This product is the root of the perennial herb Saposhnikovia Root (Saposhnikovia divaricata (Turez.) Schischk.) from the Apiaceae family. It is mainly produced in Northeast China, Hebei, Sichuan, Yunnan, and other regions. It is harvested in spring and autumn, dried, sliced, and used raw or stir-fried to scorch.

bubble_chart Properties and Meridians

Acrid and sweet, slightly warm. act on bladder, liver and spleen channels.

bubble_chart Efficacy

Dispels wind, overcomes dampness, relieves pain, stops spasms, and halts diarrhea.

bubble_chart Indications

1. Used for common cold headache, rubella cutaneous pruritus. This product is acrid and warm, dispersing, with both qi and flavor ascending, using acridity as its function, excelling in treating wind, dispersing wind evils from the muscle surface, and removing dampness retained in the meridians, with good pain-relieving effects, slightly warm without dryness. It treats the syndrome/pattern of common cold due to wind-cold, headache, body pain, aversion to wind, and cold, often combined with Schizonepeta, Notopterygium, Pubescent Angelica, etc., such as Schizonepeta and Saposhnikovia Toxin-Vanquishing Powder; it also treats external contraction wind-dampness, headache as if wrapped, heavy body, and limb pain, often combined with Notopterygium, Chinese Lovage, etc., such as Notopterygium Overcoming Dampness Decoction; it can also be used to treat the syndrome/pattern of common cold due to wind and heat, fever aversion to wind, sore throat, and slight cough, often combined with Mentha, Cicada Slough, Forsythia, and other pungent-cool exterior-releasing medicinals. For treating rubella cutaneous pruritus, it is often combined with Sophora, Schizonepeta, Chinese Angelica, and other wind-dispersing and itch-relieving, blood-activating, and stasis-resolving medicinals, such as Wind-Dispersing Powder.
2. Used for wind-dampness impediment pain. This product dispels wind, disperses cold, overcomes dampness, and relieves pain, suitable for wind-cold-dampness impediment, limb and joint pain, and tendon and vessel spasms, can be combined with Notopterygium, Cinnamon Twig, Turmeric, and other wind-damp-dispelling medicinals, such as Impediment-Alleviating Decoction.
3. Used for tetanus syndrome. This product can dispel wind and relieve convulsion. For treating tetanus syndrome caused by wind toxin invading internally, penetrating the meridians, and stirring internal wind, with opisthotonos, it is often combined with Gastrodia Tuber, Arisaema, giant typhonium rhizome, etc., such as Jade-like Vitality Powder.
4. In addition, used for liver depression overacting on the spleen, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. This product, when stir-fried, can also stop diarrhea. It is often combined with Dried Tangerine Peel, Peony Root, White Atractylodes Rhizome, such as Pain and Diarrhea Vital Formula. This product, when stir-fried to scorch, can also be used to treat abdominal pain and diarrhea due to liver depression overacting on the spleen, and bloody defecation.

bubble_chart Documentation

1. Benjing: "Mainly treats severe wind-induced dizziness and headache, aversion to wind, wind evil causing blindness and inability to see, wind moving throughout the body, joint pain."
2. Bencao Huiyan: "Mainly treats various wind syndromes causing immobility throughout the body, joint soreness and pain, spasm and rigidity of the limbs, wilting impediment, epilepsy, and convulsions."

bubble_chart Usage and Dosage

Decoct and take 3-10g.

bubble_chart Cautions and Contraindications

Use with caution in cases of yin deficiency with effulgent fire and blood deficiency causing convulsions.

bubble_chart Modern Pharmacology

This product contains volatile oils, mannitol, bitter substances, acids, polysaccharides, and organic acids.

It has antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and anticonvulsant effects. The fresh juice of Saposhnikovia Root has certain antibacterial effects against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. The decoction has varying degrees of inhibitory effects on dysentery bacilli, hemolytic streptococci, and others.