This product is the dried root tuber of the perennial herbaceous vine Trichosanthis Fruit (Trichosanthes kirilowii Maxim.) or Japanese Trichosanthis Fruit (Trichosanthes japonica Regel) of the bottle gourd peel family. It is produced in various regions across China. Harvested in autumn and winter, it can be used fresh or cut into sections, pieces, or slices and then dried for use.

bubble_chart Properties and Meridians

Sweet and slightly bitter, slightly cold. act on lung and stomach channels.

bubble_chart Efficacy

Clearing heat and promoting fluid production, relieving dryness and moistening lung, removing toxin to dissipate carbuncle.

bubble_chart Indications

1. Used for Rebing thirst, consumptive thirst with excessive drinking. This product is sweet and cold in nature, good at clearing stomach heat and nourishing stomach yin, with the effect of promoting fluid production to quench thirst. Used for Rebing with fluid injury, dry mouth and irritability, often used with Reed Rhizome, Ophiopogon Tuber, etc.; used for yin deficiency with internal heat, consumptive thirst with excessive drinking, often used with Pueraria Root, Chinese Yam, etc., such as Jade Fluid Decoction.
2. Used for lung heat with dry cough. This product can clear lung heat and moisten lung dryness. Used for dryness-heat damaging the lung, dry cough with little phlegm, phlegm with blood, and other symptoms of lung heat with dry cough, often used with Asparagus Root, Ophiopogon Tuber, Unprocessed Rehmannia Root, etc., such as Zi Zao Yin.
3. Used for abscesses, sores, and ulcers. This product has the effects of clearing heat and removing toxins, reducing swelling, and expelling pus. Used for the initial stage of sores and ulcers with intense heat toxin, it can disperse the swelling before pus forms and expel pus after pus has formed. Often used with Lonicera, Dahurian Angelica, Pangolin Scales, etc., such as Immortal Formula Life-Saving Decoction.

bubble_chart Documentation

1. Benjing: "Main consumptive thirst, body heat, vexation and fullness with great heat, tonifying deficiency, calming the center, continuing to heal severe injuries."
2. Rihuazi Bencao: "Unblocking the small intestine, expelling skin issues, reducing swelling and toxins, generating flesh and growing muscles, dissipating static blood from injuries. Treating heat-induced mania, acute mastitis, back gangrene, hemorrhoids, fistulas, and ulcerative sores."

bubble_chart Usage and Dosage

Decoct and take 10-15g.

bubble_chart Cautions and Contraindications

Pregnant women should avoid taking it, and it is contraindicated with Aconite Mother Root.

bubble_chart Modern Pharmacology

This product contains Snakegourd Root protein, saponins, starch, etc.

• Snakegourd Root protein is an effective component for intermediate stage [second stage] induction of labor and treatment of malignant hydatidiform mole and choriocarcinoma. It directly acts on placental trophoblast cells, causing them to degenerate and necrose, reducing chorionic gonadotropin levels below the critical level for threatened late abortion, leading to fetal death and expulsion.
• It may sometimes cause allergic reactions.
• High doses can cause degeneration and necrosis of liver and kidney cells.
• It has certain anti-cancer effects.
• It has a strong inhibitory effect on hemolytic streptococcus, pneumococcus, and diphtheria bacillus.
• In recent years, it has been discovered that Snakegourd Root protein has an inhibitory effect on the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome virus, can enhance the body's immunity, and prolong the survival time of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome patients.