Flos Lonicerae (Honeysuckle Flower / Jin Yin Hua)
Properties and Taste:
Sweet in flavour, cold in nature, it acts on the lung, heat and stomach channels. The sweet and cold properties clear away heat and the fragrance expels heat outward. It is good at clearing away the heart and stomachfire for detoxication and expelling the wind-heat in the lung channel for diaphoresis. It is often used to treat the syndromes of suppurative infections due to noxious heat, excessive heat in the qi division, invasion of the ying division by warm and heat pathogens and the affection by exopathogenic wind-heat.
Actions:
Clearing away heat, detoxicating and expelling wind-heat. It can treat the syndromes of restlessness and thirst due to the summer heat because it has the functions of clearing away and relieving the summer heat.
Fructus Forsythiae
The green fruit gathered in the period of White Dew (fifteenth solar term) is better than the yellow fruit picked in the period of Cold Dew (seventeenth solar term). The fruit is steamed, dried in the sun, and its seeds separated from the flesh.
Properties & Taste:
Bitter and slightly cold
Actions:
- To clear heat and release toxins
- To relieve carbuncles and disperse nodules
Radix et Rhizoma Rhei (Rhubarb / Da Huang)
Properties and Taste:
Bitter in flavour, cold in nature, it acts on the spleen, stomach, large intestine, heart and liver channels. Bitter and cold for clearing heat, lowing and sinking downward, the herb has effects of clearing the bowels, easing the bowel movement, and releasing stagnation in gastro-intestinal tract, fire of excess type and toxic heat, so it is an important herb for constipation due to accumulation of heat of excess type, and gastro-intestinal fecal impaction due to heat and to heat. The herb also acts on blood, heart and liver, removes the pathogenic heat and toxic material from the blood, promotes blood circulation to relieve blood stasis, resolves furuncles and carbuncles due to blood heat, blood stasis, etc. In addition, it is effective for eliminating dampness and heat, normalizing function of gallbladder and treating stranguria.
Actions:
Purging heat, loosening the bowels, removing heat from the blood, clearing toxins, promoting blood circulation to relieve blood stasis.
Precautions:
Prohibited for women during pregnancy, menstruation and breastfeeding period.
Flos Chrysanthemi (Chrysanthemum Flower / Ju Hua)
Properties and Taste:
The herb is pungent, sweet and bitter in flavour, slightly cold in nature and acts on the lung and liver channels. Pungent and cold for dispersing wind-heat from the lung channel, sweet and cold for clearing heat from the liver, nourishing Yin and improving eyesight, and bitter and cold for clearing heat and removing toxins, it is often used to treat wind-heat type of exterior syndromes, liver-heat, conjunctival congestion, toxic heat, sore and carbuncle.
Actions:
Dispersing wind-heat, purging heat from the liver, improving eyesight, clearing heat and removing toxins. It can also be used to treat toxic heat, sore and carbuncle.
Gardenia Jasminoides
Properties:
A shrub with greyish bark and dark green shiny leaves with prominent veins. The white flowers bloom in spring and summer and are highly fragrant. They are followed by small oval fruit.
Gardenia jasminoides (also known as Gardenia augusta) is a fragrant flowering evergreen tropical plant, a favorite in gardens worldwide. It originated in Asia and is most commonly found growing in Vietnam, Southern China, Taiwan, Japan and India. With its shiny green leaves and fragrant white summer flowers, it is widely used in gardens in warm temperate and subtropical climates. It has been in cultivation in China for at least a thousand years, and was introduced to English gardens in the mid 18th century. Many varieties have been bred for horticulture, with low growing, and large- and long flowering forms.
Actions:
Is used within Traditional Chinese Medicine to “drain fire” and thereby treat certain febrile conditions.