Chinese Nut-gall

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

Jiao bei: Ridged or oval shape, with irregular horn-like branches, 3~8cm long, 2~5cm diameter. Externally yellow or pale yellowish-brown, with obvious grayish-white soft and smooth short hairs. Hard and brittle texture, hollow after being broken, relatively thin shell, about 0.1~0.2cm, horn-like, inside has numerous dead black-brown aphids and gray powdery secretions. Inner shell is pale brown, smooth. Cut surface is horn-like. Slight distinctive bad odor, astringent taste. Du bei: Long round or fusiform shape, 2.5~9cm long, 1.5~4cm diameter. Externally grayish-brown, with few soft hairs. Hard and brittle texture, easily broken, fractured surface is horn-like, lustrous, shell thickness is about 0.2~0.3cm. Inner shell is smooth, with black-brown dead aphids and gray powdery secretions. Distinctively aromatic odor, astringent taste.

Superior medicinal material is large, intact, with thick shell, grayish-brown.

Sour, astringent, cold.

Astringes lung, stops sweating, astringes intestines, secures essence, stops bleeding, resolves toxin. Apply to chronic cough due to lung deficiency, sweating and night sweating, chronic dysentery and diarrhea, prolapse of the anus, emissions, gonorrhea, various hemorrhage, abscess swelling and sore.