Pharmaceutical Name:

Fructus Chebulae

Botanical Name:

Terminalia chebula Retz.
Terminalia chebula Retz. Var. tomentella Kurt.

Common Name:

Terminalia fruit
Chebula fruit

Source of Earliest Record:

Yaoxing Lun

Part Used & Method for Pharmaceutical Preparations:

The ripe fruit is gathered from July to August and dried in the sun.

Properties and Taste:

Bitter, sour, astringent, and neutral

Meridians:

Lung and large intestine

Functions:

To astringe the intestines
To astringe the lungs

Indications and Combinations:

1.     Chronic diarrhea, chronic dysentery and prolapsed anus:

a)       Heat syndrome.
*Use with Coptis root (Huanglian) and Costus root (Muxiang) in the formula Hezi San.

b)       Deficiency and cold syndrome.
*Use with Dried ginger (Ganjiang) and Poppy capsule (Yingsuqiao).

2.     Cough and asthma due to deficiency in lungs or chronic cough with hoarse voice.
*Use with Platycodon root (Jiegeng), Licorice root (Gancao) and Apricot seed (Xingren).

Dosage:

3-10 g (The raw herb is used for hoarse voice, the baked herb for diarrhea.)

Cautions:

This herb is contraindicated in cases with exterior syndrome and during accumulation of damp-heat in the interior.