This product is the rhizome of the perennial herb Anemarrhena (Anemarrhena asphodeloides Bge.), which belongs to the Asparagus Root family (formerly classified under the Lily Bulb family and Agave family). It is mainly produced in Hebei, Shanxi, and the northeastern regions of China. It can be harvested in both spring and autumn. After removing the stem sprouts and fibrous roots, it is dried to produce hairy Anemarrhena; if the outer skin is peeled off before drying, it is known as Anemarrhena flesh. It is sliced for medicinal use, either in its raw form or processed with salt water.

bubble_chart Properties and Meridians

Bitter and sweet, cold. act on lung, stomach and kidney channels.

bubble_chart Efficacy

Clearing heat and purging fire, nourishing yin and moistening dryness.

bubble_chart Indications

1. Used for Rebing polydipsia. This product is sweet and cold in nature, moist in quality, and is good at clearing lung and stomach qi excess heat, relieving restlessness and quenching thirst. Used for warm febrile disease with excessive pathogenic heat, high fever, polydipsia, and a surging pulse, such as the pattern of heat invading the lung and stomach. Often used in mutual reinforcement with Gypsum, such as in White Tiger Decoction.
2. Used for lung heat cough and yin deficiency dry cough. This product has the function of clearing lung fire, nourishing yin, and moistening the lung. Used for lung heat cough with yellow, sticky phlegm, often combined with Trichosanthis Fruit, Tendrilleaf Fritillary Bulb, and Bile Arisaema; or for yin deficiency dry cough with little phlegm. Often used with Fritillaria Bulb, such as in Anemarrhena and Fritillaria Powder.
3. Used for steaming bone fever and tidal fever. This product can also nourish kidney yin, moisten kidney dryness, and reduce steaming bone fever, thus having the function of nourishing yin and reducing fire. Used for yin deficiency with effulgent fire, steaming bone fever, tidal fever, night sweats, and restlessness, often combined with Phelloendron Bark, included in yin-tonifying medicinals to enhance the effect of nourishing yin and reducing fire, such as in Anemarrhena, Phelloendron and Rehmannia Pill.
4. Used for yin deficiency consumptive thirst and intestinal dryness constipation. This product has the effect of nourishing yin and moistening dryness, promoting fluid production to quench thirst. Used for internal heat damaging fluids, thirst leading to drinking in consumptive thirst, often combined with Snakegourd Root, Pueraria Root, etc., such as in Jade Fluid Decoction. Used for intestinal dryness constipation, often combined with Raw Polygonum Multiflorum, Chinese Angelica, and Hemp Seed, also having the effect of moistening the intestines to relieve constipation.

bubble_chart Documentation

1. Benjing: "Main consumptive thirst, heat in the middle, eliminates pathogenic qi, swelling of limbs, promotes urination, tonifies deficiencies and qi."
2. "Yongyao Faxiang": "Drains rootless kidney fire, treats steaming bone fever with sweating, stops heat from deficiency fatigue, nourishes the yin of the source of transformation."
3. Bencao Gangmu: "The bitter, acrid, cold, and cool nature of Anemarrhena, below it moistens kidney dryness and enriches yin, above it clears lung metal and drains fire, it is a qi-aspect medicine for these two meridians."

bubble_chart Usage and Dosage

Decoct and take 6-12g. Use raw for clearing heat and purging fire; use salt-processed for nourishing yin and reducing fire.

bubble_chart Cautions and Contraindications

This product is cold in nature and moist in quality, which may cause loose stools, so it is not suitable for those with spleen deficiency and loose stools.

bubble_chart Modern Pharmacology

This product's rhizome contains various steroidal saponins and a large amount of mucilage.

• Animal experiments have proven that Anemarrhena has significant antipyretic, phlegm-dispelling, diuretic, and hypoglycemic effects;
• the decoction has varying degrees of inhibitory effects on dysentery bacilli, pneumococci, and other pathogenic bacteria.