Neopicrorhiza is the root of the plant Neopicrorhiza from the Scrophularia Root family. It is mainly produced in Yunnan, Tibet, and other regions. The original plant thrives in cool, moist, and fertile alpine grasslands. It has a bitter taste and a cold nature. It belongs to the heart, liver, stomach, and large intestine meridians. Its effects include reducing deficient heat, eliminating fever in infantile malnutrition, and clearing dampness-heat. The clinical name is Neopicrorhiza.

bubble_chart Compendium of Materia Medica

Kaibao Bencao: It has a bitter taste, is neutral in nature, and is non-toxic. It primarily treats chronic dysentery leading to malnutrition, cold-damage disease cough, warm malaria with bone heat, regulates the waist and kidneys, eliminates yin sweating, treats infantile fright epilepsy with cold and heat, poor appetite, and cholera with diarrhea.

Bencao Jingshu: Neopicrorhiza possesses the pure and cold energy of heaven and earth, hence its extremely bitter taste and Great Cold (24th solar term) nature, yet it is non-toxic. It excels at removing dampness-heat, thus treating chronic dysentery leading to malnutrition, as well as cold and heat diarrhea, and strengthening the intestines and stomach. Cold-damage disease cough is caused by pathogenic heat in the hand Taiyin and foot Yangming meridians. Warm malaria with steaming bone fever indicates heat within the bones. Regulating the waist and kidneys and eliminating yin sweating is due to kidney deficiency with dampness-heat

Neopicrorhiza is bitter and cold in nature, descending and strongly eliminating pathogenic heat from the zang-fu organs and bone marrow. It is a potent remedy for clearing fetal steaming in women and heat accumulation and qi stagnation in children. When combined with Smoked Plum, it stops bloody dysentery in children. When paired with chicken liver, it treats malnutrition involving the eye (keratomalacia) in children. When used with pig pancreas, it heals syphilitic skin lesions. When combined with Dried Ginger, it treats food stagnation, all by eliminating liver and kidney heat. Children have strong kidney qi, so they can tolerate this treatment. However, if taken by those with deficiencies in the spleen, stomach, or kidneys, it can deplete innate vitality and cause significant harm. Only for syphilitic sores, Neopicrorhiza, Chinese Angelica, Liquorice Root, and pig pancreas, decocted with wine and taken orally, show remarkable efficacy in two doses, as they directly reach the lower energizer and effectively expel toxic damp-heat.

Neopicrorhiza specifically enters zang-fu organs bone marrow. Originating from Persia, it is also found in Qinlong and the South China Sea recently, with similar properties and functions to Coptis Rhizome, hence the shared name. However, this herb specifically targets the lower body, greatly reducing zang-fu organs bone marrow excessive fire pathogenic heat. It can treat bone marrow consumptive disease heat, five-center vexing heat, triple wasting and five hemorrhoids, warm malaria diarrhea, malignant toxins, and other conditions. The classics say: when heart heat transfers to the lungs, it causes upper consumptive thirst, which is a condition of thirst and excessive drinking due to upper consumptive thirst lung heat. It also says: two yang constipation leads to wasting, which is a condition of excessive eating and frequent hunger due to middle consumptive thirst stomach heat. Thirst with frequent urination and turbid urine is lower consumptive thirst kidney heat. According to the classics, hemorrhoids are caused by overeating, Jingmai transverse damage, and dysentery leading to hemorrhoids. It also says that the Governor Vessel disease causes hemorrhoids and fistula disease. According to texts, hemorrhoids are divided into female hemorrhoids, male hemorrhoids, qi hemorrhoids, intestinal hemorrhoids, and blood hemorrhoids, all caused by dampness-heat flowing downward and damaging the blood aspect, with no outlet, thus pressing on the anus and causing hemorrhoid swelling. Therefore, it is used with pig pancreas to treat Chinese wax myrtle bark malignant sores; with dried ginger to treat infantile food accumulation; with chicken liver to treat infantile malnutrition involving eye (keratomalacia); with smoked plum to treat infantile bloody dysentery; with liquorice root and pig pancreas to treat mold sores, and also to treat women's fetal steaming, with similar but slightly different effects compared to Coptis Rhizome. However, it is contraindicated in children with kidney deficiency and deficiency-cold of spleen and stomach.

Very bitter, Great Cold (24th solar term). Enters the foot Jueyin and Shaoyin meridians' blood aspect. Greatly reduces zang-fu organs pathogenic heat, effectively searches for and eliminates excessive fire and nest toxins. Reduces food accumulation, treats diarrhea, reduces fetal steaming, eliminates warm malaria, treats infantile night sweating and malnutrition involving the heart, and adult cold-damage disease cough.

Combined with Sichuan Coptis and Cinnabar, it treats gan heat cholera; combined with goose bile and egg white, it is applied topically to treat unbearable hemorrhoid swelling and pain. Combined with Gardenia and pig bile, it treats cold-damage disease overfatigue relapse; combined with Smoked Plum and stove soil, it treats bloody dysentery; combined with Coptis Rhizome as powder, using a cucumber with the pulp removed and the lid retained, the medicine is placed inside, wrapped in dough, roasted until cooked, the dough removed, and pounded into pills the size of mung beans. The dosage is adjusted according to the child's size and taken with warm water to treat infantile jaundice. Combined with pig pancreas, Chinese Angelica, and Liquorice Root, it treats mold sores.

Strange condition: ten fingers broken and decayed, only tendons connected, no joint flesh, worms emerging like lamp wicks, over a foot long, with green hair curling all over the body, this is called blood remnant. Taken with Neopicrorhiza and Red Poria decoction.

Bencao Fenjing: Properties and functions similar to Coptis Rhizome, treats infantile tidal fever, five gan, and detoxifies smoking poison.

1. Neopicrorhiza has liver-protective and bile-promoting effects. Neopicrorhiza glycoside II has a protective effect on mice with carbon tetrachloride-induced liver toxicity and promotes bile secretion in rats.
2. Neopicrorhiza has anti-inflammatory effects.
3. Neopicrorhiza has antifungal effects. Its water extract inhibits various skin fungi such as Trichophyton violaceum, Trichophyton concentricum, and Trichophyton gypsum to varying degrees in vitro.
4. Neopicrorhiza's effect on smooth muscle: the contained vanillacetone contracts rabbit ileum and rat uterus, and antagonizes spasms induced by various spasmogens in guinea pig ileum and mouse uterus. The glycoside part of Neopicrorhiza protects against the reduced sensitivity of guinea pig bronchi dilation caused by long-term isoproterenol administration, and when combined with isoproterenol, it significantly reduces the bronchoconstrictive effect of histamine phosphate in guinea pigs.