What are the effects and side effects of Bupleurum?

Bupleurum is a very common Chinese medicinal material. It has many functions and is used frequently. However, since many people are not very familiar with the medicinal herb Bupleurum, they will not use it. Only by fully understanding the effects and functions of Chinese herbal medicines can we use them better when we are sick. Next we will introduce the effects, functions and side effects of Bupleurum.

[Synonyms] Silver Hu (Bencao Qiuzhen), mountain vegetable root, mountain horse taxa root (Shandong Chinese Medicine), ox tripe root, adenophora root, white root seed, and wild ginseng (Chinese Materia Medica).

【English Name】Starwort Root

[Origin] This product is the dried root of the dicotyledonous plant Caryophyllaceae, Bupleurum argyi.

【Nature and flavor】Sweet, bitter, cool.

① "Ben Jing Feng Yuan": "Sweet, slightly cold, non-toxic."

② "Medical Collection": "bitter, cold."

③ "Shaanxi Chinese Herbal Medicine": "It tastes sweet and slightly bitter. It is cool in nature."

[entry into meridians]Enters the liver and stomach meridians.

① "Ben Jing Feng Yuan": "It runs through the foot yangming and Shaoyin."

② "Compendium of Materia Medica": "Enters the liver and gallbladder."

【Functions and indications】Clears heat and cools blood. It is used to treat asthenia, bone steaming, yin deficiency, chronic malaria, and malnutrition, fever and emaciation in children.

① "Compendium of Materia Medica": "It can treat fatigue, fever and bone steaming."

② "Compendium of Materia Medica": "It is good for treating fatigue and malnutrition."

③ "Compendium of Materia Medica": "It can treat fatigue, muscle heat, bone steaming, fatigue, malaria, fever from the marrow, and five malnutrition and fever in children."

④ "Medical Collection": "Strengthen kidney water and balance the fire."

⑤ "Compendium of Materia Medica": "It can clear the heat of the lungs, stomach, spleen, and kidneys, and cool the blood. It can treat deficiency of the five internal organs, fatigue and heat of the skin, bone steaming and pain, dampness and stiffness."

⑥ "Xinjiang Chinese Herbal Medicine Handbook": "clears heat and cools blood. Treats hot flashes caused by tuberculosis."

[Usage and Dosage] For oral use: decocted in water, 1 to 3 qian; or made into pills or powder.

[Dos and Don’ts] People with wind-cold and blood deficiency without fever should not take it.

The medicinal part is the root or whole herb of Bupleurum, which tastes bitter, is slightly cold in nature, and enters the liver and kidney meridians. It mainly contains bupleurone, phytosterols, fatty acids and bupleurosaponin. It has the effects of relieving qi, relieving depression and dispersing fire. Bupleurum saponin has the effect of lowering blood lipids.

For patients who take it for a long time, the side effects caused by overdose are more serious. Because it contains anthraquinones, which are irritating to the intestinal mucosa, over time they can cause pathological changes in the intestinal mucosa, clinically known as melanoma coli. Melanoma coli is currently considered a precancerous lesion that can cause colon cancer.

The above introduces the benefits and uses of Bupleurum, as well as some side effects. However, the side effects of Chinese herbal medicine are relatively small compared to Western medicine. Therefore, when conditioning the body, I prefer to choose Chinese medicine. In addition to taking medicine, Chinese medicine conditioning can also use other therapeutic methods of traditional Chinese medicine. There are many choices.