HomeTraditional Chinese Medicine HerbsCommon Gardenia Fruit

Common Gardenia Fruit

Latin Pharmaceutical Name

Gardeniae Fructus

Chinese Name

栀子

Category

Fruits and seeds

Common Gardenia FruitMore Info

Production Regions

Primarily produced in the Chinese provinces of Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian.

Macroscopic Features

Inverse oval, elliptical or long elliptical shape, 1.4~3.5cm long, 0.8~1.8cm diameter. Externally reddish-brown or reddish-yellow, slightly lustrous, with 6-8 wing-like longitudinal ridges, with one longitudinal vein between every 2 ridges, apex has dark yellowish-green remnants of persistent calyx, with 6-8 long lobes, lobes are 1~2.5cm long, 2~3mm wide, often crushed, fruit base shrunken and stem-like, end has round stem scar. Fruit skin is thin and brittle, inner surface is fresh yellow or reddish-yellow. Lustrous, with 2~3 bulging pseudoseptums. Fractured surface is fresh yellow, numerous seeds, flat oval or flat rectangular shape, clustered into spherical lumps, brownish-red, externally has thin and dense indented small spots; endosperm is horn-like; embryo is long, with 2 heart-like cotyledons. faint odor, slightly sour and bitter taste.

Quality Requirements

Superior medicinal material has thin skin, full, reddish-yellow color.

Properties

Bitter, cold.

Functions

Drains fire, eliminates vexation, clears heat, promotes urination, cools blood, resolves toxin. Apply to deficient restlessness due to pyreticosis, conjunctival congestion due to liver fire, headache, jaundice due to damp-heat, strangury, hematodiarrhoea, hematuria, mouth and tongue sore, swelling pain of sore and ulcer, swelling pains caused by sprains.

Processed Form

Fried zhi zi: Mashed zhizi fried with slow fire until turn into golden-yellow, take out and cool. Moderate the nature of unprocessed medicinal material. Burnt zhi zi: mashed zhizi fried with fast fire until turn into burnt color, take out and cool. Change the physical feature of hardness of zhi zhi, easily to boil. Zhi zi charcoal: mashed zhizi fried with fast fire until turn into black-brown, but save its nature, take out and cool. Focus on the effect of cooling blood and stopping bleeding, apply to hematemesis due to blood heat, epistaxis and hematuria, metrorrhagia and metrostaxis.

Origin

The dried mature fruit of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis. (Rubiaceae)

Common Gardenia FruitHerbs in the formula

Gentian Liver-Draining Decoction

Action：Clears and drains excessive fire of the liver and gallbladder, and clears damp-heat in the liver channel.

Indication：1. Flaming up of excessive fire of the liver and gallbladder, which manifests as headache and red eyes, pain in the rib-side, bitter taste in the mouth, deafness, swelling of the ears, a red tongue with a yellow coating, and a forceful wiry, rapid pulse.

View Details Heat-clearing formulas

Coptis Toxin-Resolving Decoction

Action：Drains fire and resolves toxins.

Indication：This formula is indicated for fire toxins in the sanjiao. The symptoms are fever, vexation, delirious speech, sleeplessness, dry mouth and throat, dark urine, spitting of blood, nosebleed, rashes, fever with dysentery, jaundice caused by epidemic toxins, rashes, abscesses, ulcers, boils, a red tongue with yellow coating, and a forceful rapid pulse.

View Details Heat-clearing formulas

Constraint-Resolving Pill

Action：Moves qi and resolves constraint.

Indication：Yue Ju Wan is indicated for the pattern of six constraints. The symptoms are chest oppression, epigastric and abdominal distention or pain, eructation with fetid odor, acid swallowing, nausea, vomiting, and indigestion.

View Details Qi-regulating formulas

Coptis and Officinal Magnolia Bark Beverage

Action：Clears heat and dispels dampness, rectifies qi, and harmonizes the center.

Indication：Lian Po Yin is indicated for damp-heat cholera. The symptoms are vomiting, diarrhea, chest and epigastric pi and oppression, vexation and agitation, and scanty dark urine. The tongue coating is yellow and greasy, and the pulse is slippery and rapid.

View Details Dampclearing formulas

Diaphragm-Cooling Powder

Action：Drains fire, promotes defecation, clears heat from the upper, and discharges heat through the purgative method.

Indication：This formula is indicated for the heat that has been generated from the constraint of pathogens in the upper jiao and middle jiao. The symptoms are vexing heat in the chest and diaphragm, red complexion, parched lips, vexation and agitation, thirst, mouth and tongue sores, restless sleep, delirium, pharyngeal pain, spitting of blood, nosebleed, constipation, dark urine, and incomplete defecation. The tongue is red with a yellow coating, and the pulse is slippery and rapid.

View Details Heat-clearing formulas

Virgate Wormwood Decoction

Action：Clears heat, drains dampness, and relieves jaundice.

Indication：Yin Chen Hao Tang is indicated for damp-heat jaundice. The symptoms are bright yellow discoloration of the skin, fever, absence of sweating or only sweating on the head, thirst with a desire to drink, nausea, vomiting, slight abdominal distension, scanty and dark urine, diarrhea, or constipation. The tongue is red with a greasy and yellow coating. The pulse is either deep, rapid or slippery, rapid and powerful.

View Details Dampclearing formulas

Mulberry Leaf and Apricot Kernel Decoction

Action：Clears and diffuses warm-dryness, moistens the lung and dissolves phlegm.

Indication：Sang Xing Tang is indicated for the pattern of externally-contracted warm-dryness. The symptoms are mild fever, thirst, dry throat and nasal cavities, dry cough without sputum, or with scanty, and sticky sputum. The tongue body is red with a thin, white and dry coating. The pulse is floating and rapid and is large on the right side.

View Details Dryness-moistening formulas

Peaceful Palace Bovine Bezoar Pill

Action：Clears heat and resolves toxins, opens the orifices and induces resuscitation.

Indication：An Gong Niu Huang Wan is indicated for a pattern of pathogenic heat invading the pericardium. The symptoms are high fever, vexation, unconsciousness, delirium, stiffness of the tongue and cold limbs. The tongue is red or crimson, and the pulse is rapid and forceful. It is also indicated for pathogenic heat causing internal block, wind strike, unconsciousness, and infantile convulsion.

View Details Resuscitative formulas

Gastrodia and Uncaria Decoction

Action：Calms the liver and extinguishes wind, clears heat and invigorates blood, supplements and boosts the liver and kidney.

Indication：Tian Ma Gou Teng Yin is indicated for patterns of hyperactive liver yang and ascending liver wind. The symptoms are headache, dizziness and vertigo, insomnia with profuse dreaming; or a bitter taste in the mouth, flushed face, a red tongue with a yellow tongue coating, and a wiry or rapid pulse.

View Details Wind-calming formulas

Field Thistle Drink

Action：Cools blood and stanches bleeding, promotes urination and relieves strangury.

Indication：Blood strangury or bloody urine is due to the accumulation of heat in the lower jiao. This condition is marked by blood in the urine, and frequent painful urination that is hot with an unsmooth stream. The tongue is red and the pulse is rapid.

View Details Blood-regulating formulas

Ten Charred Substances Powder

Action：Cools blood and stanches bleeding.

Indication：Shi Hui San is indicated for hemorrhages due to blood heat. Examples include vomiting of blood, spitting of blood, expectoration of blood, coughing of blood, nosebleed. If the color of the blood is bright red, the situation is acute and severe. The tongue body is red and the pulse is rapid.

View Details Blood-regulating formulas

Eight Corrections Powder

Action：Clears heat and subdues fire, promotes urination, and relieves strangury.

Indication：Ba Zheng San is indicated for damp-heat strangury. The symptoms are frequent urgent urination, odynuria, dribbling urination, dark yellow urine, retention of urine in severe cases, cramps and fullness of abdomen, and a dry mouth and throat. The coating is yellow and greasy and the pulse is slippery and rapid.

View Details Dampclearing formulas