Gingko
Nut (bai guo)
Semen
Ginkgo
properties: It
is sweet, bitter and astringent in flavour, neutral in
nature, and slightly toxic. It is tropistic to the lung
channels. Its astringency is good at shrinking;
bitterness, at drying dampness to astringe the lung for
reliving asthma upwards and eliminating dampness to arrest
leukorrhagia downwards. Its neutrality makes it neither
cold nor hot, so it is used in compound prescriptons for
chronic cough and asthma of insufficient type and
leukorrhea, no matter the syndromes are with coldness or
with hotness.
Effects: Astringing
the lung to prevent or relieve asthma, drying dampness to
arrest leukrrhagia.
Indications:
1. For treatment
of chronic cough due to deficiency of the lung with
excessive cold of the deficiency type, it is used in
combination with Radix Ginseng, Rhizoma Zingiberis, Semen
Armeniacae Amarum, Radix Glycyrrhizae and other Qi-invigorating and lung-warming herbs; For treatment of
cough and asthma due to phlegm-heat, it can be used
together with Radix Scutellariae, Cortex Mori Radicis, and
other lung-heat clearing herbs.
2. For treatment
of leukorrhagia due to cold-dampness, it can be used in
combination with Rhizoma Atractyloidis Macrocephalae,
Rhizoma Atractyloids, Rhizoma Dioscoreae, Semen Nelumbinis, and other herbs having the effects of
reinforcing spleen, drying dampness, astringing
leukorrhagia; For treatment of leukorrhagia due to
damp-heat, it is frequently used together with Rhizoma
Atractyloidis, Cortex Phellodendri, Semen Furyales, Semen
Plantaginis, and other heat-clearing and dampness-drying
herbs.
Dosage
and Administration:
6-10g, or 5-10 seeds.
Precautions:
It is slightly toxic, so large amount of it should not be
administered.
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