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【Herb Name】 Huang Lian (Coptis Chinensis)
【Source】 “Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing” (Shen Nong’s Classic of Materia Medica)
【Alias】 Wei Lian, Chuan Lian, Ji Zhua Lian
【Source】 Dried rhizomes of the plants from the Ranunculaceae family, including Huang Lian, San Jiao Ye Huang Lian, or Yun Lian.
【Prescription Names】 Huang Lian, Chuan Lian, Jiu Huang Lian, Jiang Huang Lian, Wu Yu Lian, Yu Huang Lian
【Properties】 Bitter, cold. Enters the Heart, Spleen, Stomach, Liver, Gallbladder, and Large Intestine meridians.
【Functions】 Clears heat and dries dampness, purges fire and detoxifies.
【Clinical Applications】
1. Damp-heat obstruction, nausea, diarrhea
2. High fever with delirium, excessive heart fire, irritability and insomnia, palpitations
3. Blood heat with vomiting or nosebleeds
4. Stomach heat with nausea, acid regurgitation, thirst, and toothache
5. Carbuncles, boils, red and swollen eyes, sores on the mouth and tongue
6. Eczema, suppurative dermatitis, ear discharge
【Dosage and Administration】 Decoction, 2-5g. For external use, apply an appropriate amount. Raw Huang Lian functions to clear heat and dry dampness, purge fire and detoxify; Jiu Huang Lian is effective in clearing upper jiao fire, often used for red and swollen eyes and sores in the mouth and tongue; Jiang Huang Lian is good for harmonizing the stomach and stopping vomiting, commonly used for cold-heat counterflow, damp-heat obstruction, and nausea; Yu Huang Lian is effective in soothing the liver and harmonizing the stomach to stop vomiting, often used for liver-stomach disharmony with acid regurgitation.
【Precautions】 This herb is very bitter and cold; excessive or prolonged use can harm the Spleen and Stomach. It is contraindicated in those with Spleen and Stomach deficiency and cold. Caution is advised for those with Yin deficiency and fluid depletion.
【Clinical Combinations】
1. Combined with Huang Qin (Scutellaria baicalensis), Gan Jiang (Zingiberis Rhizoma), and Ban Xia (Pinellia ternata) to clear heat and dry dampness, treating gastrointestinal damp-heat, as in Ban Xia Xie Xin Tang.
2. Combined with Huang Qin, Huang Bai (Phellodendron), and Zhi Zi (Gardenia) to purge fire and detoxify, treating excessive heat, as in Huang Lian Jie Du Tang.
【Related Formulas】
1. Ban Xia Xie Xin Tang
2. Qing Ying Tang
3. Huang Lian Jie Du Tang
4. Pu Ji Xiao Du Yin
5. Zuo Jin Wan
6. Qing Wei San
7. Shao Yao Tang
8. Bai Tou Weng Tang
9. Qing Gu San
10. Dang Gui Liu Huang Tang
11. Qing Shu Yi Qi Tang
12. Ge Gen Huang Qin Huang Lian Tang
13. Zhu Sha An Shen Wan
14. An Gong Niu Huang Wan
15. Zhi Shi Xiao Pi Wan
16. Xiao Xian Xiong Tang
17. Zhi Shi Dao Zhi Wan
18. Mu Xiang Bing Lang Wan
19. Jian Pi Wan
20. Fei Er Wan
21. Wu Mei Wan
【Preparation】
Preparation Methods:
1. Huang Lian: Take the raw herb, remove impurities, wash thoroughly, slice thinly, dry, and sift out fragments; or crush when needed.
2. Jiu Huang Lian: Take Huang Lian slices, mix with a specified amount of yellow wine, let it marinate slightly, and when the wine is absorbed, place in a frying container, heat gently to dry, cool, and sift out fragments.
For every 100kg of Huang Lian slices, use 12.5kg of yellow wine.
3. Jiang Huang Lian: Take Huang Lian slices, mix with ginger juice, let it marinate slightly, and when the ginger juice is absorbed, place in a frying container, heat gently to dry, cool, and sift out fragments.
For every 100kg of Huang Lian slices, use 12.5kg of fresh ginger or 4kg of dried ginger, juice or decoct.
4. Yu Huang Lian: Take Wu Zhu Yu (Evodia rutaecarpa) and boil with an appropriate amount of water, take the juice and discard the residue, mix the decoction with Huang Lian slices, let it marinate slightly, and when the medicinal liquid is absorbed, place in a frying container, heat gently to dry, cool, and sift out fragments.
For every 100kg of Huang Lian slices, use 10kg of Wu Zhu Yu.
Preparation Effects:
1. Huang Lian: Bitter in taste, cold in nature. Enters the Heart, Liver, Stomach, and Large Intestine meridians. Functions to purge fire and detoxify, clear heat and dry dampness, used for damp-heat obstruction, nausea, diarrhea, jaundice, high fever with delirium, excessive heart fire, irritability and insomnia, blood heat with vomiting or nosebleeds, red eyes with acid regurgitation, toothache, thirst, carbuncles, and boils; externally used for eczema, suppurative dermatitis, and ear discharge.
2. Jiu Zhi Huang Lian: Can guide the herb upward, moderating its cold nature, effectively clearing fire from the head and eyes.
3. Jiang Zhi Huang Lian: Moderates its bitter cold nature, enhancing its anti-nausea effect.
4. Wu Zhu Yu Zhi Huang Lian: Suppresses its bitter cold nature, allowing Huang Lian to clear damp-heat without stagnation, primarily dispersing liver and gallbladder fire.
【Characteristics and Identification】
【Characteristics】
Wei Lian often clusters, commonly curved, resembling chicken claws, with single stems 3-6cm long and 0.3-0.8cm in diameter. The surface is grayish-yellow or yellow-brown, rough, with irregular nodular protrusions, fibrous roots, and remnants of fibrous roots. The upper part often retains brown scales, and the tip usually has remnants of stems or leaf stalks. The texture is hard, with an uneven cross-section, the bark is orange-red or dark brown, the wood is bright yellow or orange-yellow, arranged radially, and the pith may be hollow. It has a faint aroma and is extremely bitter.
Ya Lian is mostly single-stemmed, slightly cylindrical, slightly curved, 4-8cm long, and 0.5-1cm in diameter. The “bridge” is longer. The tip has a small amount of residual stem.
Yun Lian is curved in a hook shape, mostly single-stemmed, and smaller.
【Identification】
(1) Cross-section of the herb: Wei Lian has a cork layer of several rows of cells, with an outer epidermis that often falls off. The cortex is relatively wide, with stone cells scattered singly or in groups. The central sheath fibers are bundled or accompanied by a few stone cells, all appearing yellow. The vascular bundles are of the outer fibrous type, arranged in a ring. The wood is yellow, fully lignified, and the wood fibers are well-developed. The pith consists of thin-walled cells, with no stone cells.
Ya Lian has stone cells in the pith.
Yun Lian has no stone cells in the cortex, central sheath, or pith.
(2) Take 0.25g of the herb powder, add 25ml of methanol, sonicate for 30 minutes, filter, and take the filtrate as the test solution. Take 0.25g of Huang Lian as a control herb, prepare the control solution in the same manner. Then take berberine hydrochloride as a control, dissolve in methanol to make a solution containing 0.5mg per 1ml, as the control solution. Using thin-layer chromatography, apply 1μl of each of the three solutions onto the same high-performance silica gel G thin-layer plate, using a developing agent of hexane-ethyl acetate-isopropanol-methanol-water-triethylamine (3:3.5:1:1.5:0.5:1), place in a developing chamber pre-saturated with concentrated ammonia for 20 minutes, develop, remove, dry, and inspect under ultraviolet light (365nm). In the test solution, at the corresponding positions of the control herb solution, show 4 or more identical colored fluorescent spots; in the control solution, show identical colored fluorescent spots at the corresponding positions.
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