Witnessed by: TCM
Huang bai (Phellodendron chinense), of the Rutaceae family. Large deciduous tree with corky bark and pinnate leaves, the fruit a black berry-like drupe; native range: the mountain forests of central and southwestern China, the Sichuan drug being the one most prized. Globally recognized as huang bai (黄柏) · chuan huang bai (川柏) · bo mu (檗木) in Chinese, ōbaku (黄柏) in Japanese, and Amur cork tree bark · phellodendron bark · golden bark in English. The part used is the bark, the corky outer layer removed. Flat or slightly curved plates, deep chrome-yellow within and fibrous in section, splintering rather than snapping; the taste is intensely and lastingly bitter, and it dyes the saliva and the fingers yellow.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
HUANG BAI
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- huang bai
- Scientific name
- Phellodendron chinense C.K.Schneid.
- Family
- Rutaceae
Form
- Part used
- the bark, the corky outer layer removed
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- TCM
- bitter
Temperature
- TCM
- cold
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- TCM
- Kidney · Bladder · Large Intestine
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- clears heat and dries dampness, drains fire and resolves fire toxicity, and — salt-fried — drains the deficiency-fire that flares from a depleted Kidney yin
Cautions
- Contraindications
- a weak, cold Spleen and Stomach with poor appetite and loose stools — its cold bitterness injures the middle burner
- Toxicity
- well tolerated in dose; prolonged use of so cold and bitter a drug dulls the digestion
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