Chinese Herbalism
Lophatherum
Lophatherum gracile
Also known as bland bamboo leaf, lophatherum grass, dan zhu ye, dàn zhú yè.
Lophatherum is a small, bamboo-like grass of shaded slopes and forest margins across southern China, Japan and Southeast Asia, with tapered leaves like miniature bamboo foliage and swollen root tubers. The leafy stems are cut in summer before the seeds ripen and dried. It is a gentle, cold, bland herb of the heat-clearing category, valued for cooling the Heart and Stomach while draining heat through the urine, and it has a long history as a summer tea.
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Indications what the tradition reached for it in
- Fever with irritability, restlessness and thirst
- Mouth ulcers and a red, painful tongue tip
- Painful, burning, scanty or dark urination
- Urinary tract irritation with heat signs
- Insomnia and agitation in a hot, febrile patient
- Lingering low-grade fever after an acute illness
- Summer heat with thirst and a dry mouth
- Gum swelling and bad breath from Stomach heat
- Thirst and dysuria in children with fever
- Dark urine with a red tongue tip in a stressed, hot patient
Specific indications
A feverish patient who cannot settle, tosses at night, is thirsty and has a red tongue tip, small mouth sores and dark, scant urine
Burning urination with irritability where the heat plainly starts in the Heart and is being passed down to the Small Intestine, rather than a damp-heat infection with cloudy urine
Safety
The record lists 6 contraindications; open the plate in the library to read them in full.
In practice
Think of lophatherum as a soft tool. It is not a strong fire-purger like coptis or gypsum; its gift is to clear heat that is making a patient restless and thirsty while giving that heat an exit through the bladder.
In Chinese medicine
Temperature: cold. Taste: sweet, bland. Channels: Heart, Stomach, Small Intestine. Actions: Clears heat and drains fire, especially from the Heart and Stomach; Relieves restlessness, irritability and thirst in febrile illness; Promotes urination and guides heat out through the urine; Eases painful, scanty, dark urination from heat in the Small Intestine; Soothes mouth and tongue sores caused by Heart fire flaring upward.
Dosing as the sources wrote it
| Preparation | As written | Metric |
|---|---|---|
| Decoction (pharmacopoeial range) | 6-10 g dried aerial parts daily | 6000-10000 mg |
| Infusion (summer tea) | 5-10 g dried herb steeped in hot water, taken through the day | 5000-10000 mg |
| Granules (5:1 concentrate) | 1-2 g two to three times daily | 1000-2000 mg |
Doses are reproduced from the sources for practitioners and are not a recommendation for any person.
From the sources
Overview. Lophatherum is a small, bamboo-like grass of shaded slopes and forest margins across southern China, Japan and Southeast Asia, with tapered leaves like miniature bamboo foliage and swollen root tubers. The leafy stems are cut in summer before the seeds ripen and dried. It is a gentle, cold, bland herb of the heat-clearing category, valued for cooling the Heart and Stomach while draining heat through the urine, and it has a long history as a summer tea.
Clinical Notes. Think of lophatherum as a soft tool. It is not a strong fire-purger like coptis or gypsum; its gift is to clear heat that is making a patient restless and thirsty while giving that heat an exit through the bladder.
Chinese Medicine Profile. Temperature: cold. Taste: sweet, bland. Channels: Heart, Stomach, Small Intestine. Actions: Clears heat and drains fire, especially from the Heart and Stomach; Relieves restlessness, irritability and thirst in febrile illness; Promotes urination and guides heat out through the urine; Eases painful, scanty, dark urination from heat in the Small Intestine; Soothes mouth and tongue sores caused by Heart fire flaring upward.
In formulas
Lophatherum stands in 59 documented formulas in the library, among them công chỉ jié gěng tǎng, xuǎn dú fà bião tāng, thú yè shi gão tàng, jià jiǎn zhú yè shí gão tāng, ging ying tāng, Clear the Palace Decoction.
Often paired with
Licorice rootGlycyrrhiza glabra
Mai Men DongOphiopogon japonicus
Lian QiaoForsythia suspensa
HoneysuckleLonicera japonica
Chinese mintMentha canadensis
BurdockArctium lappaNearby on the shelf
LogwoodHaematoxylon campechianum
Long pepperPiper longum
Long-stamen onionAllium macrostemon
LonganDimocarpus longan
Loquat LeafEriobotrya japonica
LovageLevisticum officinale
LungwortPulmonaria officinalis
Lungwort LichenLobaria pulmonariaThe whole plate is in the library. The compass, Compare, the Sky of eleven hundred plants and the formulary open with an email address and a password, free, with the formula builder and its safety engine. Herbert without limit, his formulating, clients, the handouts and the labels are the paid room.
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