荜澄茄
Naming
Bi Cheng Qie (Fructus Litseae)——Lei Gong Pao Zhi Lun (Lei’s Treaties on Preparation of Drugs)
Origin
The mature fruit of Litsea cubeba (Lour.) Pers.
Location
Guangxi, Guangdong and Hunan provinces in China.
Harvest
Collected in autumn when the fruits are ripe.
The true smell and taste
Fragrant, pungent and bitter.
Best quality
Dry, big, heavy oily, with thick fragrance.
Processing
Unprocessed.
Property
Pungent, warm; spleen and stomach meridians entered.
Actions
Warm middle energizer, alleviate pain and arrest vomiting.
Indications
A. Stomach cold and abdominal pain
It has the actions of warming middle energizer, alleviating pain and arresting vomiting. For stomach cold and gastroabdominal cold pain, it can be used alone or combined with other middle-energizer-warming analgesics. For instance it is combined with Gao Liang Jiang and Rou Gui in Bi Cheng Qie Wan.
B. Vomiting and hiccup
It can promote flow of qi and check the adverse rise of qi to arrest vomiting and stop hiccup. It is usually combined with the middle-energizer-warming and vomiting-arresting herbs such as Bai Dou Kou, Ban Xia and Ding Xiang.
In addition, it also can warm kidney and dispel cold from bladder. For dysuria due to deficiency-cold of lower energizer, or colic of cold type with abdominal pain due to cold-damp accumulation, it is combined with the interior-warming and cold-dispersing herbs such as Wu Yao and Xiao Hui Xiang.
Dosage and Administrations
Decoct l.5～3 g.