What are the effects and functions of the traditional Chinese medicine storax?
Storax, also known as Digao, Suhe oil, Diyouliu, etc., is the resin secreted by the storax tree, a plant of the Hamamelidaceae family. Used as medicine, it has the effects of opening the orifices and dispelling filth, relieving depression and clearing phlegm, and promoting the flow of qi and relieving pain. It is often used as a stimulant expectorant and also has a relatively weak antibacterial effect. It can be used for various respiratory tract infections. Now let us take a look at the effects and functions of storax!
The medicinal effects of storax
[Nature and flavor] Sweet in flavor, warm in nature.
[Meridians entered] Heart and spleen meridians.
[Effects] Opening the orifices and dispelling filth, relieving depression and clearing phlegm, promoting the flow of qi and relieving pain. It mainly treats conditions such as stroke with phlegm syncope and convulsions.
Clinical applications of storax
1. Cold closure with clouded spirit: Storax is pungent and aromatic in flavor and warm in nature. It has a relatively good effect of opening the orifices and restoring consciousness, and can also warm the interior and dispel cold, and resolve damp turbidity. Therefore, it is suitable for clouded spirit caused by cold pathogens and phlegm turbidity blocking the heart orifices, as in stroke and epilepsy. It is often combined with medicinals that open the orifices and restore consciousness, warm the interior, and dispel cold, such as in the Storax Pill in Waitai Miyao, where it is used together with musk, agarwood, sandalwood, and the like.
2. Cold pain in the chest and abdomen: Storax has the effects of warming the interior, dispelling cold, and relieving pain, and is suitable for pain caused by cold congelation and qi stagnation. To treat distention, fullness, and cold pain in the chest and abdomen, and painful chest obstruction, it is often used together with medicinals that warm the interior, dispel cold, promote the flow of qi, and relieve pain. For example, the Storax Pill in Waitai Miyao and its modified formulas can also mainly treat the above conditions.
Compatibility applications of storax
1. With gleditsia: Storax opens the orifices, transforms phlegm, and diffuses congestion. Gleditsia is pungent, dispersing, and moving. When used externally, it has the ability to open the passes and the orifices; when taken internally, it has the effect of suddenly dispelling phlegm. When the two medicinals are used together, they open the orifices and clear the passes. For sudden coma with locked jaw that belongs to excess closure patterns, the two medicinals can be ground into powder and blown into the nose to induce sneezing so as to promote recovery of consciousness.
2. With curcuma: Storax is aromatic and opens the heart orifices, diffuses qi, and removes phlegm to restore the mind and clear the spirit. Curcuma is pungent and dispersing, moves qi, and relieves depression. It can clear heart heat and open the heart orifices, invigorate blood stasis, and transform phlegm turbidity. When the two medicinals are used together, they are aromatic and remove turbidity, open the orifices, and relieve depression, diffuse impediment, and relieve pain. They are effective in treating clouded spirit and delirious speech, mania, and epilepsy caused by evil heat entering the heart or by white-heat phlegm turbidity veiling the heart orifices.
3. With alum: Storax clears the heart and can open the heart orifices, invigorate blood stasis, and transform phlegm turbidity. Entering the qi aspect, it can relieve depression. When combined with alum, which clarifies and dispels turbidity to remove phlegm, the two medicinals used together clear phlegm and open the orifices, and their effects are even more pronounced, so epilepsy and mania can be treated.
4. With polygala: Storax opens the orifices and restores consciousness, while polygala disperses depression and transforms phlegm. Used together, they can open the heart orifices, disperse heart depression, and have the effect of strengthening the brain and restoring consciousness. They are used to treat conditions such as damp turbidity veiling the clear orifices, mental, and forgetfulness.
5. With magnolia bark: Both medicinals can transform dampness. Storax can also dispel filth, while magnolia bark also can soothe the middle. Used together, they can treat sluggish spleen and stomach, unconverted damp turbidity, abdominal distention, and poor appetite.
Medicinal selected formulas of storax
1. To treat sudden great abdominal edema: Equal parts of true storax, mercury, and white powder. Make into honey pills and take two pills the size of soybeans, three times a day; water should be discharged. Restrict drinking and take good care of oneself.
2. To treat blockage of the qi orifices of the five zang and six fu organs: Storax 1 qian, shichangpu (roasted) 3 qian, ginger-processed banxia (roasted) 2 qian. Grind together into powder, dissolve into pills with storax wine, each the size of a longan seed. Take one or two pills each time, dissolved in bland ginger decoction.
3. To treat five types of epilepsy: Storax 1 qian and 5 fen, ginger-processed banxia (roasted), bile-processed nanxing (roasted), and tianzhuhuang 3 qian each. Grind together into powder, mix and dissolve into pills with storax wine, each the size of a longan seed. Take 2 qian each morning and evening before meals, with bland ginger decoction.
4. To treat palpitations and unsettled spirit: Storax 1 qian and 2 fen, antelope horn and rhinoceros horn (both filed into powder) 3 qian each, fushen, tianzhuhuang, and bile star (all lightly fried) 5 qian each. Grind together into powder, dissolve into pills with storax wine, each the size of a longan seed. Take one pill each morning and evening, with rush pith decoction.
5. To treat deficiency and weakness of the qi of the heart and gallbladder, with frequent nightmares and confused soul: Storax 2 fen, ginseng 5 fen, fresh ginger 1 qian. Infuse in hot water and drink before bedtime each time.
6. To treat corpse worm infection and corpse zhu abnormal diseases: Storax, benzoin, frankincense, and agarwood 5 fen each. Infuse in one bowl of hot water and drink on an empty stomach. This medicine can be infused more than ten times, until the medicine is exhausted.
7. To treat sudden pain in the heart and abdomen and seasonal vomiting and diarrhea: Storax 5 fen, huoxiang stem 1 qian, wulingzhi 2 qian. Grind together into powder. Take 5 fen each time, mixed with ginger-infused decoction.
8. To treat warm malaria with cold and heat, arising from among mountains, forests, grasslands, and miasmic regions, or from the pestilential qi of prisons: Storax 1 qian, perilla leaf 5 qian, chuanxiong 3 qian, Guangdong tangerine peel 2 qian. Grind together into powder. Take 5 fen each time, mixed with bland ginger decoction.