White Peony Root – bai shao

White Peony Root
[Family and Medicinal Part] This product is the root of the Ranunculaceae plant Paeonia lactiflora without the outer skin.
[Nature and flavor and meridians] Bitter, sour, slightly cold. Enters the liver meridian.
[Effects] Nourishes blood and restrains yin, softens the liver and relieves pain, and calms liver yang.
[Clinical application] 1. Used for irregular menstruation, abdominal pain during menstruation, metrorrhagia, spontaneous sweating, night sweats and other symptoms.
White Peony Root can nourish blood and restrain yin, treat gynecological diseases, and is often used in combination with Chinese Angelica, Rehmannia glutinosa, Chuanxiong and other medicines. If this product is used with cinnamon twig, it can coordinate the Ying and Wei, and is used to treat exogenous wind-cold, spontaneous sweating due to superficial deficiency and aversion to wind; when used with dragon bone, oyster, floating wheat and other medicines, it can restrain yin and suppress yang, and is used to treat spontaneous sweating and night sweats caused by yin deficiency and yang floating.
2. Used for flank pain, abdominal pain, and cramps and pain in the hands and feet caused by liver qi disharmony.
White peony root nourishes blood and softens the liver, relieves urgency and relieves pain, so it can be used for chest and flank pain, abdominal pain, and cramps in the hands and feet caused by liver qi disharmony. For flank pain, it is often used with bupleurum and fructus aurantii; for abdominal pain and cramps in the hands and feet, it is often used with licorice; for dysentery and abdominal pain, it can be used with coptis and costus root.
3. It is used for headache and dizziness caused by hyperactivity of liver yang.
Raw white peony root can restrain yin and suppress liver yang, so it can be used for headache and dizziness caused by hyperactivity of liver yang, and is often used with mulberry leaves, chrysanthemum, Uncaria rhynchophylla, and white tribulus.
[Prescription name] Stir-fried white peony root (mixed with bran until slightly yellow, mostly used to nourish blood and restrain yin). Raw white peony root (raw, mostly used to calm the liver).
[General dosage and usage] One to three qian, decocted and taken.
[Comment] White peony root nourishes blood and calms the liver, and is good at restraining yin; red peony root cools blood and activates blood circulation, and is good at dispersing blood stasis. Therefore, white peony root is often used in blood-tonifying, yin-nourishing and menstrual-regulating prescriptions; red peony root is often used in heat-clearing, blood-cooling and blood-activating and blood-stasis-removing prescriptions.
[Example of prescription] Peony Decoction (Huo Fa Ji Yao): peony root, coptis root, scutellaria baicalensis, rhubarb, betel nut, angelica, liquorice, costusroot, cinnamon bark. Treats dysentery with pus and blood, abdominal pain, tenesmus.
【Literature Excerpt】《本经》: “It treats abdominal pain caused by evil qi, removes blood stasis, breaks up hard masses, treats cold and heat hernia, relieves pain, promotes urination, and replenishes qi.”
《本草刚目》: “It treats diarrhea, abdominal pain, and heaviness in the back.”
《本草备要》: “It nourishes blood, purges the liver, benefits the spleen, and restrains liver yin, and treats abdominal pain caused by blood deficiency.”
《本草义义》: “It nourishes blood, benefits the liver and spleen true yin, and restrains the disorder of spleen qi and the unruly liver qi, then white peony root; it removes blood stasis, breaks up masses and drains down, then red peony root. Therefore, white peony root is used to nourish yin and blood, and moisturize liver and spleen; red peony root is used to activate blood circulation, remove stagnation, and dissipate ulcer toxins.”

Where is the main medicinal part of white peony root?

Medicinal part of white peony root:

The medicinal part of white peony root is the dried root of Paeonia lactiflora Pal., a plant of Ranunculaceae.
Characteristics of the medicinal part of white peony:
This product is cylindrical, straight or slightly curved, flat at both ends, 5~18 cm long, 1~25 cm in diameter. The surface is off-white or light brown, smooth or with longitudinal wrinkles and fine root marks, occasionally with residual brown outer skin.
It is solid, not easy to break, with a relatively flat cross section, off-white or slightly brown, with obvious cambium rings and radial rays
How is white peony recorded in ancient history books?
“Ben Jing”: “It treats abdominal pain caused by evil qi, removes blood stasis, breaks up hard masses, treats cold and heat hernia marks, relieves pain, promotes urination, and invigorates qi. “Famous Doctors’ Records”: “It can smooth blood vessels, relieve the middle, disperse bad blood,… benefit the bladder, large and small intestines. It can eliminate carbuncle swelling, seasonal cold and heat, abdominal pain in the middle jiao, and back pain.
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“Newly Revised Materia Medica”: “It benefits women’s blood.
“Rihuazi Materia Medica”: “It cures wind and nourishes tuberculosis, treats all women’s diseases, and diseases before and after childbirth, promotes menstruation, reduces fever and relieves restlessness. … and intestinal wind and bloody diarrhea.
“Yao Xing Materia Medica”: “It cures lung evil qi….. It cures seasonal diseases and bone heat, strengthens the five internal organs, nourishes kidney qi, and treats heart and abdomen swelling. “Medical Origin·Volume 2”: “It has six uses: one is to calm the spleen meridian; two is to treat abdominal pain; three is to collect stomach qi; four is to stop diarrhea and dysentery; five is to harmonize blood vessels; six is ​​to strengthen the skin. “Southern Yunnan Materia Medica”: “It collects liver qi and pain, regulates the blood of the heart, liver, spleen and meridians, relaxes the meridians and lowers the qi. It stops liver qi pain. “Compendium of Materia Medica·Volume 14·Peony”: “It stops diarrhea and abdominal pain and heaviness in the back. “Jingyue Complete Works·Compendium of Materia Medica”: “Peony, white ones are sweet and nourishing, red ones are bitter and dirty. … Replenish the deficiency of blood heat, cleanse the excess of liver fire, strengthen the pores, stop heat and dirt, …. Reduce excessive fever, relieve the three elimination symptoms, suitable for those caused by heat. If the spleen is cold and the distension is difficult to transform, it is not suitable to stop the swelling and pain of blood deficiency, which causes fever due to blood deficiency. White ones can calm the fetus and cause fever, while red ones can promote menstruation and break blood. This is a slightly cold tonic, not like the extremely bitter and cold ones… If the blood is hot after childbirth and the yin is lost, it is appropriate to use it, no doubt.
“Pharmaceutical Chemistry”: “White peony is slightly bitter and can replenish yin, and it can be astringent because of acidity. It is used temporarily to nourish the liver. The liver likes to like astringency, and acidity is used to suppress the liver. Therefore, it is said that white peony can replenish and dirty, and it is specialized in the sea of ​​blood. Women regulate menstruation and childbirth, and men have all liver diseases. It is suitable for regulating qi and blood. “Compendium of Materia Medica”: “Replenish blood, cleanse the liver, benefit the spleen, and restrain liver yin.
“Compendium of Materia Medica”: “Red peony root and white peony root have similar main treatments, but white peony root has the power to benefit yin and nourish the body, while white peony root only has the function of promoting blood circulation: white peony root can cleanse wood in the soil, while red peony root can activate stagnation in the blood.
Effects
This product has the effects of nourishing blood and regulating menstruation, restraining yin and stopping sweating, softening the liver and relieving pain, and calming liver yang.
What are the main effects and clinical applications of white peony root?
Used for sallow complexion due to blood deficiency, irregular menstruation, metrorrhagia; spontaneous sweating, night sweats; pain in the ribs, abdomen, acute pain in the limbs; hyperactivity of liver yang, headache, dizziness, etc.
Sallow complexion due to blood deficiency, irregular menstruation, metrorrhagia:
·This product is used to treat sallow complexion due to blood deficiency, dizziness, palpitations, or irregular menstruation, abdominal pain during menstruation, metrorrhagia, etc., and is often used with Rehmannia glutinosa, Angelica sinensis, and Chuanxiong;
If blood deficiency is accompanied by heat and irregular menstruation, it can be combined with Scutellaria baicalensis, Phellodendron chinense, Dipsacus asper, etc.; if metrorrhagia is accompanied by bleeding, it can be used with blood nourishing and hemostatic drugs such as donkey-hide gelatin and mugwort.
Spontaneous sweating, night sweats:
·This product has the function of astringing yin and stopping sweating. If the patient is affected by wind and cold, and sweats and has aversion to wind due to disharmony between the Ying and Wei, it can be used with cinnamon twigs that warm the meridians and promote yang; · It is used to treat spontaneous sweating due to asthenia, and is often used with astragalus, white atractylodes, etc.; if the patient has night sweats due to yin deficiency, it can be used with dragon bone, oyster, floating wheat, etc.
Pain in the ribs and abdomen, acute pain in the limbs:
This product is sour and astringent to the liver yin, nourishes the blood and softens the liver to relieve pain. It is used to treat blood deficiency, liver depression, and pain in the ribs. It is often used with angelica, bupleurum, and other blood-tonifying and liver-soothing drugs, such as Xiaoyaosan;
This product can also regulate the liver and spleen, soften the liver and relieve pain. It can be used with white atractylodes, saposhnikovia, and tangerine peel to treat spleen deficiency, liver hyperactivity, abdominal pain and diarrhea;
If it is used to treat abdominal pain due to dysentery, it can be used with heat-clearing, dampness-drying, and qi-regulating drugs such as costus root and coptis root; If it is used to treat yin and blood deficiency, and the tendons and veins are not nourished, resulting in acute pain in the hands and feet, it is often used with licorice to relieve acute pain.
Hyperactivity of liver yang, headache and dizziness:
This product nourishes blood, restrains yin, and calms liver yang. It is a commonly used medicine for treating hyperactivity of liver yang. It is often used with Achyranthes bidentata, Daizheshi, and Dragon Bone.
What other effects does white peony have?
Treatment of dysmenorrhea caused by qi and blood deficiency:
Composition: white peony, Zelan, Angelica, Astragalus, stalked rice, brown sugar
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Preparation and usage: 15 grams of white peony, 10 grams of Zelan, 20 grams of Angelica and Astragalus each, 100 grams of polished rice, and appropriate amount of brown sugar. Boil white peony, Zelan, Angelica.
Astragalus for 15 minutes, remove the residue and take the juice, add polished rice to cook porridge. Add appropriate amount of brown sugar when cooked.
Treatment of insomnia and palpitations caused by deficiency of blood in the heart and liver:
Ingredients: white peony, stir-fried sour jujube seeds, Polygala, Poria, red dates
Preparation and usage: 15g each of white peony and stir-fried sour jujube seeds, 9g of Polygala, 10g of Poria, 5 red dates, decoct and drink as tea, multiple times a day.
What are the compound preparations containing white peony?
Siwu Decoction:
Tonify blood and activate blood circulation. Used for palpitations and insomnia, dizziness, dull complexion, irregular menstruation, scanty menstruation or amenorrhea in women, manifested as pale tongue, thin and stringy or fine and astringent pulse.
Bazhen Decoction:
Tonify qi and replenish blood. Used for pale or sallow complexion, dizziness, fatigue in limbs, shortness of breath and laziness, palpitations, reduced diet, pale tongue with thin white fur, thin and weak pulse or weak and weak pulse. It is often used in clinical treatment of weakness after illness, various chronic diseases, and irregular menstruation in women, which are caused by deficiency of both qi and blood.
Lily Gujin Decoction:
Tonify yin and moisten the lungs, resolve phlegm and relieve cough. Used for chronic diarrhea and dysentery, and cold syndrome of kidney deficiency. It is commonly used in the clinic to treat chronic enteritis, chronic colitis, intestinal tuberculosis, chronic dysentery, dysentery syndrome, etc., which are not cured for a long time and are due to spleen and kidney deficiency and cold.
Zhenren Yangzang Decoction:
Astringent and solid, warm and nourish the spleen and kidney. Used for chronic diarrhea and dysentery, and cold syndrome of spleen and kidney deficiency. It is commonly used in the clinic to treat chronic enteritis, chronic colitis, intestinal tuberculosis, chronic dysentery, dysentery syndrome, etc., which are not cured for a long time and are due to spleen and kidney deficiency and cold.
Lingjiao Gou Teng Decoction:
Calm the liver and extinguish wind, clear heat and stop spasm. It is used for liver wind disturbance, dizziness and pain, tinnitus and palpitations, restlessness of hands and feet, and postpartum convulsions in pregnant women.
Modern research progress on white peony
This product has multiple pharmacological effects such as enhancing phagocytic function, enhancing cellular immunity, enhancing humoral immunity, improving learning and memory, dilating coronary blood vessels, enhancing hematopoietic function, sedation, analgesia, and liver protection.
Usage method
White peony generally uses northern Bupleurum slices for decoction. Through different processing methods, Chinese herbal medicine slices such as white peony root, white peony root with vinegar, white peony root with wine, fried white peony root and fried white peony root with soil can be produced. Different processing methods have different effects, but the method of use is the same. Please follow the doctor’s advice for specific use.
How to use white peony root correctly?
When taking white peony root decoction orally, the common dosage is 6~15 grams.
It is often used raw to suppress liver yang, restrain yin and stop sweating, and is often fried or fried with wine to nourish blood, regulate menstruation, soften liver and relieve pain.
How to process white peony root?
White peony root: Take the original medicinal material, remove impurities, separate large and small strips, wash, soak until 60% to 70% thoroughly, take out and steam until thoroughly soaked, cut into thin slices, dry, and sieve out the debris.
Wine white peony root: Take white peony slices, add a certain amount of yellow wine, mix well, steam slightly, and after the wine is absorbed, put it in a frying container, heat it with a slow fire, fry it dry, take it out and cool it, and sieve out the debris. For every 100 kg of white peony slices, use 10 kg of yellow wine.
Stir-fried white peony: Take white peony slices, put them in a stir-frying container, heat them over a low heat, stir-fry until the surface is slightly yellow, take them out and let them cool, and sieve out the debris. Vinegar white peony: Take white peony slices, add a certain amount of rice vinegar, mix them well, and moisten them slightly. After the vinegar is absorbed, put them in a stir-frying container, heat them over a low heat, stir-fry until dry, take them out and let them cool, and sieve out the debris. For every 100 kg of white peony slices, use 15 kg of rice vinegar.
Soil-fried white peony: Take a certain amount of stove heart soil (Fulonggan) fine powder, put it in a stir-frying container, heat it over medium heat, stir-fry until the soil is flexible, add white peony slices, stir-fry until the surface is covered with soil color, and when it is slightly browned, take it out, sieve out the soil powder, spread it out and cool. For every 100 kg of white peony slices, use 20 kg of stove heart soil powder
Which drugs should be used with white peony at the same time with special attention?
It should not be used with Veratrum. It should not be used for the symptoms of yang deficiency and cold. The combined use of Chinese medicine and Chinese and Western medicine requires syndrome differentiation and clinical individualized treatment.
If you are using other drugs, please consult a doctor before taking the medicine, and inform the doctor of all your diagnosed diseases and the treatment plan you are receiving.
Medication Instructions
White peony belongs to cold products. It is not suitable to take a large amount of single medicine for symptoms such as external wind-cold, internal injury, cold spleen and stomach, and kidney yang deficiency.
What are the precautions when using white peony?
· It should not be used with Veratrum. It is not suitable for symptoms of yang deficiency and cold. During the medication, you should pay attention to avoid eating cold, raw and cold foods, spicy and greasy foods. · Pregnant and breastfeeding women: If you are pregnant, planning to be pregnant or are breastfeeding, please inform your doctor in time and consult whether Chinese medicine can be used for treatment.
· Children: Children’s medication must be carried out under the guidance of a doctor and adult supervision.
· Please properly store the medicinal materials and do not give your own medicinal materials to others.
Avoid using copper or iron utensils to decoct medicine.
How to identify and use white peony?
·White peony: bitter, sour, slightly cold. Enters the liver and spleen meridians. It has the function of purging liver fire, calming liver yang, nourishing yin and relieving restlessness. It is mostly used for liver yang hyperactivity, headache, dizziness, tinnitus, yin deficiency fever, irritability and irritability.
Stir-fried white peony: mild coldness, mainly nourishing blood and nourishing, astringing yin and stopping sweating. It is used for blood deficiency and sallow complexion, abdominal pain and diarrhea, spontaneous sweating. Wine white peony: sour and cold liver-damaging nature is reduced, enters the blood, good at regulating menstruation and stopping bleeding, softening the liver and relieving pain, used for liver depression and blood deficiency, flank pain and abdominal pain, irregular menstruation and cramps in the limbs.
Vinegar white peony: lead the drug into the liver, astringing blood and nourishing blood, soothing the liver and relieving depression are enhanced. It is used for liver depression, milk obstruction, hematuria, etc. .
Stir-fried white peony: can use the earth energy to enter the spleen, enhance the effect of nourishing blood and spleen, and stopping diarrhea, suitable for liver hyperactivity and spleen deficiency, abdominal pain and diarrhea.
The most frequently asked questions by patients
How to use carp soup for weight loss
·Ingredients: 1 carp (500g), 15g Atractylodes macrocephala, 9g each of ginger, white and angelica, 12g Poria
·Preparation and usage: Remove the scales and intestines of the carp, wash and set aside. Cut the five flavors into pieces the size of soybeans, add water to boil the juice, remove the residue, cook the fish with the juice, and add seasonings after the fish is cooked. Eat the fish and drink the soup, 3 to 5 times a day.
Efficacy: Strengthen the spleen and nourish the blood, promote diuresis and lose weight.
Application: Spleen deficiency and phlegm (obesity) syndrome. It is suitable for women with liver and spleen deficiency, blood deficiency and water qi failure caused by phlegm-dampness obesity, symptoms include difficulty urinating, dizziness, edema of the limbs, etc.
How to make and what are the effects of steamed chicken with Panax notoginseng and white peony root?
·Ingredients: 20g Panax notoginseng, 30g white peony root, 1500g fat hen, 50ml rice wine, 20g ginger, 50g scallion, appropriate amount of MSG and salt.

Method and usage: Clean the chicken, chop it into walnut-sized pieces, and put it into a steaming bowl. Take half of Panax notoginseng and grind it into powder for later use, and cut the other half into thin slices after steaming it soft. Place Panax notoginseng slices, scallion slices and ginger slices on each bowl, add white peony decoction, rice wine, and salt, steam it in a steamer for about 2 hours, take the original juice out of the steamer and put it into a spoon, add Panax notoginseng powder and boil it for about 2 minutes, add MSG, and divide it into packages.

Efficacy: nourish blood and replenish deficiency, fill and strengthen bones.

·Application: Qi and blood deficiency syndrome. It is suitable for weak body and weak qi caused by qi and blood deficiency and postpartum women.