Herb of the Month: Bai Shao - White Peony Root
Chinese: Bai Shao
English: White Peony Root
📚 English - White Peony Root, Peony
💊 Pharmaceutical - Paeoniae Radix Alb
❤️ Meridians - Liver/ Spleen
✨ Category - Tonifying Herbs- Tonify the blood
👅 Taste - Bitter, Sour
☀️ Temperature - Mildly Cold
According to a Chinese proverb “a woman who consumes peony root regularly becomes as beautiful as the peony flower.” For men peony root is reputed to have anti aging effects.
White Peony - is mostly known in the west for the lush, full and abundant flowers that bloom early spring. It is said that the ancient Greek healer Paeos used the roots of the white flowering peony to heal the gods injured during the Trojan wars. Thus, the peony was named after Paeon, the Greek physician of the gods, indicating the high regard in which it is held.
Bai Shao is the perfect spring herb! It has a bitter sour flavor and is cooling in nature. It is beneficial to liver, qi, and blood. In Chinese herbal medicine it is a root that is dried and used in medicinal teas, soups, tinctures. It is always used in conjunction with other herbs: along with licorice, white peony is the other ingredient in well known Chinese herbal formula shao yao gan cao tang, used to relieve muscle cramping and spasm. Dried withe peony root is available through reliable suppliers of chinese herbs.
In China Bai Shao has been used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus, erythematosus, hepatitis, dysmenorrhea, muscle cramping and spasms, and fever for more than 1,200 years.
Functions:
Nourishes Blood, regulates menses
Calms and curbs Liver Yang, stops pain
Preserves the yin and adjusts the nutritive and protective levels
Softens Liver and alleviates pain
Indications:
Menstrual dysfunction, vaginal discharge, and uterine bleeding; lusterless complexion, and dull, lusterless nails
Flank, chest, or abdominal pain; stop painful spasms in the abdomen, stop cramping pain or spasms in the hands and feet, headache, dizziness
Spontaneous sweating, vaginal discharge and spermatorrhea; exterior wind - cold
Contraindications:
Diarrhea due to cold from deficiency
Weak Yang and cold from deficiency
Incompatible with LiLu
Dosage:
6-15g
Pharmacology:
Pharmacology-
Anti bacterial
Analgesic
Anti - inflammatory
Hepatoprotective
Immunostimulant
Sedative and hypnotic
Vasodilator