Common cold, fever treated with TCM Siler Root

What is Siler Root(Fang Feng)?
Also known as Ledebouriella Root, Siler Root, Radix Ledebouriellae Divaricatae, radix saposhnikoviae divaricata, Saposhnikovia Divaricata root, and Radix Saposhnikoviae, this herb actually means the dried root of Saposhnikovia divaricata (Turcz.) Schischk., a plant in the family of Umbelliferae.

This is a perennial herb, is 30 to 80 cm high, and the whole plant is hairless. Root is stout. Caudex is densely covered with brown fibrous petiole residues. Stem is solitary, and usually with 2 branches. Basal leaves are triangular-ovate, 7 to 19cm long, 2 to 3 pinnately divided, and ultimately with bar-like to lanceolate lobes and entire margin. Petiole is 2 to 6.5cm long. Apical leaves are simplified and with extended sheath. Compound umbel is acrogenous. Cremocarp is ovoid, and when it is young with warts and when it is mature split into 2 carinal schizocarps, which are hung at the top of carpopodium. It blooms from August to September and fruits from September to October.

Main chemical constituents are chromones, coumarins, polyacetylenes, essential oil, saposhnikovan A, C, and so on. Chromones mainly include lede-bouriellol, 4′-O-glucosyl-5-O-methylvisamminol, 3′-O-angeloyl-hamaudol, hamaudol, 3′-O-acetyl-hamaudol, sec-O-glucosylhamaudol, 5-O-methylyisamminol, cimifugin, prim-O-glucosylcimifugin; coumarins mainly contain bergapten, psoralen, imperatorin, phellopterin, deltoin, xanthotoxin, anomalin, scopoletin, marmesin; polyacetylenes mainly are panaxynol or falcarinol, falcarindiol, (8E)-heptadeca-1,8-dien-4,6-diyn-3,10diol; essential oil mainly contains octanal, β-bisabolene, nonanal, 7-octen-4-ol, hexanal, cuparene, β-eudesmol, and so on.

Fang Feng benefits
Fang Feng root was listed in the highest grade herbs by Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic. As mentioned previously, it got its name because of its excellent medicinal uses for exterior syndrome by expelling and preventing wind pathogen. And now let’s take a look what the modern pharmacology said about this miraculous herb.

Modern pharmacological actions
1. Antipyretic effects. Experimental observation found that its decoction, half hour after intragastric administration, showed antipyretic effect to febrile rabbits induced by intravenous injection with typhoid mixed vaccine. And the effect could last up to 2 hours;
2. Antishock. Experiment indicated that mice receive a few times of gavage with its decoction showed certain counteraction to shock;
3. Antibiosis. Its water extract has some antibacterial effect to Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus, and Shigella. In vitro it also inhibits Microsporon lanosum;
4. Analgesia. In the experiment of mice given a gavage of its ethanol extract, it showed that its ethanol extract can significantly improve pain threshold and so did its subcutaneous injection.