Common Rush Pith or Herba

Primarily produced in the Chinese provinces of Jiangsu, Sichuan, Fujian.

Thin cylindrical, up to 90cm long, 1~3mm diameter; externally white or pale yellowish-white. Observed with magnification, one can see raised thin longitudinal wrinkles and sponge-like thin little holes, slightly lustrous. Light and soft texture, flexible, easily broken when pulled; fractured surface is not smooth, white. faint odor.

Superior medicinal material is long, thick, strong, white, flexible.

Sweet, tasteless; slightly cold.

Disinhibiting diuresis and relieving strangury, clearing heart fire. Apply to strangury, edema, difficulty of urination, oliguria and pain, damp-heat jaundice, insomnia due to vexation, nocturnal fretfulness in infants, throat impediment, sore of mouth and tongue, trauma.