This product is the dried root of the Starwort Root (Stellaria dichotoma L. var. lanceolata Bge.), a perennial herb of the Caryophyllaceae family, which grows in dry grasslands or rock crevices. It is primarily produced in Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, and Inner Mongolia. The roots are harvested either during the sprouting of the plant in spring and summer or after the stems and leaves have withered in autumn. After collection, the fibrous roots and soil are removed, and the roots are then dried in the sun.

bubble_chart Properties and Meridians

Sweet, slightly cold. act on liver and stomach channels.

bubble_chart Efficacy

Clear deficiency heat, eliminating fever in infantile malnutrition.

bubble_chart Indications

1. Used for yin-deficiency fever, night sweat, steaming bone fever, tidal fever, etc. This product is sweet and cold, benefiting yin, clearing heat and cooling blood, reducing fever without bitter purgation, regulating yin without rising, making it an excellent product for reducing deficiency heat and eliminating steaming bone fever. It is often used together with Chinese Wolfberry Root-bark, Sweet Wormwood, turtle carapace, such as in Bone-Clearing Powder.
2. Used for infantile malnutrition with accumulation fever. This product can reduce malnutrition heat and is also used to treat infantile malnutrition with accumulation fever caused by food stagnation or parasitic accumulation, abdominal distension, thirst, emaciation, scorched hair, etc. It is often used together with Chicken's Gizzard-Skin, Quisqualis Fruit, and Tangshen to achieve the effects of eliminating accumulation, killing worms, strengthening the spleen, and treating malnutrition.

bubble_chart Documentation

1. Bencao Gangmu Shiyi: "Treats deficiency fatigue, muscle heat, steaming bone fever, labor heat, heat emanating from the marrow, and emaciation heat in children with five types of malnutrition."
2. Bencaozheng Yi: "Reduces heat without bitter purgation, regulates yin without causing upward floating, truly a good medicine for deficient heat."

bubble_chart Usage and Dosage

3-10 grams. Decoct and take orally.

bubble_chart Cautions and Contraindications

Avoid use in cases of external contraction wind-cold and blood deficiency without heat.

bubble_chart Processing and Storage

1. Purification: Remove impurities and wash clean (Pharmacopoeia 85).
2. Cutting:
   1. Moist cutting: Wash clean, moisten thoroughly, cut into thick slices, and dry (Pharmacopoeia 85).
   2. Boiling and cutting: Take the original medicinal material, remove impurities and the reed head, wash clean, boil until thoroughly cooked, pound flat, and slice (Guangdong).
3. Processing:
   1. Stir-frying: Take Starwort Root slices, plain stir-fry until slightly charred, remove, and let cool (Shanghai).
   2. Turtle blood and yellow wine processing: Take Starwort Root slices, mix evenly with turtle blood and yellow wine until fully absorbed, and sun dry. For every 500g of Starwort Root, use 124g of turtle blood and 124g of yellow wine (Zhejiang).
   3. Turtle blood processing: Kill the turtle to obtain blood, mix with a little water, evenly mix with Starwort Root slices, stir-fry over low heat until dry, remove and let cool. For every 500g of Starwort Root, use one live turtle weighing 500g (Compilation).

bubble_chart Modern Pharmacology

This product contains saponins, which have the effect of lowering cholesterol.