Chinese Medicine Gem

Astragalus is one of most admired medicinal herbs for Qi supplement in Chinese medicine practice. Astragalus mainly grows in north-eastern regions of China, which is one of valuable medicinal herbs. The root of astragalus is used medicinally and has important medicinal value.

Astragalus according to Shennong’s Classic of Materia Medica

Astragalus was first documented in Shennong’s Classic of Materia Medica, in which astragalus was regarded as the top grade medicinal herbs. It is also known as ‘Huang Qi’ in Chinese, in which Qi here refers to senior people. An overview about astragalus in Shennong’s Classic of Materia Medica as follows:

Astragalus tastes sweet, and is of slightly warm of nature;
Astragalus is mainly used for ulcer, non-healing of boils, removing the abscess and stopping the pain;
Astragalus expels heavy pathogenic wind;
Astragalus treats a variety of scabies, hemorrhoids and fistula;
Astragalus tonifies deficiency;
Astragalus treats all pediatric diseases.

The story about astragalus

Long long ago, there lived a nice old man named Dai San, who was very good at acupuncture therapy. He was a kind-hearted and modest person and always ready to help. Given that this old man was thin and with pale yellow complexion, people there respected him and called him Huang Qi. Later he died for rescuing a child falling off a cliff accidently.

In memory of this respected old man, people gave his name of “Huang Qi” to the medicinal herb growing next to his tomb, which was used to invigorate spleen-stomach and replenish Qi, stop perspiration, induce diuresis for removing edema, remove toxicity for detumescence. And this medicinal herb known as astragalus was used widely later and save a lot of people’s lives.

Astragalus

From the perspective of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), astragalus can supplement the Qi of the whole body, along with other functions such as:

• Raising Yang energy;
• Consolidating superficies for arresting sweating;
• Inducing diuresis for removing edema;
• Removing toxicity for detumescence;
• Miscarriage prevention and benefiting blood.

And astragalus also has been proved efficacy on following symptoms:

• Anemia;
• Edema;
• Excessive sweating due to deficiency,
• Threatened abortion;
• Uterine prolapse;
• Deficiency of both Qi and blood;
• Deficiency of Yin.

And astragalus tea solely can cure drowsiness, weakness and shortness of breath.

Medicinal food with astragalus

Astragalus is used not only for treatment of diseases, but also in the medicinal food therapy for tonification. Astragalus is cost-effective tonic and spices, which is widely used in stewing with meat, soaking with wine, cooking, seasoning and removing fishy odor.

In regular family in China, people stew astragalus very often along with jujube, while astragalus stewing with hens and astragalus cooking with black beans are very renowned delicious food for tonification, which are nutrient-rich and with unique flavors. Medicinal food with astragalus benefits a lot to pregnant women, the aged and those physically weak after just recovering from illness.

Side effects of astragalus

It need to clarify that astragalus is one of very good medicinal herbs for tonification, and generally without obvious adverse reactions. But astragalus has its side effects as follows:

1. Astragalus is natured of warm and tonifying, which is easy to help the fire while arresting sweating. So it is inappropriate to use astragalus in patients with symptoms of cold fever, choking sensation in chest and distension of abdomen.
2. It is inappropriate to use astragalus solely in person suffering from tuberculosis with fever, dry mouth and lips, hemoptysis and other symptoms;
3. It is inappropriate to use astragalus when the ulcer just begins or excessive heat-toxicity still remains even after ulcer burst;
4. In addition, the studies have shown that astragalus might increase significantly the ratio of chromosome aberration and cell micronucleus, so pregnant women should not take large dosage of astragalus for a long term.

Astragalus has been proved clinically that not only works in prevention and treatment of chronic nephritis, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, but also patients with recurrent oral ulcer. In China, one popular saying about astragalus goes like “drinking astragalus tea for long enough time will prevent people from diseases and keep people for long healthy living”.