Puerariae Radix: Ancient Chinese Medicine for Health

Puerariae Radix, is a traditional Chinese medicine. It is usually harvested in autumn and winter, freshly cut into thick slices or small pieces, and then dried. It has a sweet and spicy taste, and a cooling effect.

It is known for its ability to relieve muscle heat, soothe rashes, generate fluids to quench thirst, lift yang to stop diarrhea, promote circulation, and detoxify alcohol.

It is commonly used to treat fever, headache, severe neck and back pain, thirst, diabetes, measles, dysentery, diarrhea, dizziness, stroke, chest pain, and alcohol poisoning.

Medicinal part

The dried root of the wild kudzu plant.

Taste

Sweet and spicy, cooling.

Meridian tropism

Spleen, stomach, and lung meridians.

Effects

Relieves muscle heat, soothes rashes, generates fluids to quench thirst, lifts yang to stop diarrhea, promotes circulation, and detoxifies alcohol.

Indications

Used for fever, headache, severe neck and back pain, thirst, diabetes, measles, dysentery, diarrhea, dizziness, stroke, chest pain, and alcohol poisoning.

Related formulation

• For headache and fever: Clean the fresh kudzu root, pound it to extract the juice, and cook it with fermented soybeans. Take it in portions. If there’s heart heat, add 10 gardenia seeds.
• To prevent heat diseases such as acute yellow fever: Mix two liters of kudzu powder, one liter of raw rehmannia, and half a liter of fragrant soybeans to make a powder. Take a spoonful after each meal, three times a day. If ill, take five doses.
• To prevent malaria: Take a small cup of pounded fresh kudzu juice, which can remove heat and toxins.
• For restlessness and thirst: Soak four ounces of kudzu powder in water with half a liter of millet overnight, strain it, mix well, and cook into a porridge to eat.
• For constant dry vomiting: Take a liter of pounded kudzu root juice.

Usage and dosage

Decoction, 10-15g.

Precautions

Those with deficiency-cold should avoid it, and those with stomach cold and vomiting should use it with caution.

Processing method

Remove impurities, clean, moisten thoroughly, cut into thick slices, and dry in the sun.

Physiological Features

This robust vine can grow up to 8 meters long, covered entirely with long, yellow, stiff hairs. Its stem is woody at the base, with a thick, tuberous root.

The pinnate leaves consist of three leaflets; the stipules are dorsal, ovate and elongated, with visible veins; the small stipules are linear and lanceolate, equal in length or longer than the petiole of the leaflets.

The leaflets are tri-lobed, occasionally entire, with the terminal leaflet being broad and ovate or obliquely ovate, measuring 8-15(-19) cm in length and 5-12(-18) cm in width, with a gradually tapering tip.

The lateral leaflets are obliquely ovate and slightly smaller, covered on the upper surface with pale yellow, flat, soft hairs, denser on the underside; the petioles are covered with yellow velvety hairs.

The pod is elongated and oval, measuring 5-9 cm in length and 8-11 mm in width, flat, and covered with brown, stiff hairs. The flowering period is from September to October, and the fruiting period is from November to December.

It grows in grassy slopes, along roads, or in damp places, or in gullies in the mountains at altitudes of 1000-3200 meters.

The kudzu roots in Luoshan are slightly stronger than those from other places.