Sheng Ma is a traditional Chinese medicine, also known as Longyan root or Zhou Ma. It is a perennial herbaceous plant that grows 1-2 meters tall. It is distributed in Tibet, Yunnan, Sichuan, western Qinghai, and Shanxi. The best time to harvest Sheng Ma is in autumn. After removing the mud and sand, it is dried for later use. The specific effects and functions of Sheng Ma are as follows:
Sheng Ma
Effects of Sheng Ma
【Properties and Channels】It has a pungent and slightly sweet taste, and a slightly cold property. It belongs to the lung, spleen, stomach, and large intestine meridians.
【Functions】It can uplift Yang, promote eruption, penetrate rashes, and detoxify.
It is used to treat epidemic diseases with time-related qi, headache with cold and fever, prickly heat with itching, sore throat, sudden swelling and toxicity, stomach heat and toothache, mouth ulcers, and rashes that do not penetrate the skin. It is also used for sinking of Qi, chronic diarrhea, chronic dysentery, prolapse of the anus, excessive menstruation or abnormal vaginal discharge in women, and abscesses and swelling.
1. "Classic of Herbal Medicine": It can detoxify all kinds of poisons and repel warm diseases and obstructive evil (also known as miasma and evil qi).
2. "Records of Other Medicines": It is used for abdominal pain due to evil qi, time-related diseases, headache with cold and fever, wind-induced swelling and various poisons, and sore throat and mouth ulcers.
3. "Theory of Medicinal Properties": It is used to treat wind in children, epilepsy, and time-related heat diseases. It can also treat toothache with swollen and painful gums, rotten and foul-smelling tooth roots, and hot and toxic pus and blood. It can remove heat and toxins that block the heart and lungs, mouth ulcers, and restlessness. It can also treat abscesses, pea-like ulcers, and apply water decoction to the affected area.
4. "Rihuazi's Materia Medica": It calms the spirit, disperses wind-induced swelling and toxins, and relieves bad breath.
5. "Collection of Decoctions": "Secrets of Treatment" states that it treats lung atrophy, coughing up pus and blood, and can induce sweating.
6. "Southern Yunnan Materia Medica": It treats eruptive rashes in children, resolves ulcer toxins, swollen throat, wheezing cough and hoarseness. It treats lung heat and alleviates toothache. It also treats mastitis and mumps.
7. "Compendium": It eliminates rashes, removes stolen blood, treats sinking of the yang with dizziness and convulsions, chest and side pain, chronic diarrhea and dysentery, turbidity retention, excessive vaginal discharge, excessive menstruation, blood in urine, impotence and cold feet.
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Sheng Ma
Functions of Sheng Ma
1. Sheng Ma is used for treating heat-induced rashes, swollen and rotten gums, mouth and tongue ulcers, sore throat, and ulcers.
It has the effect of clearing heat and detoxifying, and is commonly used with gypsum and coptis to treat gum swelling and rottenness, mouth and tongue ulcers, and sore throat.
For high fever in febrile diseases, body rash, and painful and swollen ulcers, Sheng Ma can be used with honeysuckle, forsythia, red peony, and angelica.
2. Sheng Ma is used for promoting eruption in measles.
Due to its weak eruptive power, it is not commonly used for superficial symptoms. However, it is often used for promoting eruption in measles, usually in combination with kudzu root.
3. Sheng Ma has the functions of uplifting and raising, and clearing heat and detoxifying.
It has a similar uplifting and raising effect as Chai Hu and kudzu root, but its strength is stronger. It can be paired with Chai Hu for uplifting and raising, and with kudzu root for promoting eruption.
It also has excellent heat-clearing and detoxifying effects, which is its characteristic. It can be used with coptis and gypsum to treat stomach heat and toothache, and with scutellaria, forsythia, great burdock seed, and isatis root to treat facial erysipelas.
Sheng Ma
4. Sheng Ma is used for sinking of Qi, chronic diarrhea, and prolapse of the uterus.
Sheng Ma has a similar effect of uplifting and raising Yang Qi as Chai Hu, so these two herbs are often used together. They are often paired with qi-tonifying herbs such as Codonopsis pilosula and Astragalus membranaceus to uplift Yang Qi and raise the sinking.
Sheng Ma can also be used to treat postpartum urinary retention, poisoning from the Datura plant, sinusitis, dermatomyositis, systemic lupus erythematosus, infantile autumn diarrhea, hemorrhoids, and Parkinson's disease.
5. Sheng Ma Biejia Tang (from "Synopsis of the Golden Chamber") is used to treat diseases caused by yang toxins, such as red and spotted face, sore throat, and vomiting of pus and blood.
6. Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang (from "Treatise on the Spleen and Stomach") can tonify the middle and boost Qi, uplift Yang Qi, and treat conditions such as Qi deficiency and sinking, fatigue, fever, spontaneous sweating, thirst for warm drinks, chronic diarrhea, chronic dysentery, prolapse of the uterus, and anal prolapse.
7. Sheng Ma Ge Gen Tang (from "Yan's Pediatric Formulas") can relieve muscle tension and promote eruption. It is used to treat typhoid fever, warm diseases, fever with headache, limb pain, and rashes that have not yet erupted.
8. Sheng Ma Wan (from "Sheng Hui Fang") is used to treat throat obstruction and blocked saliva and fluids.
9. Sheng Ma Tang (from "Medical Encyclopedia") can strengthen Qi and uplift the sinking. It is used to treat sinking of qi in the chest, shortness of breath, difficult breathing, and weak and slow pulse.
10. Sheng Ma Guan Zhong Tang is a prescription (10g Sheng Ma, 12g Guan Zhong, 10g Bai Zhi, 10g Honeysuckle, 6g Sophora flavescens, 10g Dandelion, 6g Lithospermi radix, 6g Moutan bark, 12g Centella asiatica, 10g Licorice) used to treat neurodermatitis, and it has achieved good results (Yunnan Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 2000, 23(1):38).
