This product is derived from the roots and rhizomes of the perennial herbaceous plant Blackend Swallowwort (Cynanchum atratum Bunge.) and the creeping Blackend Swallowwort (Cynanchum versicolor), belonging to the Asclepiadaceae family. It is distributed across various provinces in both northern and southern China. The roots are harvested in autumn and then dried in the sun.

bubble_chart Properties and Meridians

Bitter and salty, cold. Act on stomach and liver meridians.

bubble_chart Efficacy

Clearing heat and cooling blood, promoting diuresis and relieving stranguria, detoxifying and treating sores.

bubble_chart Indications

1. is used for pathogenic heat entering the ying level, yin-deficiency fever, and postpartum deficiency heat. This product is bitter and cold, and is good at entering the blood aspect. It has the effects of clearing heat and cooling blood, and nourishing yin to eliminate heat. It can clear both excess heat and deficiency heat. It is used to treat warm pathogens entering the ying level, high fever with irritability and thirst, unconsciousness, and a crimson tongue, often combined with Unprocessed Rehmannia Root, Scrophularia Root, etc.; for residual heat not fully cleared, yin-deficiency fever, steaming bone fever, and tidal fever, it is often combined with Unprocessed Rehmannia Root, Anemarrhena, Sweet Wormwood, etc.; for postpartum blood-deficiency fever, night fever abating at dawn, persistent low-grade fever, and syncope, it can be combined with Chinese Angelica, Ginseng, Liquorice Root, such as in Blackend Swallowwort Root Decoction, to achieve the effects of nourishing blood and yin, clearing heat, and eliminating steaming.
2. It is used for heat strangury and blood strangury. This product clears heat and cools blood, and also promotes diuresis and relieves strangury, so it can treat bladder dampness-heat, often combined with Akebia Stem, Talc, and Pyrrosia Leaf, etc.
3. It is used for sores, abscesses, swelling, and toxicity due to blood heat toxin exuberance, sore throat, and poisonous snake bites. It can be taken internally or applied externally, and can also be combined with other heat-clearing and detoxifying medicinals.
4. In addition, this product can also clear lung heat and expel heat outward, and can treat lung heat cough, yin deficiency with external contraction, fever, dry throat, thirst, and irritability.

bubble_chart Documentation

1. Benjing: "The ruler is violent with apoplexy, the body is hot and the limbs are full, suddenly unaware of people, delusional pathogenic qi, cold and heat with soreness and pain, warm malaria washing and occurring at times."
2. Bielu: "Treats injuries from exposure to dew, reduces water qi, benefits yin qi."
3. Bencao Gangmu: "Wind-warmth with scorching heat and excessive sleepiness, as well as heat stranguria, enuresis, incised wounds with bleeding."

bubble_chart Usage and Dosage

3-12 grams. Decoct and take orally.

bubble_chart Cautions and Contraindications

Deficiency-cold of spleen and stomach, those with reduced appetite and loose stools should not take it.

bubble_chart Modern Pharmacology

This product contains volatile oils, cardiac glycosides, etc. It has the effect of enhancing myocardial contraction, as well as antipyretic and diuretic effects.