What are the effects and functions of Tianzhu Huang?

Tianzhu Huang, also known as Tianzhu Huang, Zhuhuang and so on, is the dried lumpy secretion from the stems of plants in the grass family, such as Bambusa textilis or Schizostachyum chinense. Used as medicine, it has the effects of clearing heat and resolving phlegm, cooling the heart and calming fright, and has therapeutic effects on coma from febrile disease, apoplexy with phlegm confusion, phlegm-heat in children, convulsive epilepsy, twitching, night crying and so on. Let us take a look at the effects and functions of Tianzhu Huang below!

The medicinal effects of Tianzhu Huang

[Nature and flavor] Sweet in flavor, cold in nature.

[Meridians entered] Heart and liver meridians.

[Effects] Clearing heat and resolving phlegm, cooling the heart and calming fright. Mainly treats coma from febrile disease, apoplexy with phlegm confusion, phlegm-heat in children, convulsive epilepsy, twitching, and night crying.

Contraindications for the use of Tianzhu Huang

1. Patients with skin diseases such as onychomycosis and tinea manuum should not take Tianzhu Huang.

2. Pregnant women are prohibited from using Tianzhu Huang. During medication, avoid eating radish and sour or spicy foods.

Compatibility applications of Tianzhu Huang

1. With Pinellia Rhizome Fermented: Tianzhu Huang is sweet and cold, clearing heat and resolving phlegm, cooling the heart and calming fright. Pinellia Rhizome Fermented is warm in nature, drying dampness and resolving phlegm, strengthening the spleen and harmonizing the stomach. Tianzhu Huang emphasizes the character of clearing, while Pinellia Rhizome Fermented focuses on the character of drying. When the two medicines are used together, one clears and one dries, mutually promoting each other, and the power to clear heat, remove dampness, resolve phlegm and stop cough is enhanced. It mainly treats internal accumulation of damp-heat, with symptoms such as coughing with difficult expectoration of phlegm, nausea, chest tightness and chest pain, and restless sleep at night. The combination of Tianzhu Huang and Pinellia Rhizome Fermented is most suitable for children with intense phlegm-heat, indigestion, or when phlegm-wind is about to develop and the eyes are staring blankly.

2. With Acorus Tatarinowii Rhizome: Acorus Tatarinowii Rhizome opens the orifices and calms the spirit, transforms dampness and harmonizes the stomach, and is used for mental confusion caused by damp turbidity clouding the clear orifices. Tianzhu Huang clears heat and transforms phlegm, clears the heart and calms fright, and is used for patterns such as convulsions from phlegm-heat. When the two medicines are combined, Tianzhu Huang mainly clears, while Acorus mainly opens. One clears and one opens, mutually assisting each other; one is cold and one is warm, mutually supplementing each other. When used to treat coma from febrile disease, apoplexy with excessive phlegm-heat and other patterns, the therapeutic effect is greatly increased.

3. With White Stiff Silkworm: White Stiff Silkworm extinguishes wind and stops spasms, dispels wind and relieves pain, resolves toxins and dissipates masses, and is used for twitching and convulsive epilepsy caused by internal movement of liver wind and excessive phlegm-heat; Tianzhu Huang clears heat and transforms phlegm, and is used for convulsions from phlegm-heat and apoplexy with phlegm congestion. White Stiff Silkworm is pungent and opening, with strong power to extinguish wind and stop spasms; Tianzhu Huang is cold and clearing, with superior power to clear heat and transform phlegm. When the two medicines are combined, they are used to treat wind-heat with phlegm and wheezing, and convulsive epilepsy with twitching.

Medicinal selected formulas of Tianzhu Huang

1. Tianzhu Huang Lead White Frost Pill

[Composition] Lead white frost half a liang, cinnabar half a liang, mirabilite half a liang, ginseng half a liang, Tianzhu Huang half a liang, gardenia 1 liang, licorice half a liang (honey-fried).

[Usage] Grind the above into powder, refine with honey into pills the size of Firmiana seeds. Take 1 pill per dose, dissolved in cold cooked honey soup.

[Effects] Mainly treats infantile convulsions, typhoid fever for 4 to 5 days without sweating, shaking the head and striking the hands, upward staring, frequent crying, inability to sleep, and endless drinking of water.

2. Tianzhu Huang Baodan Pill

[Composition] Sichuan curcuma 1 liang, Tianzhu Huang 1 liang, realgar 5 qian, white alum 3 qian.

[Usage] Grind the above into fine powder, mash evenly with pig heart blood that has not touched water to form pills the size of longan flesh, coated with cinnabar. Take 1 pill daily, adjusted with a decoction made from 5 fen of Acorus Tatarinowii Rhizome.

[Effects] Calms and transforms phlegm, prevents twitching. Mainly treats all kinds of mania and epilepsy, and phlegm clouding the heart orifices.

3. Tianzhu Huang Phlegm-Clearing Sleep-Calming Decoction

[Composition] Codonopsis 15 grams, white atractylodes 15 grams, dried tangerine peel 15 grams, pinellia 10 grams, bitter orange 10 grams, bamboo shavings 10 grams, Poria with hostwood 15 grams, Arisaema cum Bile 10 grams, Acorus Tatarinowii Rhizome 10 grams, Polygala 10 grams, fried jujube seed 20 grams, arborvitae seed 20 grams, albizia bark 15 grams, Caulis Polygoni Multiflori 15 grams, dragon bone 30 grams, oyster shell 30 grams, mother of pearl 30 grams.

[Usage] Decoct in water and take, 1 dose per day.

[Effects] Strengthens the spleen and removes phlegm, calms the spirit and stabilizes the will. Mainly treats neurosis, with symptoms such as insomnia, irritability, many dreams, accompanied by headache, dizziness, sentimentality, suspicious delusions, palpitations and night wandering, abnormal laughing, crying, joy and anger, red tongue proper, thin coating, and wiry thin pulse.

4. Tianzhu Huang Baoying Zhenjing Powder

[Composition] Stiff silkworm 5 qian, cinnabar 4 qian, Arisaema cum Bile 2 qian, Tianzhu Huang 3 qian, Sichuan fritillary 2 qian, realgar 1 qian 5 fen, gold foil 10 sheets, processed pinellia 2 qian, amber 2 qian, licorice 1 qian 5 fen.

[Usage] Grind the above into fine powder. For those under one year old, take 1 fen per dose; for those over one year old, increase as appropriate, taken with plain boiled water. Do not take in cases of spleen deficiency with diarrhea.

[Effects] Mainly treats acute febrile convulsions in children with excessive phlegm and saliva.

5. Tianzhu Huang Ginseng Decoction

[Composition] Gastrodia 1 fen, ginseng 1 fen, white Poria (with black skin removed) 1 fen, Tianzhu Huang (ground) 1 qian, licorice (used raw) 1 qian, lead white frost (ground) 1 qian, borneol (ground) half a qian, cinnabar (ground) 1 qian.

[Usage] First grind the first 4 ingredients into fine powder, then add the 4 ground ingredients and mix evenly, and refine with honey by decoction into a paste. Take about 1 large soybean volume per dose, dissolved in gold foil and mint soup.

[Effects] Mainly treats upper-jiao wind-heat in children, with unending heat thirst and craving for drinks.