Insights and Updates

Guizhi Jia Fuzi Tang (Cinnamon Twig plus Aconite Decoction) comes from the Shanghan Lun (Treatise on Cold Damage). The original formula is: Guizhi (Cinnamomi Ramus) 3 liang, Shaoyao (Paeoniae Radix) 3 liang, Zhi Gancao (honey-fried Glycyrrhizae Radix) 3 liang, Sheng Jiang (Zingiberis Rhizoma, sliced) 3…

Corn silk is the style and stigma of Zea mays L. of the Gramineae family. It is produced in most regions of the world; anyone who has grown or bought corn is familiar with it. Corn silk can be eaten as well as used medicinally,…

Patients with primary or secondary tumors of the hepatobiliary system often develop ascites in the late stage. Treating ascites in such cancer patients with only the approach of promoting urination and reducing swelling does not work well. Among the medical cases of the late renowned…

On the Lantern Festival of the Year of the Ox, I bought a singing bowl and was very pleased with it. The bowl is about the size of a rice bowl, just right for collecting alms. A Buddhist monk who has left the household life…

The most beautiful thing I can imagine is, on a starry night, by the bright moonlight, holding the hand of the one I love and strolling along a quiet, warm country path, with a serenade of frogs and insects ringing in my ears. As we…

Konjac is an Amorphophallus plant native to China, used both as medicine and food; it is also known as she liu gu, ju ru, and gui yu. The tuber of konjac is used medicinally. In TCM, konjac is acrid and bitter in taste, cold in…

Tiankuizi, also known as zi bei tiankui zi, is called “thousand-year mouse droppings” in eastern Hubei. It is the tuberous root of Semiaquilegia adoxoides (DC.) Makino of the Ranunculaceae family. I have once dug it up in the wild with my father. Both the Zhongyao…

Yesterday, after I published the article “Folk Experience from Hubei on Using Tiankuizi Against Cancer”, a reader pointed out that the plant in the article's photograph was Corydalis bulbifera, not tiankuizi—I am very grateful to the enthusiastic reader who corrected me, whose screen name is…

The day before yesterday, a fellow townsman from Hubei sent me some photos of herbs and asked me to help identify them. After careful identification, I believe the photos she sent are of Tiankui (Semiaquilegia adoxoides). (After this article was published, a reader pointed out…

Arisaema (Tiannanxing) is a commonly used TCM herb for resolving phlegm, stopping cough, and calming wheezing, and is also a common anticancer herb in TCM oncology. The commercially available Arisaema medicinal material comes from several sources: the tubers of Pinellia pedatisecta, Arisaema heterophyllum, Arisaema erubescens,…