Glehnia Root (Shashen)
| Pharmaceutical Name: | Radix Glehniae |
| Botanical Name: | Glehnia littoralis Fr. Sehmidt ex Miq Adenophora tetraphylla (Thunb.) Fisch |
| Common Name: | Glehnia root |
| Source of Earliest Record: | Shennong Bencao Jing |
| art Used & Method for Pharmaceutical Preparations: | The roots are dug in summer or autumn. After the fibrous roots have been removed, the roots are washed in boiled water and the bark is peeled off. Then the roots are soaked again before being cut into pieces or slices. |
| Properties and Taste: | Sweet and slightly cold |
| Meridian: | Lung and stomach |
| Functions: | To clear the lungs and tonify yin To strengthen the stomach and promote the production of body fluids |
| Indications and Combinations: | 1. Deficient yin of the lungs with heat manifested as dry cough or cough with scanty sputum, hoarse voice from a chronic cough, dry throat and thirst. *Use with Ophiopogon root (Maidong) and Tendrilled fritillary bulb (Chuanbeimu). 2. Body fluids consumed by febrile diseases manifested as dry tongue and poor appetite. *Use with Ophiopogon root (Maidong), Fresh rehmannia root (Shengdihuang) and Fragrant solomonseal rhizome (Yuzhu) in the formula Yiwei Tang. |
| Dosage: | 10-15 g (15-30 for the fresh herb) |
| Cautions: | This herb is contraindicated in cases with deficient cold syndrome. Also, it counteracts the herb Black false bellebore (Lilu). |