Insights and Updates

Waking up early and opening the news, I saw that the floods in Henan Province had killed more than ten people; my mood instantly sank. May the deceased rest in peace, and may their families find solace. From the news videos and pictures, this flood…

Jixingzi is the seed of Impatiens balsamina of the Balsaminaceae family, also called Fengxianzi or Jinfengxianzi; it is usually used raw or stir-fried. Traditional TCM considers it pungent and slightly bitter, warm in nature, and slightly toxic, entering the Liver and Spleen meridians. It resolves…

Wang Jiyan once practiced medicine in Shanghai, serving as director of the Hui-Ning Hospital of Shanghai and as executive committee member of the Shanghai National Medical Association and editor-in-chief of the Guoyi Magazine, Guoyi Congshu and Guoyi Zhoukan. The late Dr. Wang used three prescriptions…

What is cancer? Different people define it differently. To Athena Aktipis, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Arizona, cancer is an inevitable product in the evolution of multicellular organisms. Cancer is a kind of "organism" continually evolving within the ecosystem of our bodies, subject…

Dingxiang (Clove) is the dried flower bud of Syzygium aromaticum of the Myrtaceae family, also called Gongdingxiang (male clove), Xiongdingxiang or Dingzixiang. It has a distinctive aromatic scent that is refreshing to the heart. The near-ripe fruit of clove is also used medicinally as Mudingxiang…

The Wenbing Tiaobian (Systematic Identification of Warm Diseases) contains a formula called Huangqin Huashi Tang, composed of "Scutellaria (Huangqin) three qian, talc (Huashi) three qian, Poria peel (Fulingpi) three qian, areca peel (Dafupi) two qian, white cardamom seed (Baikouren) one qian, Tetrapanax pith (Tongcao) one…

Baishao (White Peony Root) is the dried root of Paeonia lactiflora of the Ranunculaceae family, produced mainly in Zhejiang and Anhui; that from Zhejiang is considered the most authentic, and it is one of the famous "Eight Herbs of Zhejiang" (Baizhu, Baishao, Zhebeimu, Hangjuhua, Yuanhu,…

Two plants of the Patrinia family are used medicinally. One is the root of Patrinia scabiosaefolia or Patrinia heterophylla, known in Chinese materia medica as Mutouhui; the other is the whole herb of Patrinia scabiosaefolia and Patrinia villosa, known as Baijiang or Baijiangcao (Patrinia). The…

After summer began, He, a lymphoma patient I had long treated, developed difficult urination and edema of the lower abdomen and lower limbs. The patient went to the hospital for liver and kidney function tests and a tumor-marker panel of five, and all values were…

Chinese-medicine zhimu is the rhizome of Anemarrhena asphodeloides of the Liliaceae family, with a very long medicinal history; it is recorded in the earliest Chinese materia medica, Shennong Bencao Jing (Divine Farmer's Materia Medica). Shennong Bencao Jing classifies zhimu as a "middle-grade" herb, holding that…