Swallowwort 白薇
Swallowwort 白薇 (Cyananchum atratum)is an upright perennial herbaceous plant of the Apocynaceae family, belonging to the genus Apocynaceae.
In TCM the root and rhizome of the plant are used.
Taste, Characteristic, and Meridian
Bitter salty and cold. It returns to the lung, stomach, and kidney meridians. It has the effects of eliminating deficiency and restlessness, clearing heat and dispersing swelling, and promoting muscle growth and pain relief.
Value in Traditional Chinese Medicine
In TCM the herb can be used to clear heat and cool blood, promote diuresis, and topically to detoxify and treat sores. Used for warming pathogenic factors and causing fever, yin deficiency fever, bone steaming and fatigue fever, postpartum blood deficiency fever, heat drenching, blood drenching, carbuncle and swelling toxin. Topically it can be used to treat small cuts.
