Nature: bitter, sweet, warm

Enters: Liver, Spleen

Actions: Promotes blood circulation; relieves pain; dispels blood stasis; stops bleeding.

Indications:
• Blood stasis: pain – dysmenorrhea, abdominal pain after childbirth, chest, epigastric, or abdominal pain; lochioschesis, amenorrhea, uterine bleeding.
• Childhood nutritional impairment with focal distention.
• Often combined with Pu huang in Shi Xiao San for pain (usually dysmenorrhea with bleeding).
• Dry fry the herb to stop bleeding.
• Vinegar fry it to enhance its blood circulating properties.
• Often decocted in cheesecloth or a tea bag.
• Bat (Pteropus) feces is sometimes used as this herb.
CHA: Heiko Lade, 3-19-01: No one in China has used the correct Wu ling zhi for about 20 years because the habitats where flying squirrels used to live are virtually non-existent now, and it is almost an extinct species. Instead they use the feces of a wild field rat.
MLT: For fibroids, uterine or ovarian cysts, tumors.
Hsu: Analgesic – relaxes spasm of smooth muscle; antibacterial (tuberculosis), antifungal.

Dose: 3-10g