Gentian

Clinical Notes. For headaches associated w/ liver congestion and heat TCM=heat-clearing & drying, clears damp-heat in liver and gall bladder-jaundice, ecz, thirst, anorexia, abdominal fullness, hypochondriac pain, headache, red eyes, bitter taste in the mouth, genital itching and swelling, foul-smelling leukorrhea and yellow, scanty urine, sedates liver heat-high fever, burning hypochondriac pain, bitter taste in mouth, dry throat, red eyes and face, deafness or severe tinnitus, ear pain or discharge, headache, irritability, short temper, insomnia or nightmares, constipation, yellow urine

Action and Therapy. Gentian is one of the best of the simple bitter tonics, for the action of which compare Calumba. In large doses, however, it is capable of deranging digestion, with the production of nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea, and fullness of the pulse, with headache.

Therapy. This is a popular stomachic tonic in cases where enfeeblement has occurred as the result of protracted disease. It has long been given in combination with other tonics or in wine, as an agent in the dyspepsia of the aged, or of gouty patients, and in the gastric inefficiency of infants and children, and to a good advantage in catarrhal diarrhoea.

Properties and Uses. Gentian root is one of the purest bitter tonics, intense and permanent in taste and action, with a distinct share of relaxant properties, but the stimulant quality predominating. It is not usually nauseating, ‘ut is generally well received by the stomach, notwithstanding its extreme bitterness.