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 Shen Yaozi 
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common nameDried Ginger
aliasBlast-Fried Ginger, Carbonized Ginger, Fried Ginger
bubble_chart Source

This product is the dried old root of ginger, processed as a materia medica. It is either sand-fried until puffed up with a brownish surface, or stir-fried to scorch until the exterior turns black and the interior becomes brownish for medicinal use.

bubble_chart Properties and Meridians

Bitter and astrigent, warm. act on spleen and liver channels.

bubble_chart Efficacy

Warming the meridians to stop bleeding, warming the middle to relieve pain.

bubble_chart Indications

  1. It is used for hematemesis, bloody stool, menorrhagia, and metrostaxis due to cold deficiency. This product primarily enters the spleen meridian, capable of warming the meridians to stop bleeding. For those with spleen yang deficiency and spleen failing to control blood, this is the preferred essential medicine. It can be used alone, such as in the "Yao's Collection of Proven Prescriptions," where it is ground into powder and taken with rice water to treat persistent bloody dysentery. It can also be used in combination with astringent hemostatic agents, such as in "Zhengzhi Zhunsheng" for treating menorrhagia and metrostaxis due to cold deficiency in the Chong and Ren meridians, combined with Windmill Palm and Smoked Plum as in the Ruse of the Sage. Clinically, it is often combined with Ginseng, Astragalus Root, and Aconite Lateral Root to achieve the effects of tonifying qi, supporting yang, warming the meridians, and stopping bleeding.
  2. It is used for abdominal pain and diarrhea due to cold deficiency. This product can warm the middle to relieve pain and stop diarrhea. For the above conditions, it can be used alone or combined with Aconite Lateral Root, such as in "Qianjin Yaofang," where it is used alone to treat cold in the middle with watery diarrhea. For postpartum blood deficiency with cold coagulation and lower abdominal pain, it is combined with Chinese Angelica and Sichuan Lovage Rhizome, as in Generation and Transformation Decoction.

bubble_chart Documentation

  1. Bencaozheng Yi: "Exuberant yin repelling yang, fire not returning to its origin, and yang deficiency unable to control blood leading to hematemesis and bloody stools, should only be used after being stir-fried to retain its properties. It is the most essential medicine for stopping bleeding."
  2. Benjing: "Mainly treats chest tightness, cough with dyspnea, warming the middle, stopping bleeding, inducing sweating, expelling wind-dampness impediment, and intestinal diarrhea. The raw form is especially good."
  3. Bencao Gangmu: "Element says: Dried Ginger... its uses are four: to unblock heart yang, first; to remove zang-fu organs' deep cold and chronic cold, second; to disperse cold qi from all meridians, third; to treat abdominal pain from cold exposure, fourth."
  4. Bencao Qiuzhen: "Dried Ginger is highly hot and non-toxic, it stays and does not move. For cases of cold deficiency in the stomach and the original yang about to extinguish, when combined with Aconite Lateral Root, it can immediately restore yang, hence the saying that Aconite Lateral Root without ginger is not hot."

bubble_chart Usage and Dosage

Decoct and take 3-6g.

bubble_chart Processing and Storage

Blast-Fried Ginger is made by stir-frying Dried Ginger until the surface is slightly black and the inside is brownish-yellow. If it is not carbonized, it tends to warm the middle and dissipate cold, and is mainly used for deficiency-cold abdominal pain and diarrhea. Blast-Fried Ginger charcoal is specifically used for warming the meridians and stopping bleeding, and is suitable for hemorrhagic syndrome.

Dried Ginger was first recorded in the Shennong Bencao Jing. The processing of materia medica product Blast-Fried Ginger was first documented in the Han Dynasty's "Cold-Damage Disease Treatise." By the Song Dynasty, the Taiping Shenghui Fang mentioned Dried Ginger not only as "roasted" but also introduced "roasted charcoal," which is Carbonized Ginger. Therefore, it can be considered that Carbonized Ginger became another processing of materia medica product of Dried Ginger starting from the Song Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, Miao Xiyong pointed out in "Processing of Materia Medica Great Method" that Dried Ginger: "If used for postpartum blood-deficiency fever and stopping bleeding, it should be stir-fried black; for warming the middle, it should be roasted; for dispersing cold evil, regulating lung qi, and stopping vomiting, it should be used raw." The Bencao Chongyuan states: "Later generations refer to Dried Ginger roasted black as Blast-Fried Ginger. The original pungent flavor of ginger is slightly reduced after roasting. If the processing of materia medica is excessive, the original nature is lost, and it is called Carbonized Ginger, which has a slightly bitter and non-pungent taste, and a light and floating quality, lacking the function of deficient Blast-Fried Ginger." The "National Chinese Medicinals Processing of Materia Medica Standards" clearly distinguishes the two: "Blast-Fried Ginger warms the middle and dissipates cold, used for deficiency-cold of the spleen and stomach, abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. Carbonized Ginger warms the meridians and stops bleeding, mainly treating vomiting of blood, menorrhagia and metrostaxis, and yin deficiency loss of blood." Therefore, it can be considered that Blast-Fried Ginger and Carbonized Ginger are two different processing of materia medica products of Dried Ginger.

After Dried Ginger is processed into Carbonized Ginger, its effects change from warming the middle, restoring yang to unblock the pulse, warming the middle and dissipating cold, and warming the lung to resolve fluid retention, to warming the meridians and stopping bleeding, treating vomiting of blood, menorrhagia and metrostaxis, and yin deficiency loss of blood. This is because Dried Ginger, when processed with high heat until it turns black, changes from pungent to bitter and salty in taste. It moves downward, and the black color also stops bleeding. Although the pungent and hot nature of ginger is lost, the pungent and cool nature remains, allowing it to remove stagnant heat from the blood without causing coldness and to stop hematemesis without stagnation. Compared to other medicines that merely use black color to stop bleeding, its efficacy is several times greater.

bubble_chart Modern Pharmacology

This product contains volatile oil. The main components in the oil are zingiberene, gingerol, phellandrene, camphene, citral, linalool, gingerol, etc.

  • The ethanol extract of ginger can directly stimulate the heart and has an excitatory effect on the vasomotor center;
  • Dried Ginger has antiemetic, sedative, analgesic, carminative, stomachic, and antitussive effects.

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