Siberian Solomonseal Rhizome

Primarily produced in the Chinese provinces of Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Hebei.

Knotty, one thick end round and plate-like, one gradually thin end cylindrical-shaped, whole piece similar to chicken head in shape, 2.5~11cm long, 1~2cm thick at the thick end; often has branches, with obvious scars of stem, round slightly indented, 2~3mm diameter, surrounding with ringed joints; thin end is 2.5~4cm long, 5~10mm diameter, with obvious ringed joints, 5~15mm internode distance, with numerous rootlets or scars of rootlets with a diameter of 1mm. Externally yellowish-brown, sometimes translucent, with wrinkles; cylindrical portion has longitudinal lines. Hard brittle or slightly soft pliable texture, easily broken. Fractured surface is yellowish-white, granular, with yellowish-brown vascular bundle spots. faint odor, slightly sweet taste. Ginger-like huang jing often appears as long strip-shaped lumps, uneven length and numerous linked lump-like nodes.

Superior medicinal material is fat, large, yellow, with “rock sugar cut” fractured surface.

Sweet; neutral

Nourishes the kidney, moistens the lung, fortifies the spleen, supplements qi. Apply to cough due to deficiency of yin, dry cough due to dryness of lung, spleen deficiency and fatigue, low food intake and dry mouth, diabetes, weakness of waist and knees due to deficiency of kidney, impotence and emission, tinnitus and dim vision, prematurely grey, thin and weakness of body and deficiency, leprosy and tinea.

Wine huang jing: stir cleaned huang jing with yellow rice wine in stew pot, seal and heat above water or steam, till all the wine is absorbed. Or use steamer to steam till moistened inside and outside and black colored, take out and sun-dry till the outer skin is dry, slice into thick pieces, dry. Every 100kg huang jing need 20kg yellow rice wine. Wine processed form can moisten greasy nature, promote the medical effect, advanced in supplements the kidney and blood. Steamed huang jing: clean the huang jing and get rid of foreign matter. Clean, drain, moisten totally, steam till black inside and outside by steamer, take out, sun-dry or cool till dry exterior. Slice into thick pieces, stir with the steamed water, absorb totally and dry. Unprocessed huang jing has numbing taste, stinging throat, thus often use steamed pieces. After steamed and eliminated numbing, avoid of stinging throat, enhance the effect of supplementing qi and nourishing yin, supplementing spleen and moistening lung.

'Rock sugar cut (bing tang cha)’: This refers to the transparent fractured surface seen on large, yellow, lustrous huang jing. 'New Year’s space (nian jie jian)': this is a special distinguishing feature of huang jing medicinal material. It refers to the space between the ringed joints on the rhizome’s exterior.