Ophiopogon Root (Maidong)

Ophiopogon Root (Maidong)

Pharmaceutical Name: Radix Ophiopogonis
Botanical Name: Ophiopogon japonicus (Thunb.) Ker-Gawl.
Liriope spicata
Common Name:Ophiopogon root
Lilyturf root
Source of Earliest Record: Shennong Bencao Jing
art Used & Method for Pharmaceutical Preparations: The tuberous roots are dug in summer. After the fibrous roots have been removed, the roots are dried in the sun.
Properties and Taste: Sweet, slightly bitter and slightly cold.
Meridian: Lung, heart and stomach
Functions: To nourish the yin and moisten the lungs
To strengthen the stomach and promote the production of body fluids
To clear heat in the heart and relieve irritability
Indications and Combinations: 1.     Dryness and heat in the lungs due to deficiency of yin manifested as cough with scanty and sticky sputum or cough with bloody sputum.
*Use with Glehnia root (Shashen), Asparagus root (Tianmendong), Tendrilled fritillary bulb (Chuanbeimu) and Fresh rehmannia root (Shengdihuang).

2. Deficient yin of the stomach manifested as dry tongue and thirst.
*Use with Fragrant solomonseal rhizome (Yuzhu), Glehnia root (Shashen) and Fresh rehmannia root (Shengdihuang).

3.     Irritability and insomnia:

a) Nutritive (yin) system invaded by pathogenic heat.
*Use with Fresh rehmannia root (Shengdihuang), Bamboo leaf (Zhuye) and Coptis root (Huanglian) in the formula Qingying Tang.

b)      Heart yin deficiency with internal heat causing insomnia.
*Use with Fresh rehmannia root (Shengdihuang) and Wild jujube seed (Suanzaoren) in the formula Tianwang Buxin Dan.

4.     Constipation caused by dryness in the intestines.
*Use with Fresh rehmannia root (Shengdihuang) and Scrophularia (Xuanshen) in the formula Zengye Tang.
Dosage: 6-15 g
Cautions: This herb is contraindicated in cases with cough due to wind-cold type of common cold, with presence of phlegm fluid and turbid dampness, with diarrhea due to deficiency, and cold in the spleen and stomach.