Cassia Bark

VARIANT NAMES: Guipi, Mugui, Zigui, Yugui, Lagui.

ORIGIN: The bark of trunks and branches of Cinnamo mum cassia [Lauraceae].

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION: Containing 1 to 2% of cinnamic oil, mainly composed of 75 to 90 % of cinnamic aldehyde, a little cinnamyl acetate and phenyl propyl acetate, etc.

NATURE, FLAVOR AND CHANNEL TROPISM: Pungent and sweet in flavor, and hot in nature, acting on the channels of the kidney, spleen and urinary bladder.

EFFICIENCIES AND INDICATIONS: Invigorating the kidney-yang, warming the spleen and stomach, removing retention of coldness, promoting blood circulation. It is used to treat decline of the fire from the gate of life (kidney-yang), cold extremities and faint pulse, prostration syndrome due to yang depletion, Chronic Antral Gastritis, diarrhea, periumbilical colic due to invasion of cold and sensation of qi rushing, Rheumatic Arthritis, Amenorrhea, mass in the abdomen, Cellulitis (Phlegmon), Pyemia (Multiple Abscess), upward flowing of deficiency yang, syndrome of heat in the upper and cold in the lower.

DIRECTIONS: To be decocted for oral administration,or eaten cooked together with vegetables, or used as an ingredient of a recipe. It can be ground into powder for external application, soaked in alcoholic drinks to spread on the affected part.  Precaution should be taken by women in pregnancy or patients with symptoms of excessive fire due toyin deficiency.