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Chinese Gall is the gall formed on the leaves of the sumac plant (Rhus chinensis) or related species such as Rhus potaninii by the parasitic insect Chinese Taxillus Herb. It is widely produced in China, mainly in Sichuan. The original plant, Rhus chinensis, is a common sun-loving tree; Rhus potaninii grows in sparse forests or shrubs on sunny slopes or valleys; and Rhus punjabensis grows in shrubs on mountain slopes. It has a sour and astringent taste and a cold nature. It belongs to the lung, large intestine, and kidney meridians. Clinically, it is used to astringe the lungs, reduce fire, astringe the intestines, consolidate essence, stop sweating, and arrest bleeding. The clinical name is Chinese Gall.

bubble_chart Compendium of Materia Medica

Bencao Shiyi: Treats intestinal deficiency with diarrhea and dysentery, taken with hot water.

Bencao Yanyi: For aphthae, apply the powder to the affected area, and it will allow eating and drinking.

Bencao Yanyi Buyi: It belongs to metal and water. Holding it in the mouth is effective in collecting stubborn phlegm and can resolve various heat toxins and aphthae. Applying the powder allows eating and drinking. It is also known as Wen Ge, and its interior often contains many insects, hence it is also called Bai Chong Cang (Hundred Insect Warehouse).

Bencao Gangmu: Astringes the lungs, reduces fire, resolves phlegm, stops cough, treats consumptive thirst, night sweating, vomiting, blood loss, chronic dysentery, red and ulcerated eyes, reduces swelling and toxins, treats pharyngitis, astringes ulcers and incised wounds, and treats prolapse of the rectum and uterine prolapse.

Its sour and salty taste can astringe the lungs, stop bleeding, resolve phlegm, quench thirst, and stop sweating. Its cold nature can disperse heat toxins and reduce swelling. Its astringent nature can treat diarrhea, dysentery, and damp ulceration.

Bencao Jingshu: Chinese Gall obtains wood energy and combines the properties of metal and water. It has a bitter, sour, and astringent taste, a neutral qi, and is non-toxic. It has a thin qi and a thick taste, is astringent, and belongs to yin. It enters the hand Taiyin and foot Yangming meridians. Benjing: It mainly treats tooth decay, wind-dampness sores, and nasal vestibulitis in children, all of which are treated externally. Its bitterness can kill worms, its sour and neutral nature can astringe floating heat, and its dry nature can treat wind-dampness sores, itching, and pus. For hemorrhoids with bleeding, it is due to heat accumulation in the large intestine. The large intestine and lungs are exterior-interior related; when the lungs are astringed and regulated, the large intestine will also be cleared. The Zangqi: Treats intestinal deficiency with diarrhea. Rihuazi: Promotes the production of body fluids and eliminates alcohol toxicity. Shizhen states that it astringes the lungs, reduces fire, resolves phlegm, stops cough, treats consumptive thirst, night sweating, astringes ulcers, incised wounds, and treats prolapse of the rectum and uterine prolapse. All these effects are due to its ability to enter the lungs, clear metal, and astringe and consolidate.

Contraindications: Chinese Gall is dry, urgent, and specializes in astringency. It is contraindicated for coughs caused by external wind-cold, diarrhea and dysentery not due to intestinal deficiency, and coughs due to lung fire excess. If taken mistakenly, it may cause obstruction, fullness, and panting due to its rapid astringency, preventing the release of fire qi.

Bencao Mengquan: Chinese Gall, also known as Wen Ge, has a bitter and sour taste and a neutral qi. It belongs to metal and water and is non-toxic. It treats tooth decay and nasal vestibulitis in children; treats wind-dampness itching and hemorrhoids with bleeding in adults. Boiled in water, it can wash the eyes to reduce redness, swelling, and pain. Ground into powder, it can dye beard and hair, turning white into black. It is a specialized astringent and also stops diarrhea and intestinal deficiency. It resolves consumptive thirst, promotes fluid production, and removes stubborn phlegm and heat.

《Materia Medica Chenya》: Named after the skin, it specializes in the skin outside the bark. The classic says: In summer, the skin is like the abundance of all things. In May and June, yang qi is on the surface, with branches and leaves hanging down like hooks, representing the end of taiyang sinking into the skin and the beginning of taiyin receiving the skin. It imitates yin-yang, forming balls under the leaves, small as millet or foxtail millet, large as water caltrop base peel or chestnut, hence the name Chinese Gall. It borrows wood energy to take shape, with a white membrane inside like a midge, formed by dampness and sensation, naturally occurring without external influence. Thus, it treats lung wind toxins flowing into the skin, face, and nose. The skin is the lung's exterior, and the face and nose are the lung's orifices. For hemorrhoids with bleeding, it is due to lung toxins affecting the large intestine. For tooth decay and nasal vestibulitis, it is due to dry metal diseases, using astringency to moisten. For clearing summerheat, quenching thirst, treating cough, pharyngitis, resolving phlegm, expelling dampness, treating diarrhea, and astringing liver prolapse, it belongs to liver and metal organ disorders. For pediatric hematuria, it is due to the overflow of essential qi, dredging and regulating water passages, and descending to the bladder, relieving metal qi stagnation.

The wood's life is in the bark, each with its own specialization. Some bear fruit, some produce seeds, some have branches and leaves, and some have roots and trunks, each embodying the full utility of the tree. This one specializes solely in the bark. The bark further specializes in the skin, and the skin even more so in the leaf skin's skin seeds. If it invades and affects the skin, it is used to treat invasive skin sores, and its efficacy is sure to surpass that of lead-powder. It does not belong to insect eggs, nor does it belong to fruits; it is a form given by the borrowed qi of wood. Moreover, it generates skin seeds of the leaf skin, which can grow in dampness or transform and grow.

Yaoxing Jie: Bitter and sour in taste, neutral in nature, non-toxic, enters the large intestine meridian. Mainly treats tooth decay, scabies and itching, bloody defecation, hemorrhoids, and children's facial, nasal, oral, and ear sores. Improves vision, promotes salivation, stops diarrhea, and astringes essence. Holding it in the mouth treats aphthae, effectively eliminates stubborn phlegm, and resolves various heat toxins. Chinese gall, made from gallnuts, treats lung distension, wheezing, and cough, and can astringe and descend when melted in the mouth.

Note: The sour and bitter nature of gallnuts specifically astringes the large intestine, and its astringent effect is very rapid. It is not suitable for use in the initial stages of diarrhea and dysentery.

Jingyue Quanshu : It has a sour and astringent taste, slightly cool in nature, capable of astringing and descending. Therefore, it can descend lung fire, resolve phlegm, promote body fluids, and detoxify alcohol. It treats heart and abdominal pain, nocturnal emissions, swelling and throat toxins, stops cough and consumptive thirst, hematemesis, bloody defecation, perianal abscess, chronic diarrhea, and hemorrhoidal bleeding. It resolves parasitic toxins, treats women's flooding and vaginal discharge, uterine prolapse, children's night crying, and rectal prolapse, and can be taken as a powder. If used as a decoction, it can wash red and ulcerated eyes, skin wind-dampness sores, and rectal prolapse. As a powder, it can be applied to incised wounds and fractures to promote muscle growth and astringe toxins.

Bencao Beiyao : Astringent, astringes the lungs.

Salty and sour, its nature is astringent, capable of astringing the lungs; its energy is cold, capable of descending fire. Promotes salivation, resolves phlegm, stops cough and bleeding, astringes sweat. Zheng Zanhuan said: Roast and grind it very finely; mix it with your own gargle water and apply it to the navel to treat night sweating miraculously. Detoxifies alcohol. Treats consumptive thirst, diarrhea, sores, scabies, hemorrhoids, rectal prolapse, pus and ulceration, and uterine prolapse. Dispels heat toxins, reduces eye swelling, and can be used as a wash. Astringes sores. When heat is dispersed, sores will naturally astringe. Its black color can dye beards. Danxi said: Gallnuts belong to metal and water, holding them in the mouth effectively eliminates stubborn phlegm and resolves heat toxins. Evening cough, caused by fire floating in the lungs, should not be treated with cooling medicines; instead, use gallnuts and five flavors to astringe and descend. Yixue Gangmu says: Wang Yuangui suffered from spermatorrhea due to deficiency and was repeatedly given modified Four Ingredients Decoction, swallowed Heyang Mizhen Pill and pearl powder pills without effect. Later, using one liang of Chinese gall and two liang of Poria in pill form cured him. This shows the swift astringent effect of gallnuts, faster than fossil bone and clam shell powder. Ang's note: When using astringent medicines, they must first be able to unblock before they can astringe. This formula uses Poria twice as much as gallnuts, one to purge and one to astringe, thus achieving its full effect. Cough due to external contraction and diarrhea not caused by deficiency collapse should not be treated with this.

Benjing Fengyuan : Sichuan gallnuts effectively eliminate stubborn phlegm and resolve heat toxins. Evening cough, caused by fire floating in the lungs, should not be treated with cooling medicines; instead, use gallnuts and five flavors to astringe and descend. If cough is due to external wind-cold or excessive lung fire, it is contraindicated because it only astringes and does not disperse. Therefore, if mistakenly used for internal phlegm-fluid retention, it can accumulate and astringe internally, often causing distension and death. As a powder, it treats rectal prolapse and uterine prolapse.

Bencao Qiuzhen : [Comment] Internally, it astringes the lungs, purges fire, eliminates heat, stops cough, and secures collapse. Externally, it dispels wind-dampness and kills worms.

Chinese Gall enters the lungs and spleen. According to texts, it is sour and astringent in taste, cold in nature, and can astringe floating heat in the lung meridian, serving as an agent for resolving phlegm, eliminating dampness, reducing fire, and astringing. Wang Ang mentioned that Danxi considered gallnuts to belong to metal and water, and that holding them in the mouth is good for astringing stubborn phlegm and resolving heat toxins. For coughs due to Astragalus Root, where fire floats in the lungs, it is not suitable to use cooling medicines; instead, gallnuts and five flavors should be used to astringe and lower it. Yixue Gangmu states: Wang Yuan was deficient and suffered from spermatorrhea. He was repeatedly given modified Four Ingredients Decoction and took Hejian's Secret True Pill and Pearl Powder Pill, but it did not stop. Later, he used one tael of Chinese Gall and two taels of Poria, made into pills, and was cured. This shows the astringent efficacy of gallnuts, which is more effective than Fossil Bone and Clam Shell Powder. Ang notes that all astringent medicines can first clear and then astringe. This formula uses Poria and gallnuts, one to purge and one to astringe, thus achieving its full effect. It also mentions efficacy against wind-dampness, such as wind-induced itching and red, painful eyes, suggesting it has both astringent and dispersing, ascending and descending properties. When fire floats in the lungs, it manifests everywhere: above, it causes phlegm accumulation, cough, dry mouth, sweating, vomiting, and nosebleeds; below, it leads to diarrhea, hemorrhoids, anal collapse with blood, pus, damp rot, and uterine prolapse; on the skin, it causes wind-induced itching and unhealing sores; in the eyes, it leads to redness, swelling, and nebula. Used internally, it can astringe the lungs to stop coughing, secure collapse, and stop sweating. For spontaneous sweating and night sweating, grind Chinese Gall into powder, mix with saliva, apply to the navel, and bind overnight to stop it. Used externally, it can dispel wind, remove dampness, and kill worms. For all kinds of sores, use Chinese Gall to remove worms and burnt Alum, equal parts ground into powder for application, or mixed with oil if dry. Although it is a single medicine, its treatment varies internally and externally, not just astringing the lungs to treat evening coughs but also floating to the surface to expel external pathogens. Texts caution against its use for external contraction, based on this principle.

Depei Bencao: Salty, sour, cold, astringent. Enters the large intestine meridian qi aspect. Astringes the lungs and stops bleeding, reduces phlegm and stops sweating, relieves diarrhea and heals sores.

When combined with salted plum, it treats hematuria; with smoked plum, it treats persistent dysentery. Paired with Schisandra Fruit, it stops evening cough; with Chastetree Fruit, it treats wind toxin attacking the eyes; with crucian carp, it treats perianal abscess; with alum, it treats bloody defecation. Mixed with buckwheat flour, it treats night sweating; combined with scorpion, it treats otopyorrhea (suppurative otitis media); with red lead, it treats red and ulcerated wind eyes; with wax tea leaf powder, it treats scrotal eczema. Adding a small amount of calomel enhances its effect.

Bencao Fenjing: Sour, astringent, salty, cold. Astringes the lungs and reduces fire, promotes fluid production and resolves phlegm, stops bleeding and reduces sweating. Treats diarrhea and bloody stools, disperses heat toxin, and its astringent effect is more potent than fossil bone and oyster shell.

bubble_chart Modern Pharmacology

1. Chinese Gall has antibacterial properties, with its main antibacterial components located in the cortex, while the boiled liquid from the core has no antibacterial effect.
2. Chinese Gall can precipitate proteins, achieving hemostatic effects, and can also coagulate glandular cell proteins, drying wounds, significantly reducing gastric juice and acid secretion, and has significant therapeutic effects on gastric ulcer bleeding.
3. Chinese Gall has antitumor effects.
4. The flavonoids in Chinese Gall can increase coronary flow and have a certain protective effect on acute myocardial ischemia in rats caused by posterior pituitary extract.
5. Chinese Gall can counteract alkaloid poisoning and can also act as a chemical detoxifying agent.
6. Chinese Gall has antifertility effects.