Understanding herb properties helps us know how they work and how to use them to treat patients.
Unlike Western herbology which matches herbs to symptoms, Chinese medicine treats patterns of disharmony like Liver Qi stagnation, Kidney Yin deficiency, etc.
Herb properties are categorized by temperature, taste, entering channel, and direction.
Temperature (Qi)
Herb temperatures: hot, warm, cool, cold, and neutral/balanced.
Basic treatment principle: hot diseases must be cooled, cold diseases must be warmed.
Examples:
Warm: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg (common in winter foods).
Cool: watermelon, mint (common in summer).
Complicated patterns may require combining hot and cold herbs.
The Five Tastes (Flavors)
Sour: Induces astringency (stops leakage of qi and fluids; e.g., spontaneous sweating, incontinence, chronic cough).
Bitter: Clears heat, drains fire, and dries dampness (e.g., treats damp heat and cold-damp).
Sweet: Tonifies and moistens (used for deficiencies such as Qi, blood, yin, and yang deficiencies, but can cause stagnation).
Acrid (Spicy): Moves and disperses (expels pathogenic influences and promotes sweating; e.g., ginger, garlic).
Salty: Softens hardness and purges excess (treats hard nodules, has a laxative effect).
Additional Properties
Bland: Promotes urination and drains dampness (used for edema, water retention, and UTIs).
Aromatic: Opens and awakens sensory orifices and the spleen (used for Vicks VapoRub-like effects).
Astringent: Similar to sour but not necessarily sour in flavor (stops leakage).
Five Phase Correspondences
Each flavor corresponds to one of the five phases:
Sour: Wood (liver)
Bitter: Fire (heart)
Sweet: Earth (spleen)
Acrid: Metal (lung)
Salty: Water (kidney)
Entering Channels
Herbs can enter specific channels to have therapeutic effects.
Not all herbs' entering channels are universally agreed upon.
Examples:
Mint (Bo He): Enters lung and liver channels to disperse wind-heat and move liver Qi.
Use entering channels as a means of understanding herb functions in relation to specific body areas.
Direction of Action
Herbs can move in different directions: upward, downward, inward, outward, or to a specific body area.
Examples:
Upward: Flowers treat head and face symptoms.
Downward: Roots and minerals anchor ascendant yang.
Outward: Expel pathogens from the exterior.
Direction is often implied and found in commentary rather than explicitly stated.
Clinical Application
The key is understanding patterns of disharmony, not merely symptoms.
Example: Insomnia
Patient 1: Liver Qi stagnation transforming into fire → Cool, bitter, and acrid herbs entering liver channel.
Patient 2: Spleen Qi deficiency with heart blood deficiency → Warm, sweet herbs entering spleen and heart channels.
Conclusion
Questions like "what's a good herb for insomnia?" don't apply because of the need to treat underlying patterns.
Diagnosis → Treatment Principle → Herb Selection.
Additional Notes
Other videos and resources available for further learning.