Figwortflower Picrorhiza Rhizome

Primarily produced in the Chinese provinces of Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan.

Cylindrical, straight or curved, often without branches, commercial pieces consist of small sections, 2`9cm long, 3~8mm diameter. Externally grayish-yellow to yellowish-brown, lustrous, rough, with longitudinal wrinkles and horizontal rings, brown where the cortex has fallen off. Upper apex has remnants of leaf, densely covered with scales that are reddish-brown, or semi-round node scars. Root scars are spotty, numerous near the nodes. Hard and brittle texture, easily to break and powdery when broken. Fractured surface has 4~7 vascular bundle spots arranged in circle. faint odor, very durably bitter taste.

Superior medicinal material has thick strips, powdery when broken, grayish-black fractured surface and bitter taste.

Bitter; cold.

Clears heat, cools blood, dries dampness. hectic fever due to yin-deficiency, hectic fever and night sweat, retarded growth in infants due to malnutrition, hygropyretic diarrhea and dysentery, jaundice, hematemesis, non-traumatic hemorrhage, swelling pains induced by conjunctival congestion, furuncles and ulcers, hemorrhoids and swelling toxicity.

'Myna bird eyes (ba ge yan)’: This refers to groups of vascular bundles seen on the fractured surface of hu huang lian medicinal material. Its special characteristic is that 4~10 off-white spotted vascular bundles are arranged in a ring, forming an appearances very similar to eyes of a myna bird.