Shi Hu, 1lb

Slightly salty, bland sweet, and cold, Dendrobii Herba (shi hu) enters the Stomach and Kidney channels, and is best at nourishing the Stomach yin, expelling heat from deficiency, and treating injury to the yang fluids in the aftermath of a warm pathogen disease with such manifestations as a scarlet tongue with little coating, insatiable thirst, and a persistent low-grade fever. The Detailed Materia Medica says that it "reinforces the Kidneys without injurious heat, and calms the Stomach without injurious drying: a substance of middle harmony." Extension of the Materia Medica adds that it "treats heat from deficiency in the Stomach." Although it is listed as a superior medicinal in the Divine Husbandman's Classic of the Materia Medica, it was not until the publication of Miao-Yong's commentary on the Divine Husbandman's Classic of Materia Medica, and its influence on the famous physicians Ye Tian-Shi and Wang Meng-Ying, that it became really popular. Omissions from the Grand Materia Medica notes that using this as a tea can "clear Stomach heat, expel heat from deficiency, generate fluids, unbind the Stomach, and strengthen the Spleen." * --excerpted from Bensky: Chinese Herbal Medicine Materia Medica, 3rd ed.