Mulberry leaf and chrysanthemum
Sang Ju Yin · Chinese Herbalism
The first autumn colds are dry ones. October air has lost its water, and the cough it brings is a tickle rather than a rattle, with a warm forehead, a scratched throat and a thirst that a glass does not settle. Sang Ju Yin was written for exactly this. Mulberry leaf and chrysanthemum, both gathered after the frost, cool the head and clear the eyes; mint and forsythia open the surface; platycodon and apricot kernel settle the chest; reed rhizome, which grows with its feet in water, puts moisture back; licorice makes it one drink. It is light, meant for the first two or three days, and it teaches a lesson about autumn medicine: cool the heat, but never dry what is already dry. In the sky the chrysanthemum star is the brightest of the seven; it stands in more formulas than any flower I know.
Herbert is the master herbalist inside Bountiful Herbs. Each month one formula from the formulary is lit in the Sky, the map of every plant and the lines the formulas draw between them. Members open this address and see it lit; the first ten questions to Herbert are free.
Mulberry leafMorus alba
ChrysanthemumChrysanthemum × morifolium
Field mintMentha canadensis
ForsythiaForsythia suspensa
PlatycodonPlatycodon grandiflorus
Reed rhizomePhragmites australis
LicoriceGlycyrrhiza glabra