What are China's nine great immortal herbs? Let us expand your knowledge
Compendium of Materia Medica
Still Fantasy
Jay Chou
00:00/03:29
When it comes to immortal herbs, perhaps everyone only knows about things like He Shou Wu and reishi mushroom. In fact, there are nine great immortal herbs in Chinese history, and it is said that these nine great immortal herbs can truly bring the dead back to life. Today what I want to share is an article about the ranking of China's nine great immortal herbs. Let us take a look together. The name "nine great immortal herbs" comes from the Taoist classic "Daozang" from the Kaiyuan era of the Tang Dynasty. The Taoist classic "Daozang" lists Dendrobium officinale, Tianshan snow lotus, three-liang ginseng, one-hundred-and-twenty-year He Shou Wu, sixty-year Poria cocos, deep-mountain reishi, sea pearl, Chinese caterpillar fungus, and others as China's nine great "immortal herbs."
The biological habits of Dendrobium officinale are mysterious and unfathomable. It grows in the shady places of steep cliffs, and the ancients often collected it by hanging ropes down cliff faces or shooting arrows. Dendrobium officinale is year-round nourished by the spiritual essence of heaven and earth and absorbs the essence of the sun and moon, making it a supreme health tonic. More than a thousand years ago, in the Taoist medical classic "Daozang" from the Kaiyuan era of the Tang Dynasty, Dendrobium officinale was listed as the first of China's nine great immortal herbs.
Dendrobium officinale (black-node grass) is the most economically valuable species among Dendrobium plants at present. Its uses are mainly medicinal and for health products. The products produced include "Dendrobium officinale fengdou," with an international market price of 1,300-3,600 USD per kilogram ("dragon-head phoenix-tail type" Dendrobium officinale fengdou), Dendrobium officinale fengdou crystals (a health beverage), Dendrobium officinale fengdou capsules, and Yangyin Yiqi capsules.
In medicinal use, Dendrobium officinale has the effects of promoting body fluid production, quenching thirst, relieving pain, and eliminating edema. It mainly treats febrile disease with yin deficiency, blurred vision, weak stomach, hoarseness, diabetes, acute and chronic pharyngitis, chronic bronchitis, tuberculosis, chronic liver disease, chronic atrophic gastritis, low immune function, fatigue syndrome, and other diseases. It has a special therapeutic effect on vocal cord fatigue and restoring a beautiful voice, and has important development and cultivation value.
Dendrobium officinale
Tianshan snow lotus, also known as "snow lotus," is called "Tag Yilisi" in the local Uyghur language. It is a perennial herbaceous plant of the genus Saussurea in the Asteraceae family. It is a rare and precious Chinese herbal medicine unique to Xinjiang; it grows on cliff faces and in ice-scoured rock crevices at an altitude of about 4,000 m in the Tianshan Mountains; the climate there is extremely cold, with snow that does not melt all year round, and ordinary plants simply cannot survive there, yet snow lotus can brave frost and snow and grow tenaciously in severe cold of dozens of degrees below zero and in an oxygen-poor environment with thin air.
This unique survival habit and distinctive growing environment make it naturally rare and create its unique pharmacological effects and magical medicinal value - snow lotus roots, stems, and leaves are rich in alkaloids, flavonoids, volatile oils, lactones, steroids, polysaccharides, and reducing substances, while its flower buds are even richer in trace elements and amino acids, and it has effects such as activating blood and unblocking collaterals, dispelling cold and removing dampness, and nourishing yin and strengthening yang, and can treat all cold syndromes. People revere snow lotus as the "king of a hundred herbs" and the "supreme among medicines."
Tianshan snow lotus
Ginseng likes shady, damp, cool climates and has strong cold resistance. It is a Tertiary relict plant and also a precious Chinese medicinal material, famous at home and abroad as the first of the "three treasures of the Northeast," and it has a long history of medicinal use in our country. Li Shizhen of the Ming Dynasty recorded in the "Compendium of Materia Medica": "Ginseng can treat all deficiency syndromes in men and women, spontaneous sweating and dizziness, headache and nausea, blockage syndromes, chronic diarrhea and long-standing dysentery, frequent urination, strangury and fatigue, internal injury and stroke, heatstroke and paralysis and fistula, vomiting blood, coughing blood, blood in the stool, bloody strangury, uterine bleeding, and all diseases before and after childbirth."
In modern traditional Chinese medicine, ginseng is commonly used to tonify qi and rescue from collapse, enrich blood and restore the pulse, nourish the heart and calm the spirit, promote body fluid production and quench thirst, tonify the lungs and relieve asthma, strengthen the spleen and stop diarrhea, and draw out toxins and heal sores. Three-liang ginseng is said to have the effect of bringing the dead back to life.
Ginseng
Tonifies the liver and kidneys, enriches essence and blood, and strengthens tendons and bones. Using He Shou Wu can improve signs of aging in older adults, such as white hair, tooth loss, and age spots, and can promote the improvement of human immunity and inhibit the deposition of "lipofuscin," which can make people age, in the body's organs.
He Shou Wu can also dilate the coronary arteries of the heart, lower blood lipids, and promote the production of red blood cells, so it has preventive effects on coronary heart disease, hyperlipidemia, anemia in older adults, brain decline, signs of premature aging, and others. One-hundred-and-twenty-year He Shou Wu is even said to have the effect of restoring youth.
Hundred-year He Shou Wu
Poria cocos is a fungal plant parasitic on pine roots. Its shape resembles sweet potato, with a dark brown outer skin and a white or pink interior. It is used as medicine in traditional Chinese medicine and has diuretic and sedative effects.
Functions and indications: drains dampness and promotes urination, benefits the spleen and harmonizes the stomach, and calms the heart and soothes the spirit. Treats difficult urination, edema and distention, phlegm-fluid cough and counterflow, vomiting and retching, diarrhea, spermatorrhea, strangury and turbidity, palpitations, and forgetfulness.
Sixty-year Poria cocos
Since ancient times, reishi has been considered a symbol of auspiciousness, wealth, beauty, and longevity. It is known as the "immortal herb" and "auspicious herb," and traditional Chinese medicine has long regarded it as a precious Chinese herbal medicine for nourishing and strengthening the body and supporting the vital foundation. Folk legends say reishi has the effects of bringing the dead back to life and granting immortality.
The "Shennong Bencao Jing" from the Eastern Han period and the "Compendium of Materia Medica" by the famous Ming Dynasty physician and pharmacologist Li Shizhen both contain detailed and extremely affirmative records of reishi's effects. Modern medicine proves that reishi has a bidirectional regulatory effect on the human body, and the diseases it treats involve the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular, digestive, nervous, endocrine, respiratory, motor, and other systems, with particularly notable preventive and therapeutic effects on tumors, liver lesions, insomnia, and aging.
Modern pharmacology and clinical practice have further confirmed reishi's pharmacological effects, and have confirmed that reishi polysaccharides are the main component by which reishi supports the vital foundation, nourishes and strengthens the body, and prolongs life.
Deep-mountain reishi
Pearl is an organic gemstone and has been regarded by people as a rare treasure since ancient times. According to research in geology and archaeology, pearls already existed on Earth 200 million years ago. Our country is one of the earliest countries in the world to use pearls.
As early as more than 4,000 years ago, pearls were already treasures in our country's imperial court. The "Mingyi Bielu" from the Wei and Jin periods listed pearls as an important medicinal material for treating diseases and explained the medicinal effects of pearls. In the "Rihuazi Bencao," it is recorded that pearls "calm the heart and brighten the eyes." The "Bencao Yanyi" says: "Removes convulsive heat in children." The "Bencao Huiyan" says: "Calms the heart, stabilizes the will, soothes the soul, resolves toxin accumulation, transforms malignant sores, and closes internally ulcerated wounds." In "Huainanzi" by Liu An of the Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago, it is recorded: "The pearl of the bright moon is the disease of snails and mussels and our benefit."
Sea pearl
Chinese caterpillar fungus, also called winter worm summer grass or cordyceps, is a complex of the stroma of the fungus Cordyceps sinensis of the family Clavicipitaceae parasitizing the larvae of insects of the family Hepialidae and the larval corpse.
Chinese caterpillar fungus mainly grows on high-altitude forest meadows or lawns; due to soil conditions, Chinese caterpillar fungus growing on forest meadows is mainly dark yellow-brown in color, while Chinese caterpillar fungus growing on grasslands is mainly yellow-brown; the former is mostly produced in Sichuan, Yunnan, and Gansu, and the latter is mostly produced in Tibet, China, and Qinghai.
Chinese caterpillar fungus is a traditional precious tonic Chinese medicinal material, listed together with natural ginseng and deer antler as the three great tonics. Its medicinal nature is mild, and it can be eaten in all four seasons. It is suitable for the old, the young, the sick, the weak, and the deficient, and has broader medicinal value than other types of tonics.
Chinese caterpillar fungus
Cistanche, also known as Dayun, is mainly produced in the Alxa League of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Traditional Chinese medicine calls it earth essence or golden bamboo shoot. It is an extremely precious Chinese medicinal material and has long been known as the "desert ginseng." Historically, it was used by various countries of the Western Regions as a precious tribute to the imperial court. Cistanche has a long history of medicinal use. It is sweet and warm in nature, salty and moist in quality, and has the characteristics of tonifying yang without dryness, warming and unblocking kidney yang and tonifying kidney deficiency; and tonifying yin without cloying, moistening the intestines and freeing the bowels to treat constipation. It is precisely because its tonic nature is gentle that it is called Cistanche (cong rong, meaning unhurried).
In recent years, the medical field has used modern scientific methods to conduct laboratory analysis of Cistanche. The results show that Cistanche contains trace alkaloids and crystalline neutral substances, and indeed has the effects of treating cold pain in the lower back and knees, female infertility, neurasthenia, and hearing loss. It also has the effect of lowering blood pressure, and can be used as a hemostatic medicine for cystitis, bladder bleeding, and kidney bleeding.
Cistanche
Knowledge supplement:
What is immortal herb: immortal herb, also known as immortal grass or grass jelly herb, is an annual herbaceous perennial-root plant. Planting it once can provide benefits for many years. It can reach 100 cm in height; the leaves are opposite, and it blooms in late autumn. It grows along ditches and in clumps of grass in dry sandy land.
The verticillaster inflorescences are arranged in a terminal raceme-like form 2-8 cm long; the corolla is white or slightly red, 3-3.5 mm long, the upper lip broad with 4 teeth, the middle 2 teeth inconspicuous, and the lower lip boat-shaped. It has the function of clearing summer heat and relieving fever and diuresis.
The dietary therapy value of immortal herb
Mainly treats heatstroke, heat toxin, diabetes-like thirst, high blood pressure, kidney disease, diabetes, joint and muscle pain, gonorrhea, acute rheumatic arthritis, colds, jaundice, acute nephritis, diarrhea, dysentery, and others.
The effects and functions of immortal herb
Family: Lamiaceae Labiatae
Scientific name: Mesona Procumbens Hemslev(Mesona ChinensisBenTH)
Aliases: immortal herb uncle, immortal grass, immortal jelly, grass jelly herb.
Morphological characteristics: annual or overwintering herbaceous plant. Stems square, brown or with purplish red, pubescent. Leaves opposite, each leaf ovate to oblong-elliptic, serrate margins, with short petioles. Blooms in autumn with pale purple flowers, verticillaster inflorescences arranged in racemes, terminal or axillary. Achenes small, obovate.
Harvest period: collect the whole plant between summer and autumn, wash clean, and dry in the sun.
Used part: whole plant.
Nature, flavor, and meridian entry: sweet and bland in flavor, cool in nature. Enters the spleen and kidney meridians.
Effects: clears summer heat and relieves fever, clears heat and drains dampness.
Actions: diabetes-like thirst, high blood pressure, heatstroke, colds, muscle pain, joint pain, kidney disease, heat toxin in the viscera, venereal disease.
Usage and dosage: 18.8-112.5 grams, decocted in water.
Caution for use: do not use for those with wind-cold colds.
Growth habits: grows naturally in plains and at the foot of mountains, mostly cultivated as a raw material for herbal tea.
Applications of Kampo formulas:
1. High blood pressure
Kampo formula: immortal herb 75.0 grams, water celery 75.0 grams, bitter melon root 75.0 grams, rock sugar 37.5 grams.
Usage: decoct 8 bowls of water down to 3 bowls, add rock sugar and stew until dissolved, then divide into 3 doses.
Kampo formula: immortal herb 75.0 grams, Shi Yao 75.0 grams, Han Ke Cao 18.8 grams.
Usage: 6 bowls of water, decoct to 2 bowls, divide into 2 doses.
2. Hundred-herb tea
Kampo formula: immortal herb 37.5 grams, Huanghua Mi Cai 37.5 grams, Fengwei Cao 37.5 grams, Shibi Huang 18.8 grams, Paozai Cao 18.8 grams, appropriate amount of rock sugar (or add Jiuceng Ta 37.5 grams)
Usage: decoct 10 bowls of water down to 5 bowls, remove the residue, add rock sugar and dissolve, then put it in the refrigerator and drink it ice-cold as herbal tea.
Kampo formula: immortal herb 37.5 grams, Huanghua Mi Cai 37.5 grams, Xianfeng Cao 37.5 grams, Da Ben Qi Ceng Ta 37.5 grams, Fengwei Cao 18.8 grams, mulberry twig 18.8 grams.
Usage: 8 bowls of water, after bringing to a boil, simmer over low heat for 1 hour, remove the residue, add rock sugar and dissolve, let cool, put it in the refrigerator to chill, and drink as herbal tea.
3. Diabetes-like thirst, high blood pressure, obesity
Kampo formula: immortal herb 37.5 grams, Xianfeng Cao 37.5 grams, stevia 6-10 leaves
Usage: 5 bowls of water, decoct to 2 bowls, divide into 2 doses.
4. Asthma in older adults
Kampo formula: immortal herb 30.0 grams, mulberry leaf 11.3 grams, loquat leaf 11.3 grams, Achyranthes bidentata 18.8 grams, Hong Ji Shi Teng 18.8 grams, Jian Wei Feng 18.8 grams.
Usage: 3 bowls of water, decoct to 1 bowl; decoct the residue with 2.5 bowls of water down to 8 fen; take once each after breakfast and dinner.
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