Leukopenia treated with TCM Sanguisorba officinalis

What is Sanguisorba officinalis(Di Yu)? This is a plant belonging to Sanguisorba genus in the family Rosaceae. Other common names include garden burnet, bloodwort, and great burnet. But when it comes to TCM, it largely means the dried root of Sanguisorba officinalis L. or Sanguisorba officinalis L.var.longifolia(Bertol.)Yü et Li. For better medicinal value, the best harvest time is in spring when they are about to sprout or in autumn when the plants withered. After that, the fibrous roots have to be removed and the root needs to be washed, dried, or sliced before dried.

Sanguisorba officinalis is distributed in the north temperate zone of Asia, throughout Europe and China. This plant grows in area at altitude of 30 meters to 3,000 meters. Wild habitats include bushwood, hillside meadow, prairie, meadow and woodland. Now it is also introduced and cultivated artificially. This is a perennial herb, 30 to 120cm in height. Root is stout, mostly fusiform, and rarely cylindrical. Root surface is brown or purple-brown, with longitudinal wrinkles, transverse cracks, and yellowish white or aubergine smooth transection. Stems are erect, carinal, and glabrous or with sparse hairs on base. Basal leaves are pinnate, with 4 to 6 pairs of leaflets, glabrous petiole or base with sparse hairs. Spica is oval, cylindrical or ovoid, erect, usually 1 to 4cm long, 0.5 to 1cm in diameter, and flowering from the top to bottom. Fruits are concealed in the persistent calyx tube and with edges outside. And it blooms and fruits during July to October.

Radix Sanguisorba officinalis health benefits
Sanguisorba, its Latin scientific name, means blood sucking literally. In Middle Ages people tended to judge plants with their appearance. As a result, its crimson inflorescence convinced people that it had some kind of hemostatic effect. This conclusion happens to be the striking echo from the ancient Chinese. And now let’s take a look at what modern medicine said about this herb.

Modern pharmacological actions
1. Its decoction significantly shortens the bleeding and clotting time. And fresh one performs better than charred one;
2. Experiments show that this herb has amazing healing effect on fire burn, scald, and wound. It lowers capillary permeability, reduces exudate, and relieves tissue edema. What’s more, this herb can form a protective layer on the wound, which promotes the healing, reduces skin abrasions, and prevents infection. Hence it helps avoid shock during early stage in fire burn and scald and reduce mortality rate.
3. In vitro experiments showed that its water decoction inhibited typhoid bacillus, meningococcus, Leptospira, and so on. Besides, it is especially true to the Shigella.