Gentian is the dried root of the Gentian plant, Ma Hua Gentian, Thick-stemmed Gentian, or Small Gentian from the Chinese Gentian family. The first three types are commonly referred to as "Gentian" and "Ma Hua Jiao" based on their characteristics, while the latter is called "Small Gentian." It is mainly produced in Gansu, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, and Sichuan. The original plant grows in high mountains, grasslands, forest edges, and stream banks at altitudes above 2000 meters. It prefers cool and humid climates, is cold-resistant, and thrives best in deep, fertile, humus-rich soil. It has a pungent and bitter taste, slightly cold in nature, and belongs to the stomach, liver, and gallbladder meridians. Its effects include dispelling wind-dampness, clearing deficiency heat, and relieving arthralgia. The clinical name is Gentian.
bubble_chart Compendium of Materia Medica
Shennong Bencao Jing: Bitter in taste, neutral. It treats cold pathogenic heat, cold-dampness, migratory impediment, limb and joint pain, promotes urination, and facilitates urination.
Mingyi Bielu: Pungent in taste, slightly warm, non-toxic. Treats wind conditions regardless of duration, and relieves general convulsions.
Yaoxing Lun: When taken, it promotes urination and defecation. It alleviates five types of jaundice, detoxifies alcohol, and removes head wind.
Rihuazi Bencao: Bitter and cold in taste. It treats steaming bone fever, malnutrition, and seasonal epidemics.
Kaibao Bencao: Bitter and pungent in taste, neutral to slightly warm, non-toxic. Treats wind conditions regardless of duration, and relieves general convulsions.
Yaolei Faxiang: Treats cold pathogenic heat, cold-dampness migratory impediment, promotes urination, facilitates urination, treats jaundice and steaming bone fever. It also treats lockjaw and bloody defecation.
Yaoxing Fu: Bitter, pungent, and neutral in taste, slightly warm in nature, non-toxic. It can ascend and descend, being yang within yin. Its uses are twofold: it relieves wind-dampness in the limbs and treats jaundice throughout the body.Tangye Bencao: Slightly warm in qi, bitter and pungent in taste, yang within yin.
It is a hand Yangming meridian herb.
Yaolei Faxiang: Treats cold pathogenic heat, wind-dampness impediment, promotes urination, facilitates urination. Treats jaundice and steaming bone fever. Treats lockjaw and bloody defecation. Remove the reed before use.
Zhenzhunang: Relieves toothache and aphtha toxicity in the hand Yangming meridian, removes Benjing wind-dampness.
Shennong Bencao Jing: Acorus is its adjuvant.
Bencao Fahui: Zhang Jiegu states: In addition to its primary functions, Gentian also treats lockjaw and bloody defecation. Zhuzhi Mijue: Neutral in nature, salty in taste. It nourishes blood and strengthens tendons. It is used for apoplexy with limb paralysis, relieves toothache in the hand Yangming meridian, and removes Benjing wind-dampness.
Bencao Gangmu: Gentian is a proven herb for the hand and foot Yangming meridians, also entering the liver and gallbladder. It is essential for treating limb paralysis, jaundice, and thirst, as it removes dampness-heat from the Yangming. Dampness in the Yangming causes body aches and feverishness, while heat causes afternoon tidal fever and steaming bone fever. Therefore, Shenghui Fang treats acute fatigue with fever and body aches using Gentian and Bupleurum (1 liang each) and Liquorice Root (5 qian), ground and taken with hot water. For children with steaming bone fever, tidal fever, reduced appetite, and emaciation, use Gentian and Prepared Liquorice Root (1 liang each), decocted with water. Qian Yi adds Mentha leaves (5 qian).
Treats stomach heat and deficiency fatigue fever.Bencao Jingshu: Gentian is influenced by the autumn metal qi, hence it is bitter and neutral, Bielu also pungent, slightly warm, and non-toxic. Zhang Jiegu: Slightly warm in qi, bitter and pungent in taste, also slightly cold. Yang within yin, can ascend and descend, descending more than ascending. It enters the hand and foot Yangming meridians. Bitter can purge, pungent can disperse, slightly warm can promote flow. Hence, it treats cold pathogenic heat, cold-dampness migratory impediment, limb and joint pain, promotes urination, and facilitates urination. Its nature dispels wind and removes dampness, hence Bielu treats wind conditions regardless of duration, and relieves general convulsions. It can dry dampness and disperse heat accumulation, hence Rihuazi treats steaming bone fever and malnutrition fever. Zhen Quan treats alcoholic jaundice and detoxifies alcohol. Zhang Yuansu removes Yangming wind-dampness, limb paralysis, bloody defecation, nourishes blood, and strengthens tendons. Wang Haogu purges heat and benefits gallbladder qi. All these effects are due to its ability to remove dampness, disperse stagnation, and clear the intestines and stomach.
Contraindications: People with lower body deficiency-cold and incontinence should not take it.
Bencao Mengquan: Bitter and pungent in taste, neutral in qi, slightly warm. Can ascend and descend, yin within yang. Non-toxic. Uses Acorus as a guide, enters the taiyang hand meridian. Nourishes blood and strengthens tendons, relieves migratory impediment and pain in all joints; promotes urination and defecation, disperses jaundice throughout the body like gold. Eliminates head wind, resolves alcohol toxicity. Stops bloody defecation and bleeding, removes steaming bone fever and corpse transmission.
Bencao Chengya: In the human body, the vertical ones are called meridians, the horizontal ones are called collaterals, and the ones that branch off from the collaterals are called minute collaterals. Pathogenic factors in the muscles and skin often enter through the minute collaterals, then affect the collaterals, and subsequently flow into the meridians, gradually transmitting to the internal organs. Gentian has a spiral pattern, intricate like weaving, symbolizing paradoxical treatment.The root has a spiral pattern, and the left-rotating ones are used in medicine, as the natural order rotates to the left, and the vital energy of life follows it. The classics say: Since ancient times, Tongtian is the root of life. Within the heavens and the earth, and within the six directions, the energy of the nine orifices, the five viscera, and the twelve joints all connect with the energy of the heavens. Frequent violation of this leads to pathogenic qi harming the body, internally blocking the nine orifices, externally congesting the muscles, and dispersing the defense qi. Therefore, Benjing uses it to treat cold pathogenic heat qi, or wind-cold-dampness impediment, causing joint water passages to reverse and follow the right rotation of the earth's path, aligning with the celestial movement to turn the jade pivot. Bielu various schools use it to treat bladder colic and pregnant dysuria lockjaw, dim vision and tinnitus, which are internal blockages of the nine orifices. They use it to treat Yongju jaundice, consumptive steaming bone fever, which are external congestions of the muscles. They use it to treat paralysis of the limbs, general convulsions, which are dispersions of the defense qi. If there is no distinction between left and right, the natural order is reversed.
Yaoxing Jie: Gentian, bitter and pungent in taste, slightly warm in nature, non-toxic, enters the stomach, large and small intestine meridians. It primarily treats steaming bone fever, bloody defecation, activates sinew and blood, benefits urination and defecation, eliminates wind-dampness, treats jaundice, resolves alcohol toxicity, and removes head wind. Acorus is its guide. The spiral-patterned ones are the best.
Note: Gentian's bitterness leads to purging and is yin, thus it enters the large and small intestine to treat various dampness conditions; its pungency leads to dispersion and is yang, thus it enters the Yangming meridian to treat various wind conditions. Steaming bone fever is also caused by excessive dampness and wind, and should be treated accordingly.
Yaojian: Slightly warm in qi, bitter and pungent in taste, non-toxic, can ascend and descend, slightly yang within yin. It is a medicine of the Hand Yangming meridian. It treats facial paralysis, lockjaw, bloody defecation, lower tooth swelling and pain, oral sores. It nourishes blood and strengthens sinews, eliminates migratory impediment and joint pain. It promotes urination and defecation, removes jaundice throughout the body. It also removes Benjing wind-dampness, with Acorus as its guide.
Jingyue Quanshu: Bitter in taste, sinking and cold in nature, sinking with a floating aspect, it is a fire-clearing medicine of the Hand and Foot Yangming meridians. It treats wind-cold-dampness impediment, benefits urination, treats general wind-dampness convulsions, paralysis of the limbs, clears jaundice, resolves pestilence heat toxin, removes lockjaw, toothache, aphtha, bloody defecation, and deficiency consumption and bone steaming fever, tidal fever and thirst, as well as fetal heat in women, and infantile malnutrition heat and emaciation.
Bencao Beiyao: Disperses, removes cold-dampness.
Bitter to dry dampness, pungent to disperse wind. Removes heat from the intestines and stomach, benefits the liver and gallbladder, nourishes blood and strengthens sinews. It is a moistening agent among wind medicines, a tonic formula among dispersing medicines. It treats wind-cold-dampness impediment. The classics say: Wind, cold, and dampness combine to form impediment. Wind predominance leads to migratory impediment, cold predominance leads to agonizing arthralgia, dampness predominance leads to fixed arthralgia. Impediment in the bones leads to heavy body, in the vessels leads to blood stagnation, in the sinews leads to convulsions, in the flesh leads to numbness, in the skin leads to cold. General convulsions, blood not nourishing the sinews. Deficiency consumption and bone steaming fever, Li Shizhen said: It is a medicine of the Hand and Foot Yangming meridians, also entering the liver and gallbladder. Yangming with dampness leads to sore and painful limbs with cold and heat, with heat leads to afternoon tidal fever and steaming bone fever. Shenghui Fang treats acute fatigue and vexing heat, Gentian, Bupleurum each one liang, Liquorice Root five qian, made into powder, take three qian each dose; treats infantile steaming bone fever and tidal fever, reduced appetite and emaciation, Gentian, Prepared Liquorice Root each one liang, take one to two qian each dose, Qian Yi adds Mentha five qian. Jaundice, alcohol toxicity, bloody defecation, lockjaw toothache, lower gum belongs to the Hand Yangming large intestine meridian. Zhang Jie-gu said: Gentian can remove lower toothache, and Benjing wind-dampness. Conditions of excessive dampness and wind, benefits urination and defecation. Taken with cow's milk, also treats jaundice, vexing thirst and red urine. Acorus is its guide, fears cow's milk.
Benjing Fengyuan: Gentian is slightly yang within yin, can ascend and descend, enters the Hand and Foot Yangming meridians, as it removes dampness. Also enters the liver and gallbladder, as it treats wind. Therefore, paralysis of the limbs, jaundice, alcohol toxicity, and women's gynecological diseases require it. Yangming with dampness leads to body soreness and pain, limb joint vexing pain, and convulsions and paralysis. With heat leads to afternoon tidal fever, used to expel wind and eliminate dampness then heals. All pains with cold and heat, or swelling, often involve intruding pathogens, use this to dispel wind and drain dampness, making it a suitable formula. Therefore Benjing treats cold pathogenic heat qi, cold-dampness migratory impediment, limb joint pain and other conditions. If long-term pain with deficiency and emaciation, blood and qi cannot nourish the limbs and cause pain, and lower body deficiency cold, soreness and emaciation, with clear urine, are all not suitable for Gentian. Nowadays, mediocre practitioners like to use Gentian, and do not distinguish between left and right patterns. Whenever encountering pain conditions, they readily use it, losing its true purpose.
Bencao Qiuzhen: [Comment] Clears dampness-heat from the intestines and stomach, also dispels wind-evil from the liver and gallbladder, relieves paralysis and alleviates pain.
Gentian specifically enters the stomach and intestines, and also enters the liver and gallbladder. It is more bitter than pungent, with a neutral to slightly warm nature. When a person suffers from common cold wind-cold and dampness, it causes body aches, joint pain, stiffness, and immobility. If wind predominates, it leads to migratory impediment; if cold predominates, it causes agonizing arthralgia; if dampness predominates, it results in fixed arthralgia. When impediment is in the bones, the body feels heavy; when in the vessels, the blood becomes sluggish; when in the tendons, it causes stiffness; when in the muscles, it leads to numbness; and when in the skin, it causes coldness. As for soreness and pain in the hands and feet, with both cold and heat, it is due to dampness in the Yangming channel; steaming bone fever is due to heat in the Yangming channel. Conditions such as jaundice, difficulty in urination, bloody defecation, lockjaw, toothache (upper gums belong to the stomach, lower gums to the large intestine), and wind-dampness toothache can all be attributed to damp-heat and wind in the Yangming channel. Gentian, being more bitter than pungent, dries dampness in the Yangming channel, and its pungency combined with bitterness dispels wind-heat in the liver and gallbladder, making it an effective remedy for dispelling wind and removing dampness. When wind is dispelled, it moistens, hence Gentian is considered a moistening agent among wind-dispelling herbs. When dampness is removed, it tonifies, hence Gentian is also a tonic among dispersing herbs. Shenghui Fang For treating acute fatigue with irritability and body aches, use Gentian and Bupleurum, one liang each, and Liquorice Root, five qian, ground into powder. Take three qian each time, mixed with hot water. For treating children with steaming bone fever, reduced appetite, and emaciation, use Gentian and Prepared Liquorice Root, one liang each, and take one to two qian each time, decocted with water, adding five qian of Mentha leaves.
However, for chronic pain with deficiency and emaciation, lack of nourishment in blood and qi, coldness in the lower body, soreness, and emaciation with frequent urination, it is not suitable.
Depei Bencao : Acorus is its adjuvant. It is incompatible with cow's milk.
Pungent, bitter, and warm. It enters the qi aspect of the Yangming channels of the hands and feet. It dispels wind-dampness and agonizing arthralgia, treats jaundice and alcohol toxicity, relaxes tendons, and nourishes blood. All these are due to its dampness-removing properties.
Combined with Cassia Bark, it treats postpartum apoplexy; with cow's milk, it treats cold-damage disease with irritability and thirst, as well as early-stage back gangrene, and five types of jaundice. One type is caused by mistakenly eating feces, leading to yellowing, excessive phlegm, red veins in the eyes, a haggard appearance, red face, and nausea. Combined with Donkey-hide Gelatin and Mugwort, it treats threatened abortion. Combined with Bupleurum, it treats wind-dampness steaming bone fever. Wind entering the bones causes heat.
It is contraindicated in cases of kidney deficiency with frequent urination and blood deficiency with tendon pain.
Benjing Shuzheng : Gentian primarily treats cold pathogenic heat, cold-dampness migratory impediment, and can address all six excesses, except for dryness. Its effects are indeed broad! This passage should be read as primarily treating cold pathogenic heat with diuresis and promoting urination, and also primarily treating cold-dampness migratory impediment with joint pain, diuresis, and promoting urination. Only cold pathogenic heat qi pattern that can be treated with diuresis and promoting urination are rare, and cold-dampness migratory impediment with joint pain that can be treated with diuresis and promoting urination is also rare. The efficacy of Gentian is not particularly broad, but it must be sought in these two syndromes for cases where diuresis and promoting urination can cure, and then the use of Gentian becomes clear, which requires careful consideration. Moreover, diuresis and promoting urination should not be viewed as a single process, as what Gentian primarily treats is indeed numerous and significant. All plants with short stems and long roots can draw yang to yin and condense yang within yin, as seen with Milkwort Root. However, the former is related to the spirit and mind, while the latter is related to the six excesses. Those related to the spirit and mind draw fire to water, making the essence active; those related to the six excesses transform pathogens in water, making urination smooth. Only by recognizing that there is water that can transform pathogens, and that these pathogens can be transformed by water, and that there is urine that can discharge water, and that this water can be discharged with urine, can the use of Gentian be accurate. However, for cold pathogens, even if there is water qi, it can only transform water through cold transformation, and cannot turn cold into water, as seen in Minor Green-Blue Dragon Decoction syndrome and True Warrior Decoction syndrome. When wind-cold and dampness combine to form impediment, even if there is water qi, it can only be discharged through warming, and cannot be transformed into water and discharged, as seen in White Atractylodes and Aconite Decoction syndrome, Liquorice and Aconite Decoction syndrome, and Cinnamon Twig and Aconite Decoction syndrome. Only when cold pathogens have already clashed with heat, and the two are in a stalemate, with water stagnation in the middle, is the tendency to transform into water, and when impediment has lasted for a long time, only affecting the exterior and not the interior, should it be combined and purged, even if urination is difficult, it will naturally be discharged. Otherwise, under cold pathogenic heat, why not associate it with other syndromes, and joint pain is also inherent in cold-dampness migratory impediment, why associate these three statements with it? Especially in cases of general stiffness, there is no need to consider its duration, as cold-dampness wind qi has already spread throughout the body, connecting with the interior, and thus should not wait until only joint pain occurs before using Gentian, as Gentian originally has a dense network that covers the entire body. Later generations used it to treat jaundice, which is clear evidence of water within cold pathogenic heat. Using it to treat irritability and thirst is definitive proof of heat within cold-dampness migratory impediment.
Bencao Xinbian: Bitter and pungent in taste, neutral to slightly warm in nature, it can ascend or descend, being yin within yang, and is non-toxic. It enters the large intestine meridian. It nourishes blood and strengthens tendons, promotes the movement of the limbs, can stop various pains, facilitates bowel movements and diuresis, and disperses jaundice. It also stops head wind, relieves alcohol toxicity, and treats bloody defecation and bleeding. However, it slightly tonifies blood and is ultimately not a sovereign medicinal. Previous generations claimed it could eliminate steaming bone fever and corpse transmission, but this is something I dare not believe.
Someone asked about Gentian as a remedy for dispersing wind and evil, which predecessors claimed could treat steaming bone fever and consumptive disease, but I dare not believe it, leaving me half in doubt and half in belief. Please enlighten me. The answer is: steaming bone fever is a precursor to pulmonary tuberculosis, where there is a lack of genuine yin fluid to nourish the bones, hence the fever at night but not during the day. Moreover, when there is fever at night, the heat is deep within the bones, and the skin's heat is relatively mild. This is not due to external evil invasion, nor is it evil entering the kidneys, but rather an internal emptiness of essence. Drastic tonification of genuine yin is necessary, with a small addition of ingredients to reduce yin fire, to achieve effectiveness. Gentian can only disperse internal wind; since the disease is not caused by wind, using it would only increase internal heat. Consumptive disease is a fully developed pulmonary tuberculosis, where internal corpse worms consume a person's essence and blood, leading to incessant cough. Even daily tonifying of yin is difficult, let alone adding Gentian, which disperses wind and promotes diuresis, thereby exacerbating the deficiency. This is why I dare not believe it, and why heaven's purgation should also believe my words.
Bencao Fenjing : Drying dampness, dispersing wind, activating blood, removing dampness-heat from the intestines and stomach, soothing liver and gallbladder stagnation, treating all conditions of excessive dampness and wind.
bubble_chart Modern Pharmacology
- Gentian alkaloid A has significant inhibitory effects on formaldehyde-induced arthritis, acute foot swelling caused by egg white, and increased capillary permeability, with the anti-inflammatory effect of thick-stemmed Gentian being stronger.
- Gentian alkaloid A has anti-allergic effects.
- Gentian and Gentian alkaloid A have significant sedative effects at small doses; at large doses, they excite the central nervous system, eventually leading to paralysis and death. Gentian alkaloid A also has analgesic effects.
- Gentian alkaloid A can significantly lower blood pressure.
- Gentian alkaloid A has the effect of raising blood sugar, but this effect completely disappears after bilateral adrenalectomy.
- The ethanol extract of Gentian inhibits various bacilli, cocci, and Vibrio cholerae, and its water extract also inhibits Trichophyton violaceum, Trichophyton concentricum, and dermatophytes.
- The Chinese Gentian bitter glycoside in Gentian has inhibitory and killing effects on malaria parasites and can promote the secretion of gastric juice and hydrochloric acid.