Source: "An Illustrated Study of Plant Names"

The pinyin name Bai Mǎ Gǔ Gēn

is derived from the roots of the Rubiaceae plant White Horse Bone or Liuyue Xue. Harvest the roots in summer and autumn and wash them. Dried or used fresh.

The original form of the plant is detailed with white horse bone strips.

Nature and flavor "Herbal Recipes": cool.

Functions include dispelling wind, clearing away heat and promoting dampness. Treat migraine headaches. Toothache, sore throat, red and swollen eyes, jaundice caused by damp-heat, leucorrhea, and white erosion.

1 "Ningxiang County Chronicle": Root: boiled chicken can cure toothache.

2. "Herbal Recipes": dispel wind and toxins, eliminate wind and heat, and clear the head. Treats headache, tooth and throat pain, chest and diaphragm deficiency and heat.

3 "Jiangxi Folk Herbal Medicine": Treats damp-heat jaundice, malnutrition in children, large veins in the belly, nebula in the eyes, blood in cough and sputum, postpartum cold and heat in women, hematuria, and damp-heat athlete's foot.

4. "Quanzhou Materia Medica": Treats eyebrow bone pain.

Usage and dosage: Oral administration: decoction, 1 to 2 taels fresh.

Attached Recipes

1. To treat toothache: 1 to 2 taels of Vitex root on the roadside. Decoct in water to remove residue, beat two duck eggs, decoct and take. ("Experimental Research on Traditional Chinese Medicine")

2. To treat damp-heat jaundice: one or two pieces of white horse bone root, one or two pieces of Desmodium trifoliata (Chinese coriander). Decoct in water and take twice a day. ("Jiangxi Folk Herbal Medicine")

3. To treat intestinal wind and visceral toxins and bloody stools: 1 to 2 taels of Vitex root on the roadside. Stew half a pound of pig intestines into soup, decoct the soup and take the medicine.

4. To treat women’s leucorrhea: 1 to 2 taels of Vitex root on the roadside. Decoction with two or three ounces of pork essence and decoct the medicine in the soup.

5. To treat white turbidity: 1 to 2 taels of Vitex root on the roadside. Decoction the rice with water and take it. (The following 3 prescriptions are from "Experimental Research on Traditional Chinese Medicine")

6. To treat malnutrition, enlarged belly veins and nebula in eyes in children: five to seven qian of white horse bone root and 2 liang of pig liver. Steam soup, eat liver and soup.

7. To treat cough with blood in sputum: take 2 liang of white horse bone root, stew it with 2 liang of lean pork, decoct it in the soup and take it as medicine.

8. To treat calendar festival wind: two to three liang of white horse bone root. Use pig's trotters to decoct the soup, and then decoct the medicine in the soup. (The following 6 prescriptions are from "Jiangxi Folk Herbal Medicine")

9. To treat scrofula: 1 to 2 taels of Vitex root on the roadside. Decoction in water, one dose per day, long-term use is effective.

("Experimental Research on Traditional Chinese Medicine")

Excerpt from "*Dictionary"