, wind-warmth impediment, strengthens sinews and bones, cools blood."
- Tangye Bencao: "Drains kidney fire, lowers lung latent fire, removes uterine fire, reduces heat, supplements healthy qi."
bubble_chart Usage and Dosage
Decoct and take 6-15g.
bubble_chart Cautions and Contraindications
It is not suitable for those with external contraction wind-cold fever leading to spleen deficiency and loose stools.
bubble_chart Modern Pharmacology
This product contains betaine, β-sitosterol, and linoleic acid. Additionally, it contains cassia bark acid, various phenolic substances, and more. The water and alcohol extracts of Chinese Wolfberry Root-bark have antipyretic effects on feverish rabbits; the decoction of this product has effects such as lowering blood pressure and blood sugar; it also reduces serum cholesterol and stimulates the uterus: it has strong inhibitory effects on cold-damage disease bacilli, type A paracold-damage disease bacilli, and Flexner's dysentery bacilli.