Pinyin: Bai Fu Zi  Chinese: 白附子
Pharmaceutical: Rhizoma Typhonii
Taxonomy: Typhonium giganteum
English: Giant Typhonium Rhizome

Tastes: Pungent, warm, toxic
Meridians Entered: Liver

Actions & Indications:

1. Dries Dampness, transforms Phlegm, expels Wind and stops spasms
   Wind-Phlegm affecting the head causing Wind-Stroke with facial paralysis, hemiplegia, tetany, severe lateral headache or migraine headaches
   Wind-stroke with profuse Phlegm welling up in the throat, impairing speech
2. Relieves toxicity and dissipates nodules
   Phlegm toxicity (topical and fresh) (snake bite, scrofula, other nodules)
3. Dries Dampness and stops pain and itching (expels Wind-Cold-Dampness)
   Wind-Cold-Damp Bi Damp skin problems (eczema) (powder and apply topically)

Standard Dosage: 3-5g in decoction.
Cautions: This herb is pungent, warm, dry and drastic. So it is not suitable for yin deficiency and blood deficiency or exuberant heat with stirring of wind and the pregnant women. Unprocessed herb should not be taken orally.

Pinyin: Tian Nan Xing  Chinese: 天南星
Pharmaceutical: Rhizoma Arisaematis
Taxonomy: Arisaema consanguineum
English: Jack-in-the-Pulpit Rhizome

Tastes: Bitter, pungent, warm, toxic
Meridians Entered: Lung, Liver and Spleen

Actions & Indications:

1. Dries Dampness and expels Phlegm
   Stubborn (extremely sticky) Phlegm in the Lungs with cough and a distended sensation in the chest
2. Disperses Wind-Phlegm in the channels and stops spasms
   Wind-Phlegm Obstructing the Channels with dizziness, vertigo, numbness in the limbs, facial paralysis, spasms in the hands and feet, opisthotonis, stroke, seizures or lockjaw
3. Reduces swelling and alleviates pain
   Topically for Chuang Yung (deep rooted sores, ulcers and carbuncles).
   Swelling due to traumatic injury and joint pain secondary to Phlegm
   Topically for cervical cancer

Standard Dosage: 3-10g in decoction.
Cautions: Prohibited for yin deficiency with dry phlegm and the pregnant women.

Pinyin: Qiang Huo  Chinese: 羌活
Pharmaceutical: Rhizoma seu Radix Notopterygii
Taxonomy: Notopterygium incisium, N. forbesii
English: Notopterygium Root and Rhizome

Tastes: Pungent, bitter, warm
Meridians Entered: Bladder and Kidney

Actions & Indications:

1. Releases the Exterior and disperses Cold
   Wind-Cold with chills, fever, headache, body aches and pains
   Usually used when accompanied by Dampness with joint pain, a general feeling of heaviness, sleepiness or occipital pain
2. Expels Wind-Cold-Dampness, unblocks painful obstruction and alleviates pain
   Wind-Cold-Damp Bi especially in the upper limbs and back
3. Guides Qi to the Taiyang and Du channels
   Directs the other herbs to the Taiyang and Du channels

Standard Dosage: 3-10g in decoction.
Cautions: It should be used with cautions for blood deficiency because of its strong pungent, fragrant, warm and dry property. It is not appropriate for weakness of spleen and stomach because large dose of this herb induces vomiting.

Pinyin: Bai Zhi  Chinese: 白芷
Pharmaceutical: Radix Angelicae dahuricae
Taxonomy: Angelica dahurica
English: Dahurian Angelica Root

Tastes: Pungent and warm
Meridians Entered: Lung, Stomach and Large Intestine

Actions & Indications:

1. Expels Wind, eliminates Dampness, unblocks the nasal passages, dispels Cold and alleviates pain
   External Wind-Cold patterns, especially with headache
   Supra orbital pain, nasal congestion and toothache, arthritis
   Any External Wind invasion of the Yangming channels of the head with a frontal headache
2. Reduces swelling, eliminates toxins and expels pus
   Early-stage superficial sores, boils and carbuncles, pruritis
3. Expels Dampness, alleviates discharge and treats leukorrhea and diarrhoea
   Vaginal discharge due to Cold-Dampness in the Lower Jiao
4. Releases the Exterior and Drives Out Snakes
   Chronic inflammatory disease (Fruehauf, 2015)
   One of the chief herbs for treating Gu Syndrome, along with Bo He and Zi Su Ye, classed as "open the exterior with snake killing herbs" (Fruehauf, 1998).
   Also used topically for fungal infections which may explain some of its anti-Gu actions.

Standard Dosage: 3-10g in decoction.
Cautions: It should be used with cautions for Blood Heat induced by Yin deficiency because of its pungent, fragrant, warm, dry property.

Pinyin: Fang Feng  Chinese: 防风
Pharmaceutical: Radix Saposhnikoviae seu Ledebouriellae
English: Siler

Tastes: Pungent, sweet, slightly warm
Meridians Entered: Lung, Liver and Spleen

Actions & Indications:

1. Releases the Exterior and expels External Wind
   Wind-Cold with headache, chills, aversion to Cold, and body aches
2. Expels Wind-Dampness and alleviates pain
   Wind-Damp Bi, especially with Wind predominant
3. Expels Internal Wind and stops spasms
   As an auxiliary for Liver Wind with trembling of hands and feet and tetany
   Intestinal-Wind due to imbalance between Spleen and Liver with recurrent tenesmus and painful diarrhoea with bright blood in the stool
   Migraine headaches
4. Relieves diarrhoea and stops bleeding
   Liver and Spleen Disharmony with recurrent painful diarrhoea, borborygmus and abdominal pain
5. Aids fasting
   Mentioned in the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing as part of the middle class of herbs which can, with protracted taking, make the body light. This may suggest it was part of supplementing the diet when engaging in an "avoiding grain" (Bigu 辟穀) fasting regime to cultivate life (Yangsheng 養生).

Standard Dosage: 5-10g in decoction.
Cautions: It should be used with caution for blood deficiency and internal wind induced by heat because of its warm property.

Pinyin: Tian Ma  Chinese: 天麻
Pharmaceutical: Rhizoma Gastrodiae
Taxonomy: Gastrodia elata
English: Gastrodia Rhizome

Tastes: Sweet, neutral
Meridians Entered: Liver

Actions & Indications:

1. Extinguishes Wind, calms the Liver and stops spasms and tremors
   Liver Wind due to either Heat or Cold with headache, dizziness, childhood convulsions, epilepsy, tonic-clonic spasms, opisthotonos, tetany and Wind-stroke
2. Extinguishes Wind, subdues Rising Liver Yang and alleviates pain
   Wind-Phlegm patterns with headaches, dizziness and migraines
   Wind-stroke with hemiplegia, dizziness and numbness in the extremities
   Hypertension (high blood pressure), both with symptoms and as a preventative measure (Sun et al., 2023)
   Can be used for both Excess and Deficiency conditions
3. Disperses Wind-Damp Bi
   Pain and numbness of the lower back and extremities due to Wind-Damp Bi

Standard Dosage: 3-10g in decoction.
Cautions: This plant is endangered and any supplies should be accompanied by CITES certification.