Properties: Sweet, salty, cold
Meridans Entered:
Primary: Liver and Kidney
Extraordinary Vessels: Ren, Yin Qiao, Yang Qiao
Traditional Actions/Indications:
- Nourishes Yin and anchors Yang
Yin Deficiency with Yang Rising with fever, night sweats, dizziness, tinnitus and steaming bone disorder
Kidney and Liver Yin Deficiencies generating Internal Wind with facial spasms and tremors of the hands and feet
- Benefits the Kidneys and strengthens the bones
Kidney Yin Deficiency with soreness of the lower back, weakness in the legs, retarded skeletal development in children or failure of the fontanel to close
- Nourishes the Blood, enriches Yin and stabilizes the Chong and Ren channels
Red and white vaginal discharge or uterine bleeding
- Cools the Blood and stops uterine bleeding
Blood Heat causing excessive menstruation or uterine bleeding
- Nourishes the Blood and tonifies the Heart
Heart Yin and/or Blood Deficiencies with anxiety, insomnia and forgetfulness
- Treats non-healing sores and ulcerations
Non-healing sores and ulcerations
Suggested Daily Dosage: 10-15g in decoction.
Cautions: Animal products are prohibited from use in the UK under the Medicines Act 1968 ch. 67 which restricts herbalists to the use of plant products only. It is generally substituted with Mo Han Lian and Nu Zhen Zi or Xuan Shen.
Turtles may also act as viral reservoirs and have been proposed as the potential intermediate host for coronavirus between bats and humans (Liu et al., 2020).
Appears in 10 formulae listed on this site: (click to display)
Research Links & References: (click to display)
Research Links:
Reference Notes:
Individual herb information has sourced mainly from TCM Wiki and American Dragon for basic data and then updated manually with my own notes. Zhou, Xie and Yan (2011): Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicines, Vol. 5, has been used for entries not available from those sources with additional material searched for and filled in where available. Western herbs not appearing in the Chinese literature have used Ross (2010): Combining Western Herbs and Chinese Medicine: A Clinical Materia Medica, White Rabbit Institute of Healing and therapeutika.ch. Choices of which source to use or combine have been my own.
These pages are intended to assist clinicians and are not intended for self-diagnosis or treatment for which a qualified professional should be consulted. Actions and indications are taken from traditional uses and do not necessarily reflect the evidence base which should be researched independently. Dosages are for guidance only and will vary dependening on the potency of the batch and the tolerance of the individual so should be evaluated by a professional based on individual needs.
