HomeTraditional Chinese Medicine HerbsTendrilleaf Fritillary Bulb

Tendrilleaf Fritillary Bulb

Latin Pharmaceutical Name

Fritillariae Cirrhosae Bulbus

Chinese Name

川贝母

Category

Roots and rhizomes

Tendrilleaf Fritillary BulbMore Info

Production Regions

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

Macroscopic Features

Song bei is subconical or subspherical, 0.3~0.8cm tall, 0.3~0.9cm diameter. Externally off-white. Outer scale has 2 pieces with disparicy sizes which the bigger one embraced the smaller one, open part is half-moon shape, with closed apex. Inner scale is sub-conical, bud with slightly pointy apex and 2 small scales. Apex is blunt round or slightly pointy; base is flat, slightly indented; center has a grayish-brown bulb, some has remnants of rootlets. Hard and brittle texture; fractured surface is white with powdery. faint odor; slightly bitter taste. Qing bei is flat sub-spherical, 0.4~1.4cm tall, 0.4~1.6cm diameter. 2 pieces outer scales with even size, embrased with open apex. 2~3 inside bud and small scale and thin cylindrical remnants stem. Lu bei is long conical, 0.7~2.5cm tall, 0.5~2.5cm diameter. Externally off-white (bai lu bei) or pale brownish-yellow (huang lu bei), some with brown spots. 2 Outer scale in even size, with opened and slightly pointy apex, with slightly pointy or relatively blunt base.

Quality Requirements

Superior medicinal material is small, whole, white, firm, powdery.

Properties

Sweet, bitter; slightly cold.

Functions

Clears heat, moistens the lung, transforms phlegm, relieves cough. Apply to dry cough due to lung heat, cough with rare phlegm, coughing with asthma due to consumptive disease and yin deficiency, cough phlegm with blood.

Technical Terms

'Embracing the moon’: This refers to the two outer scale leaves of greatly disparate sizes that are seen in song bei. The larger scale leaf embraces the smaller one, leaving a section with the shape of a crescent moon. “Coat of threads”: this refers to the slightly indentation at the base of song bei medicinal material; back spots can be seen in the space, and scars of rootlets remain. ‘Guanyin sitting in a lotus position’: this refers that the flat, slightly indented base of song bei allows it to remain stable and upright, which resembles Guanyin sitting in a lotus position on a lotus flower.

Origin

The dried bulb of Fritillaria cirrhosa D. Don (Liliaceae).

Tendrilleaf Fritillary BulbHerbs in the formula

Antelope Horn and Uncaria Decoction

Action：Cools the liver and extinguishes wind, and increases fluids to relax the sinews.

Indication：Ling Jiao Gou Teng Tang is indicated for a pattern of exuberant heat stirring wind. The symptoms are persistent high fever, irritability, restlessness, twitching and spasms of the extremities, convulsions, coma, a dark red tongue body with a dry tongue coating, or a burnt tongue with prickles, and a wiry, rapid pulse.

View Details Wind-calming formulas

Convulsion-Settling Pill

Action：Removes phlegm and extinguishes wind.

Indication：Ding Xian Wan is applicable to epilepsy caused by wind-phlegm-heat accumulation. The clinical manifestation include a sudden onset of epilepsy, dizziness, falling to the ground, losing consciousness, anoopsia, vomiting white foam, wheezing sound in the throat, yelling, convulsion of the limbs, a whitish-yellow and greasy tongue coating, and a wiry, slippery, and slightly rapid pulse. It can also be used to treat manic-depressive psychosis.

View Details Phlegm-expelling formulas

Sweet Dew Toxin-Removing Elixir

Action：Drains dampness and removes turbidity, clears heat and resolves toxins.

Indication：Gan Lu Xiao Du Dan is indicated for damp-warmth and seasonal epidemic. It is a pattern with equal dampness and heat pathogens in the qi level. The symptoms are fever and fatigue, chest distress and abdominal distension, aching pain of limbs, throat pain, yellow skin and eyes, maxillofacial swelling, thirst, scanty and dark urine, diarrhea, and turbid strangury. The tongue coating may be either white, thick and greasy or yellow and dry. The pulse is either soggy and rapid or slippery and rapid.

View Details Dampclearing formulas