This product is the tuber of the perennial evergreen vine Smilax glabra (Smilax glabra Roxb.) from the Lily Bulb family. It is also known as Red Glabrous Greenbrier. It is distributed in the southern provinces of the Yangtze River basin. It can be harvested all year round, with the best time being late autumn and early winter. After harvesting, remove the residual stems and fibrous roots, and dry in the sun; when fresh, it can be sliced into medicinal pieces, dried, and used raw.

bubble_chart Properties and Meridians

Sweet and bland, neutral. act on liver and stomach channels.

bubble_chart Efficacy

Removing toxins, dispelling dampness, and promoting joint mobility.

bubble_chart Indications

1. Used for syphilitic sores and limb spasms caused by Chinese wax myrtle bark. This product is sweet and mild, removing toxin and draining dampness, and can also promote joint mobility and detoxify mercury poisoning. Therefore, it is particularly effective for syphilis or limb spasms caused by mercury poisoning due to syphilis treatment, making it a key remedy for syphilis. It can be used alone by decocting 500g of this product with water, removing the residue, adding 30g of sugar, and boiling it into a concentrated decoction. Take 1-2 tablespoons twice daily. Alternatively, it can be used in combination with Lonicera, densefruit pittany root-bark, Chinese Clematis Root, and Liquorice Root.
2. Used for strangury, leukorrhea, and dampness-heat sores. This product is sweet and mild, removing toxin and draining dampness, making it suitable for conditions such as heat stranguria, leukorrhea, and sores caused by dampness-heat. For treating heat stranguria, it is often used with Akebia Stem, Polygonum aviculare, Dandelion, and Plantain Seed. For treating dampness-heat sores, pruritus vulvae, and leukorrhea, it is often used with Atractylodes Rhizome, Phellodendron Bark, and Sophora. Additionally, this product, when combined with Unprocessed Rehmannia Root, Red Peony Root, belvedere fruit, densefruit pittany root-bark, and Virgate Wormwood, is effective for treating psoriasis of the dampness-heat type.
3. Moreover, in recent years, this product has been used alone or in combination with Heartleaf Houttuynia Herb, Prunella, Spora Lygodii, Plantain Seed, Dyers Woad Leaf, Shield-fern Rhizome, and Strobilanthes cusia for the prevention of leptospirosis. Alternatively, it can be combined with Liquorice Root, Sweet Wormwood, Sanguisorba, and lalang grass rhizome, decocted with water, and taken to treat leptospirosis, achieving good results.

bubble_chart Documentation

1. 《Materia Medica Compendium》: "Strengthens the spleen and stomach, fortifies the bones and muscles, dispels wind-dampness, benefits the joints, stops diarrhea, treats spasmodic pain in the bones, malignant sores and abscesses, and detoxifies mercury powder and cinnabar."
2. Bencao Beiyao: "Treats syphilitic skin lesions and scrofulous sores and swellings."

bubble_chart Usage and Dosage

Decoct and take orally, 15-60g.

bubble_chart Modern Pharmacology

This product contains alkaloids, volatile oils, hexoses, tannic acid, phytosterols, α- and β-linoleic acid, oleic acid, and starch, among others.

It can alleviate mercury poisoning and significantly counteract the toxicity of gossypol, while having no significant effect on gossypol's inhibition of sperm activity.