Coral-Bean Bark is the dried bark of the Erythrina plant from the legume family. It is mainly produced in Guangxi, Yunnan, Fujian, Hubei, and other regions. It has a bitter and pungent taste, and a neutral nature. It belongs to the liver meridian. Its efficacy includes dispelling wind-dampness and unblocking meridians. The clinical name is Coral-Bean Bark.
bubble_chart Compendium of Materia Medica
《Haijiao Materia Medica》: It tastes bitter, is warm in nature, and non-toxic. It is used to treat paralysis of the waist and legs, obstinate impediment, pain in the legs and knees, cholera, red and white dysentery, bloody dysentery, scabies, and tinea.
Rihuazi Bencao: Warm, it treats numbness and pain in the blood vessels, as well as red eyes, used in decoction for washing.
Bencao Tujing: Ancient prescriptions often used it soaked in wine to treat wind-induced collapse. Wang Shaoyan, the governor of Nan Tang's Junzhou, in his continuation of Chuanxin Fang said: In recent years, I suffered from unbearable pain in the waist and knees in Gushu, and no medicine could cure the kidney wind toxin attacking me. Upon reading Liu Yuxi's Chuanxin Fang, I found this effective prescription. After taking one dose, the pain was reduced by half. The prescription uses two taels of Coral-Bean Bark, one tael each of Achyranthes Root, Sichuan Lovage Rhizome, Notopterygium, Chinese Wolfberry Root-bark, and Acanthopanax Bark, five qian of Liquorice Root, two taels of Coix Seed, and ten taels of Unprocessed Rehmannia Root, all cleaned, dried, and chopped, wrapped in cotton, and soaked in two dou of ash-free wine for two weeks in winter and one week in summer. Drink one cup on an empty stomach, morning, noon, and evening, to induce a slight intoxication. This prescription must not be altered.
Bencao Gangmu: Coral-Bean Bark can move through the meridians and reach the affected area. It also enters the blood aspect and dispels wind and kills worms.Bitter and neutral, non-toxic. Dispels wind and kills worms. Used in decoction to wash red eyes.
Bencao Jingshu: Coral-Bean Bark is born from the yin qi within wood, Benjing it tastes bitter, is neutral in nature, and non-toxic. However, upon detailed use, it should also have a pungent taste. It is thin in qi and thick in taste, yang within yin. It enters the foot Taiyin and Yangming meridians. When these two meridians are deficient, external pathogens easily invade, causing cholera attack of noxious factors, which the pungent taste disperses. Dampness-heat invading internally causes gan disease, chronic dysentery, which the bitter taste purges. Also, the spleen and stomach govern the muscles, dampness-heat soaking leads to worm infestation and scabies, the bitter taste kills worms, and the neutral nature slightly cold, dispels dampness-heat and removes scabies. Its use in rinsing teeth and washing eyes also takes advantage of its bitter and cold properties to kill worms and its pungent and neutral nature to disperse wind-heat. Li Xun used it to treat paralysis of the waist and legs, obstinate impediment of the blood vessels, and pain in the legs and knees, undoubtedly a bitter and pungent formula.
Caution: Lumbago not caused by wind-dampness should not be treated with it.
Bencao Mengquan: It tastes bitter and is neutral in nature. Non-toxic. It treats cholera, red and white chronic dysentery, and removes gan disease, scabies, tinea, and tooth worms. Soaked in wine, it has special efficacy in treating wind-induced collapse; soaked in water, it is effective in washing red eyes.
Bencao Beiyao: It disperses and dispels wind-dampness.Bitter and warm, as stated in the "Jingshu": It should also be pungent. It enters the blood aspect. Dispels wind, removes dampness, and kills worms, able to move through the meridians to reach the affected area. Treats wind-induced collapse and obstinate impediment. Pain in the waist and knees, Chuanxin Fang: Two taels each of Erythrina bark and Coix Seed, two taels each of Sichuan Lovage Rhizome, Notopterygium, Chinese Wolfberry Root-bark, and Acanthopanax Bark, five qian of Liquorice Root, seven taels of Unprocessed Rehmannia Root, soaked in two dou of wine. This prescription must not be altered, drink in the morning, noon, and evening, always inducing slight intoxication. Gan disease, scabies, tinea, red eyes, used in decoction for washing. Tooth worms. Take in decoction or gargle.
Benjing Fengyuan: Coral-Bean Bark can move through the meridians to reach the affected area, treating wind-dampness, paralysis of the waist and legs, obstinate impediment of the blood vessels, pain in the legs and knees, red and white dysentery, and dispels wind and kills worms. For toothache caused by wind, rinse with decoction. For gan disease, scabies, and tinea, apply ground juice. For red eyes and skin nebula, wash with soaked water. This medicine specifically dispels wind-dampness, used according to symptoms in prescriptions, do not use if there is no wind-dampness.
Bencao Qiuzhen: Coral-Bean Bark specifically enters the liver. Pungent, bitter, and warm, it can enter the liver's blood aspect, dispelling wind, removing dampness, and traveling through the meridians directly to the affected area. Therefore, it can treat pain in the waist, knees, and feet. The waist is the house of the kidneys; if it cannot turn or rotate, the kidneys are becoming exhausted. The knees are the houses of the tendons; if they cannot bend or stretch, and walking becomes hunched, the tendons are becoming exhausted. Beriberi without swelling is dry beriberi, while beriberi with swelling is damp beriberi. It can stop red and white dysentery; for toothache caused by worms or wind, rinsing with a decoction can cure it; for scabies and sores, applying ground juice can eliminate them; for red eyes and skin nebula, washing with soaked water can reduce them. All of these effects are due to its ability to dispel wind and dissipate dampness. Users must carefully consider whether the disease originates externally before using it. If the wind originates internally, it should not be used recklessly, and treatment should be adjusted according to the symptoms.
Depei Bencao: Bitter, neutral. Enters the blood aspect, circulates through the meridians, reaches the affected area, dispels wind-dampness, and kills various parasites.When combined with Cnidium Fruit, it treats ringworm parasites.
Contraindicated for those with blood deficiency and intense fire.
Bencao Fenjing: Bitter, neutral. Enters the blood aspect, dispels wind, removes dampness, kills worms, circulates through the meridians to reach the affected area, and treats dental parasites, ringworm, and scabies.
bubble_chart Modern Pharmacology
- Coral-Bean Bark has analgesic and sedative effects.
- The water extract of Coral-Bean Bark (1:3) inhibits various pathogenic fungi and dermatophytes to varying degrees.
- Coral-Bean Bark decoction significantly antagonizes the contraction of intestinal tubes caused by Ach.