Half-month talk on Chinese medicine | Scutellaria baicalensis

· Interesting stories ·

Anyone interested in Chinese medicine admires Li Shizhen, a great medical scientist in the Ming Dynasty. His masterpiece of oriental medicine, Compendium of Materia Medica, was selected into the UNESCO Memory of the World Register together with the classic Chinese medicine, Huangdi Neijing.

Li Shizhen (1518-1593) was born in Qizhou, Hubei (now Qizhou Town, Qichun County), and his family inherited traditional Chinese medicine. His grandfather was a "bell doctor" who traveled around the countryside; his father Li Yanwen was a famous local doctor and had worked in the Imperial Hospital.

His father hoped that Li Shizhen would take the imperial examination. However, after failing the imperial examination three times, Li Shizhen made up his mind to give up studying and seeking official positions, and followed his father to study medicine and succeeded. He had a family tradition, learned a lot, and treated patients, and his career path was open. In the end, he turned his interest to pharmacology, and spent his entire life writing and completing the monumental work "Compendium of Materia Medica".

What kind of chance was there? Did a single medicine change the trajectory of Li Shizhen's life? There must be such a reason.

1537 was the 16th year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty. Li Shizhen was 20 years old that year. The year before, he failed in the first provincial examination, and had a second chance to take the imperial examination that year. But he was already married and suffered from a serious illness, which was initially caused by a cold and cough. He accidentally "violated the precepts" and did not recover for a long time. The disease lasted from spring to summer, and gradually developed to "bone steaming fever, skin like fire", accompanied by a lot of sputum, irritability and thirst, and almost no sleep and food. Li Shizhen took all kinds of medicine but could not be cured, and it became more and more serious, so that others thought he was going to die. In the end, his father Li Yanwen remembered Li Dongyuan's experience and chose a herb of Scutellaria baicalensis, a heavy dose of decoction, and asked Li Shizhen to take it immediately. Unexpectedly, the next day, "the body heat subsided, and the phlegm and cough were all cured"! That kind of magic made Li Shizhen himself admire: "The medicine is to the point, like a drum responding to the drumstick, the wonder of medicine is so great."

He recorded this experience of rebirth in the entry of Scutellaria baicalensis in the 13th volume of the Compendium of Materia Medica. That serious illness and that Chinese medicine were so deeply imprinted in Li Shizhen's mind. Perhaps it was this Chinese medicine that directly saved his life that stimulated Li Shizhen to devote his life to the in-depth study of pharmacology. After the illness, he took part in the imperial examination held in Wuchang again. As he was not prepared and his body was still recovering, the result of failing the exam can be imagined.

In 1539, the year of Gengzi, 22-year-old Li Shizhen took the imperial examination for the third time, but failed again. Why was Li Shizhen's road to the imperial examination so bumpy? Perhaps his mind was no longer outside of medicine. It was his unparalleled determination to study medicine that eventually made him a great medical scientist unparalleled in the world.

Photo: Ding Zhaoping

Scutellaria baicalensis is an important Chinese medicine for clearing heat and detoxifying. When it comes to classifying and understanding Chinese medicine for clearing heat and detoxifying, there are a lot of medicines with the word "Huang" in their names. For example, the three botanical medicines Scutellaria baicalensis, Coptis chinensis, and Phellodendron chinense are the "Three Huangs"; adding rhubarb makes it the "Four Huangs"; if you add the animal medicine Bezoar, it is also called the "Five Huangs". Their effects all have the common feature of clearing heat and detoxifying. But their sites of action are different, and their effects are also different. Scutellaria baicalensis, which clears heat and detoxifies, has a site of action that is relatively high. The upper part is mainly used to clear the fire in the upper part of the body, and the lower part can clear the fire in the large and small intestines. Chinese medicine summarizes the medicinal properties of Scutellaria baicalensis as specializing in clearing heat and purging fire.

It is difficult to find ancient poems praising Scutellaria baicalensis, a medicinal herb with remarkable effects. After searching everywhere, I suddenly saw a line "There are many noisy birds on the branches of Scutellaria baicalensis". This really moved a Chinese medicine practitioner, so he wrote down four lines of miscellaneous poems "For Scutellaria baicalensis":

"Scutellaria baicalensis is originally a weak grass, and it has never stood on its branches like a chirping bird. Li Shizhen praised its effect of beating drums and drums, and from then on, its merits were recorded in the Materia Medica."

· Source of medicinal materials ·

The dried root of Scutellaria baicalensis, a plant of the genus Scutellaria in the Lamiaceae family.

· Nature and flavor ·

It tastes bitter and is cold in nature.

It enters the lung, gallbladder, spleen, large intestine and small intestine meridians .

Clears away heat and dampness, purges fire and detoxifies, stops bleeding, and stabilizes the fetus.

It is suitable for damp-heat, summer dampness, chest tightness and nausea, damp-heat fullness, diarrhea, jaundice, lung heat cough, high fever and thirst, blood heat vomiting and bleeding, carbuncles, sores and fetal movement disorder.
· Usage and Dosage·

For internal use: decoction, 3-10 grams.

· Diet therapy recommendation ·

Scutellaria Baicalensis, Phragmites australis and Monk Fruit Tea

Ingredients: 5g of Scutellaria baicalensis, 10g of Phragmites australis, 1 piece of Momordica grosvenori. Method: First scald the above ingredients with boiling water, put them in a cup, add boiling water, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, or boil for 5 minutes, take frequently, and drink instead of tea. Efficacy: This medicinal tea is easy to prepare and can treat lung heat cough, such as cough, yellow sputum, dry mouth, etc. It can also be used as a preventive herbal tea during influenza. Note: It is not suitable for pregnant and lactating women and people with allergies. Scutellaria baicalensis is not a Chinese medicinal material that can be used as both medicine and food. The use of Scutellaria baicalensis should be carried out under the guidance of professionals.