Pharmaceutical Name:

Cortex Cinnamomi

Botanical Name:

Cinnamomum cassia presl

Common Name:

Cinnamon bark
Cassia bark

Source of Earliest Record:

Mingyi Bielu

Part Used & Method for Pharmaceutical Preparations:

The bark is cut in the period of Great Heat (twelfth solar term) and peeled off in the period of the Beginning of Autumn (thirteenth solar term).  It is dried in the shade and cut into slices.

Properties and Taste:

Pungent, sweet and hot

Meridian:

Kidney, spleen, heart and liver

Functions:

To tonify the kidneys
To dispel cold and stop pain
To warm the channels and promote circulation

Indications and Combinations:

1.     Kidney yang deficiency manifested as cold limbs, soreness and weakness of the lumbar region and knees, impotence, spermatorrhea and frequent urination.
*Use with Prepared aconite root (Fuzi), Prepared rehmannia (Shudihuang) and Dogwood fruit (Shanzhuyu) in the formula Gui Fu Bawei Wan).

2.      Deficient yang of the spleen and kidneys manifested as cold pain in the epigastric and abdominal regions, poor appetite and loose stool.
*Use with Dried ginger (Ganjiang), White atractylodes (Baizhu) and Prepared aconite (Fuzi) in the formula Gui Fu Lizhong Wan.

3.     Cold stagnation in the meridians as epigastric and abdominal cold pain, lower back pain, general pain, irregular menstruation and dysmenorrhea.
*Use with Dried ginger (Ganjiang), Evodia fruit (Wuzhuyu), Chinese angelica root (Danggui) and Chuanxiong rhizome (Chuanxiong).

4.      Yin type of boils (chronic boils).
*Use with Astragalus root (Huangqi) and Chinese angelica root (Danggui) in the formula Tuoli Huangqi Tang.

Dosage:

2-5 g

Cautions:

This herb is contraindicated during pregnancy.