Witnessed by: TCM
Lacquer tree (dried lacquer) (Toxicodendron vernicifluum), of the Anacardiaceae family. Deciduous tree with large pinnate leaves, tapped for its sap; the drug is the hardened sap, not a plant part; native range: China, and long cultivated in Japan and Korea. Globally recognized as 乾漆 (gan qi) · 漆樹 (qi shu, the tree) in Chinese, urushi in Japanese, and dried lacquer, Chinese lacquer tree in English. The part used is the dried sap (resin), broken from the vessel it hardened in. Irregular black or dark-brown brittle lumps with a dull, glassy fracture, hard and light; almost odourless when dry, acrid and biting to the tongue — and not to be tasted or handled bare.
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.
GAN QI
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- lacquer tree (dried lacquer)
- Scientific name
- Toxicodendron vernicifluum (Stokes) F.A.Barkley
- Family
- Anacardiaceae
Form
- Part used
- the dried sap (resin), broken from the vessel it hardened in
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- TCM
- pungent · bitter
Temperature
- TCM
- warm
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- TCM
- Liver · Spleen
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- breaks up blood stasis and dispels fixed accumulation (zheng jia), and kills parasites — a forceful, breaking drug rather than a moving one
Cautions
- Contraindications
- pregnancy — absolutely; blood deficiency without stasis, and weak patients with no accumulation to break; the classics also hold it antagonistic to crab (畏蟹), and crab was the household antidote for lacquer poisoning
- Toxicity
- toxic, and doubly so. The urushiol of the raw sap is one of the most reliable contact allergens known — it raises a severe blistering dermatitis on contact, and on sensitised handlers the mere vapour will do it, so the raw drug is not touched with the bare hand. Taken internally the drug irritates and, in excess, poisons; it is used processed, in the small dose, and briefly.
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