Nature: bitter, cold
Enters: Liver, Gallbladder, Lung
Actions: Promotes blood circulation; relieves pain; eliminates toxicity; clears heat; drains dampness; resolves phlegm; stops coughing; slightly promotes bowel movement.
Indications:
• Especially indicated for a combination of phlegm, damp, heat, and blood stasis.
• Blood stasis: amenorrhea, traumatic injury, Bi syndrome.
• Damp-heat: jaundice, turbid vaginal discharge, painful urination.
• Heat-toxicity: burns, snake bites, skin infections, carbuncles. Often the fresh ground herb is applied topically.
• Lung phlegm-heat: cough.
• Heat accumulation: constipation (use 30g – discharges heat, toxicity).
• While in some users the laxative effect is minimal or absent, in others it can be significant.
• Guohui Liu: especially useful for hepatitis.
• Many constituents (resveratrol, piceatannol, polydatin, emodin) with medicinal properties elucidated through modern research:
– (from the scholarly folks at Herbal Vitality of Sedona) Anti-angiogenic (vitro), antibacterial against streptococci (vitro)/ vibrio (vivo), decreases histamine release (vitro), decreases COX-2 expression (vitro), anti-oxidant (vitro), antiviral – hepatitis B (vitro), anti-inflammatory (vivo), anti-allergenic (vivo), protects against burns (vivo), tyrosine kinase inhibitor, decreases oncogene function (vitro), neuroprotective (emodin / vivo), decreases leukopenia due to radiation (emodin / vivo), polydatin is cardioprotective (vitro) and decreases CAM expression (vivo), resveratrol has glucose regulating properties (vitro), inhibits cancer cell lines (vitro), decreases VEGF activity (vivo), decreases expression of NF-KappaB, COX-2, MMP9 (vivo), protects against bone loss (vivo), and is anti-inflammatory (vivo); piceatannol is hypolipidemic (vivo); stilbenes cause apoptosis of leukemic cells (vitro).
• Antiviral, antibacterial.
• Promotes leukocyte proliferation for leukopenia (particularly due to radiation or toxic chemicals).
• Contraindicated in pregnancy.
Examine.com on Resveratrol:
• Resveratrol is best known for its cardiovascular health benefits. In humans, resveratrol improves endothelial function and may have a blood-pressure-lowering effect in some populations. In vitro, resveratrol protects against atherosclerosis.
• In adults with type 2 diabetes, resveratrol improves fasting glucose, HbA1c, and insulin sensitivity but doesn’t appear to benefit adults without the disease. Resveratrol consistently reduces the inflammatory cytokines C-reactive protein (CRP) and TNF-alpha.
• Despite the plausibility of resveratrol’s potential effects on blood lipids and body composition, resveratrol doesn’t appear to improve blood lipids in adults with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) or body composition in adults with cardiometabolic conditions.
• Resveratrol has poor bioavailability due to its rapid and extensive metabolism.
• The therapeutic dose of resveratrol ranges from 8.1 mg per day to 3,000 mg per day. Though human studies suggest resveratrol can be supplemented at dosages up to 5,000 mg (5 grams) daily with few to no side effects outside of some intestinal upset and nausea.
• Resveratrol doses of 1,000 mg/day or more may interfere with the biological effects of commonly administered drugs by inhibiting cytochrome p450 isoenzymes. For example, resveratrol inhibits enzymes that play a role in the metabolism of statins, calcium channel blockers, immunosuppressants, antifungals, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), anticoagulants, beta-blockers, antidepressants, opioid analgesics, and antihistamines, among others.
• The cardioprotective effects of resveratrol are primarily due to its ability to protect cells against oxidative damage by scavenging free radicals and inhibiting their production. Resveratrol also increases antioxidant levels[22] and inhibits the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines (i.e., TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6). Resveratrol also appears to have anti-fibrotic and anti-hypertrophic effects in the heart and may improve mitochondrial biogenesis and function.
• Regarding its lipid-lowering and glucose-lowering effects, resveratrol activates the metabolic regulators AMPK and Sirt1, thereby improving lipid metabolism and fat accumulation in the liver and increasing glucose uptake into skeletal muscle (i.e., improving insulin sensitivity) — explaining resveratrol’s potential to treat nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), type 2 diabetes, and related conditions.
Dose: 9-30g