Nature: bitter, cold
Enter: Large Intestine, Liver, Stomach
Actions: Cools the blood; clears heat; eliminates toxicity.
Indications:
• Key herb for dysentery (bacterial or amebic) due to damp-heat or heat-toxicity: fever, abdominal pain, loose stools with pus and blood, tenesmus. Can be used alone for this.
• Effective in treating scrofula after it has ulcerated and when healing is slow.
Hsu: Anti-trichomonas; antiamebic; cardiotonic effects, dilates peripheral vessels.
K&R: (P. vulgaris – Pasque flower) Antispasmodic, emmenagogue, sedative, estrogen antagonist, sympatholytic. Wood excess.
• One of the best plants to drain repletion of Liver Yang, the whole plant is used to treat symptoms of Liver fire, hyperthyroid symptoms, tachycardia, neuralgia, migraines, bronchial spasms of pertussis, allergic rhinitis and asthma, spasms of colonopathy on the right side, colitis, dysmenorrhea, liver congestion, symptoms of depression with the sudden mood swings of menopause, pain in the pelvic and genital area, pelvic congestion, hysteria, phobias, anguish.
• Also has diaphoretic and diuretic properties.
• All parts of the fresh plant are dangerous, causing nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, intestinal spasms, skin inflammation, and asphyxiation.
RW: (P. vulgaris) Take internally for inner eye conditions: iritis, scleritis, disease of the retina, and above all, grey or senile cataract and glaucoma. (More effectiveness in glaucoma than cataract.)
IBIS: Affinities: female reproductive tract.
• Sedative, analgesic, antispasmodic, antibacterial.
[Western] dosage: tincture: 0.1 – 10 gtt. t.i.d.; up to 60 gtt. t.i.d. (Hoffman).
• Therapy: toothache, insomnia, headache, depression/irritability, nervous conditions; dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea, leukorrhea, spasm in reproductive system; skin infections, respiratory tract infections, asthma.
• Contraindicated for use in pregnancy; uterine stimulant and gastrointestinal irritant (De Smet, Farnsworth).
• Contraindicated for nursing mothers because of its gastrointestinal irritant effect (Brinker, Brooks).
Dose: 6-15g