Chinese Medicinal Herb Garden - University of California Botanical ...

8. Herbs for Regulating Qi – Herbs for regulating
Qi are used in Chinese traditional medicine primarily
for pain in the chest and the abdomen. There are
three major types of stagnant Qi: 1) Stagnant Spleen
and Stomach Qi manifested as abdominal pain,
belching and gas; 2) Stagnant Liver Qi manifested
as depression, irritability or irregular or painful
menstruation; 3) Stagnant Lung Qi leading to wheezing
cough and constriction in the chest.
9. Herbs for Regulating Blood – Herbs used to
regulate the blood are divided into three categories:
1) those that stop bleeding or hemorrhage – used
for nose bleeds, blood in the stool or urine, excess
menstrual blood or bleeding from trauma; 2) those
taken to invigorate the blood – used when the flow
of blood is blocked or static, causing localized pain or
blood clots; 3) those that tonify the blood.
10. Tonifying and Nurturing Herbs – These herbs
are taken to strengthen an area or process of the body
that is insufficient or weak. They also are regarded
as effective in strengthening the body’s defenses
against disease. Four deficiency patterns recognized in
traditional Chinese medicine are: 1) Deficient Qi – with
symptoms of fatigue, spontaneous sweating, weak
voice, shallow breathing, lack of appetite. 2) Deficient
Blood – with symptoms of pale face, dizziness,
palpitations, dry skin, menstrual irregularities. 3)
Deficient Yang – these herbs are used especially
to tonify the kidney yang or the endocrine system,
regulate the adrenal cortex, energy metabolism,
strengthen resistance to disease and promote sexual
function. 4) Deficient Yin – for symptoms of dryness,
thirst, constipation, low grade sensation of heat, night
sweats. Herbs are used to nourish and moisten by
regulating fluid metabolism, including lowering blood
pressure and serum cholesterol.
11. Astringent Herbs – These herbs are used
primarily for treating disorders in which bodily
substances are discharged abnormally or structures slip
from their proper positions. These include diarrhea,
excessive urination or sweating, or prolapse of uterus
or rectum. Such problems are usually due to weakness
from chronic disease or old age.
12. Herbs for Pacifying the Spirit – These herbs
are used for disturbances of the Heart Spirit, with
symptoms of irritability, palpitations and insomnia.
These substances have sedative and tranquilizing
effects.
13. Fragrant Herbs for Opening Orifices –
not represented in this collection.
14. Herbs for Dissolving Phlegm and Relieving
Cough – In Chinese medicine, phlegm is the
pathological accumulation of thick fluid in the
respiratory and digestive tracts, as well as in the
muscles and other body tissue. Symptoms include
coughing, wheezing, chest constriction, nausea,
vomiting, loss of appetite, goiter and chronic lymph
conditions.
15. Herbs for Removing Congestion –These herbs
are ingested to dissolve away, digest and reduce
food stagnation out of the body via the digestive
tract. They are useful for symptoms of nausea and
abdominal distension/pain. Biochemically, these herbs
increase digestive secretions and increase peristalsis or
muscular contraction for better digestion.
16. Parasiticides (Destroying Parasites) – These
are used for intestinal parasites. They are neither as
strong as many of the modern anti-parasitic drugs nor
as rapid in action but they are significantly less toxic
and some of the herbs also strengthen the spleen to
help in digestion.
17. External Uses – not represented in this collection.
18. Anti-cancer Herbs – These herbs do not propose
to cure cancer, but many of them are applied to
alleviate pain and prolong life by strengthening the
body’s life forces and arresting the progression of
tumors.
The herbs are displayed for viewing only.
DO NOT INGEST ANY PART OF ANY
PLANT IN THIS GARDEN.
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica, Third
Edition. Compiled and translated by Dan Bensky,
Steven Clavey, and Erich Stöger with Andrew Gamble.
Eastland Press: Seattle, WA 2003.
The Chinese Medicinal Herbal Farm: A Cultivator’s
Guide to Small-Scale Organic Herb Production.
Peg Schafer. Chelsea Green Publishing: White River
Junction, VT 2011.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Chinese Medicinal Herb Garden of the UC
Botanical Garden is supported by the Chern
Endowment in honor of Shih Nign Chern.
Garden labels were prepared by Professor Xu Honghua,
with the assistance of the American College
of Traditional Chinese Medicine (San Francisco),
horticulturist Elaine Sedlack, calligrapher Feng-En
Sung, acupuncturist Barbara Wilt, Chinese herbalist
and acupuncturist Jeff Lee, and acupuncturist Rebecca
Rapaport Ness, L. Ac. Linda Cook helped design both
the labels and the original brochure.
This brochure was written by Stephanie Kaza and Elaine
Sedlack and edited by Carol Baird. It is also available in
Chinese, translated by Kyle Young.
Cover Illustration is a reproduction of a hanging scroll
created by Miao Jiahui entitled Bouquet of Peonies.
Michael Sullivan Private Collection, Oxford, England.
Featured in Views from Jade Terrace: Chinese Women
Artists 1300-1912, a publication of The Indianapolis
Museum of Art.
2012 © UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley
The
Chinese
Medicinal Herb
Garden

This stone acknowledges the joint sponsors of
the Chinese Medicinal Herb Garden – the left
side translates that the stone is a gift from the
People’s Republic of China in 1986 with calligraphy by
Mr. Shang Cheng Zuo; the right side lists the three
colleges involved. The center characters mean Garden
of Chinese Medicinal Herbs.
THE CHINESE MEDICINAL HERB GARDEN
is a special collection of over 100 herbs used in
the practice of traditional Chinese medicine.
The garden was developed in 1986 as a cooperative
effort between the Guangzhou College of Traditional
Chinese Medicine (now called Guangzhou University of
Chinese Medicine) in Guangdong Province, China, the
American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in
San Francisco and the UC Botanical Garden at
Berkeley. In 1987, Professor Xu Hong-hua of the
Guangzhou College spent six months in Berkeley
designing the garden and supervising its installation.
Medicinal herb gardens are common at medical
colleges in China, but this collection is the only US
medicinal garden arranged by function group.
CHINESE MEDICINAL PHILOSOPHY
Traditional Chinese medicine is one of the
world’s oldest and most comprehensive systems of
medical care. Chinese medical philosophy
is based on the Taoist principle of the
interdependence of yin and yang, qualities
that reflect all aspects of change and
relationship in the universe. Some qualities of yang
are: light, expanding, external, active, warm. Some
qualities of yin are: darkness, contracting, internal,
rest, cold. Illness is understood to occur when these
elements are out of balance. Treatment is directed at
restoring balance, which is equated with health.
Six external pathogenic factors are recognized:
cold, wind, damp, dryness, heat and summer heat
(summer heat refers to illnesses that only occur in
the summer, such as sunstroke). Treatment of these
pathogenic effects is along channels or meridians,
interchangeable terms that do not correspond to
Western medical physiology. For example, there are
yin and yang channels, kidney, liver, heart, lung, spleen
and small intestine meridians, among others. There
are twelve main channels, the points of which are used
in acupuncture.
Chinese physicians diagnose health conditions
in terms of the quality of Qi (or Chi), an internal
and external vital energy, and Blood. Qi and Blood
are understood to move through the body via the
channels, and it is when these channels are blocked
that pain and illness occur. When the internal function
of the organ becomes damaged, treatment can restore
health by strengthening the weak areas.
THE HERBS
A Chinese prescription will contain 9-15 herbs
(animal and mineral substances are used as well).
Dried herb formulas are created as needed to be boiled
into teas. Side effects common to Western medicine
are largely eliminated in Chinese traditional medicine
due to the fact that the prescription itself is balanced
holistically.
Chinese
medicine
name
bò hé
Transliteration
AS YOU WALK through this area, you will see individual
plant labels and posts with signs marking the different
function groups. The herbs are grouped according to
function as described in traditional Chinese medical
practice.
FUNCTION GROUPS
1. Surface Relieving Herbs – In traditional Chinese
medicine these herbs are applied to help conditions in
the superficial levels of the body. Symptoms are chills,
fever, headache, stiff neck, muscle aches, sweating,
or the absence of appropriate sweating. Most of the
herbs are diaphoretics (sweat inducers) believed to
help the body release pathogenic influences through
sweating.
2. Purging Herbs – Chinese traditional medicine
esteems these herbs that either stimulate or lubricate
the gastrointestinal tract to facilitate excretion. Some
have an antibiotic function and also help the body
expel toxins. Others help when there is a weak
peristalsis or muscular contraction in the intestines.
3. Clearing Heat Herbs – Heat in traditional Chinese
medicine refers to fever conditions, and also to
conditions that present heat signs including dry throat,
Symbols for plant parts
Surface Relieving
MINT
Mentha haplocalyx
(Lamiaceae)
fever, headache, rashes,
sore throat
Function group
Scientific name
Symtoms
Plant part
red face, red eyes, dry stool, dark scanty urine and rapid
pulse. These herbs treat interior heat and are generally
cold in nature. They have antipyretic, anti-inflammatory
and antimicrobial effects.
4. Herbs for Promoting the Flow of Water –
These herbs increase urine production (i.e. are primarily
diuretics). They are used for edema, strengthening fluid
metabolism, urinary tract infections, purulent rashes
and jaundice.
5. Herbs for Eliminating Wind and Damp –
These herbs are applied to promote analgesic, antiinflammatory,
antipyretic and circulation-promoting
effects. Wind and damp conditions in the muscles,
joints, bones and sinews can block circulation, creating
pain and numbness.
6. Herbs for Warming Interior and Eliminating Cold
Herbs used to warm the interior are cardiotonics that
stimulate the vasoactive centers of the central nervous
system to stimulate blood flow. They are believed to
benefit digestion, increase absorption in the intestinal
tract and alleviate vomiting and diarrhea. Symptoms
indicating their use include cold extremities, slow pulse,
fear of cold and pallid complexion.
7. Fragrant Herbs for Dissolving Wetness –
Excess wetness or dampness in traditional Chinese
medicine creates conditions of nausea, fullness in the
abdomen, loss of appetite, lack of thirst, diarrhea,
greasy coating on the tongue and headache. From
a Western medical point of view, these conditions
are usually caused by food poisoning or other acute
digestive disorders. Most of the herbs are acrid,
warming and drying.
seed stem bark root fruit flower leaf whole plant