https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/A4PeQB2Vq1CW8xtc-5KQOA
Welcome everyone to share your own experiences with the medicine in the replies, to facilitate other students’ searching and learning.
94. Scrophularia Root (Xuan Shen)
Scrophularia Root and Rehmannia Root (Sheng Di Huang), whether eaten directly or soaked in water to drink, are very similar. Upon closer look, Rehmannia is from the Scrophulariaceae family—analogy to clan system: within the large Scrophulariaceae family, Scrophularia Root is the head of the family, Rehmannia is a branch, making their status clear at a glance.
In terms of flavor, Scrophularia water is more bitter compared to Rehmannia water; in terms of effects, it nourishes blood less than Rehmannia but cools the blood more strongly, and also has detoxifying and resolving masses effects. After drinking, one may feel tingling and itching below the neck.
In treating thyroid inflammation, Scrophularia, Rehmannia, and Ophiopogon (Mai Dong) are essential three herbs, plus Prunella (Xia Ku Cao) which was tried earlier. Of course, I have a foolproof prescription that students who come for consultation may have noticed if they paid attention.
95. Moutan Cortex (Peony Bark)
Eating it directly is too sour and astringent, not tasty, so this time I only soaked it in water.
Soaking was also somewhat unsuccessful; with long time and high temperature, paeonol (a component in Moutan) gets destroyed, and its potency is much reduced.
Moutan is indeed a relatively difficult herb to extract; if the temperature is too high, paeonol is destroyed; if temperature is low or soaking time is short, paeoniflorin cannot be extracted. This is why in Cui’s Eight-Herb Pill (Guifu Dihuang Wan), Moutan is directly made into pills, not decocted in water—however, using the decoction method previously posted on the public account, it can be perfectly extracted: in the first boiling, after turning off the heat, add the herb, and paeonol is perfectly extracted; the second long decoction extracts other heat-tolerant components perfectly. Here I again thank Brother Panfei @Mubai.
Flavor: bitter, slightly sour (if paeonol extraction is appropriate, it is no longer slightly sour), slightly astringent, with a lingering cooling sensation on the head (volatile oil components, fully extracted with a thermos cup, lost if boiled).
Effect: primarily promotes blood circulation and resolves blood stasis, mainly acting on the microvessels and capillaries throughout the body, causing vasodilation and improving circulation. It also has some effect on large vessel blockage (platelet aggregation and atherosclerotic plaque formation), but this is not its main advantage.
It can slightly nourish the blood but basically has no blood-cooling effect. There are two possible explanations for records mentioning that effect: one is the volatile oil component indeed gives a cooling sensation; the other is that while promoting blood circulation, it can reduce inflammation to some extent.
96. Red Peony Root (Chi Shao)
Both White Peony Root (Bai Shao) and Red Peony Root (Chi Shao) originate from peony plants of the Ranunculaceae family. Before the Tang dynasty, there was no distinction; after the Tang, peonies from the south (Zhejiang, Anhui) are cooked until the core is soft and peeled, called White Peony Root (Hang Bai Shao, Bo Bai Shao, typically cultivated); northern peonies (Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, mostly wild, later cultivation in Hebei) are directly cut and called Red Peony Root; as for Sichuan Red Peony, it is a different variety.
So, White Peony Root can be understood as Red Peony Root that has lost part of its active components—thus, following our often stated principle of “herbs should not conflict with each other,” after losing much of the blood-activating and stasis-resolving components, White Peony Root can focus more on nourishing the blood.
Back to Red Peony Root.
Soaked in water, it has a flavor like Astragalus with a bit of sourness, and it makes the throat feel dry after swallowing.
Effect: fundamentally tonifies blood and exerts blood-activating and stasis-resolving effects, effective throughout the whole body but especially on the heart and liver; it also carries an energy “package” similar to Astragalus and further promotes the movement of qi and blood.
Similarly, Red Peony Root can inhibit inflammatory responses, so it can be used for myocarditis, coronary heart disease, arthritis, and nephritis.
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Sichuan Red Peony Root likely does not have an equivalent Sichuan White Peony Root, or it is possibly just a habitual name.