Wind phlegm vertigo, coma treated with TCM pinellia rhizome

What is pinellia rhizome(Ban Xia)? It is a perennial herb in Araceae, 15 to 35cm high, with tuber nearly in spherical shape, and 0.5 to 3.0cm in diameter. TCM wise, the medicinal part is the tuber, namely Rhizoma Pinelliae Ternatae (Thunb.) Breit.

The dried pinelliae tuber is spherical, semiorbicular, or oblique, 0.8 to 2cm in diameter. Surface is white or light yellow, with yellow spotted residual cortex. The top is mostly round and flattened, with yellowish brown depressed stem scars in the middle and dense brown pit-shape fibril scars around, and underneath is the blunt sleek end. The quality is solid and compact. The kidney-shaped vertical section is pure white and with fine mealiness, but grayish white or with yellow streaks in older ones or in those unfitting the drying process. Medicinally the preferred one is bigger, clean white, solid and with fine mealiness.

What is it used for?
From the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), it is acrid, warm, and toxic in nature and covers meridians of lung, spleen, and stomach. Main functions are to dry dampness and transform phlegm, descend reversed Qi and stop vomiting, and relieve oppression and resolve hard mass. Main usage and indications are cough and dyspnea due to excessive phlegm, dizziness and palpitation caused by phlegm and fluid retention, wind-phlegm vertigo, headache and coma due to blocking of the respiratory system, nausea and vomiting, distention and fullness in chest, and globus hysteriocus. In addition, externally it is used for swelling and ulcer, pyogenic infections, and venomous snake bite. Usual dosage is 4.5 to 12 grams.

Variations
Because of the different processing methods adopted, there are a few different variations clinically for different purposes.

(1). Unprocessed pinellia (Sheng). It is the raw tube, impurities removed, cleaned, dried, and mashed when applied. The form is toxic so that it is mainly used externally for reducing swelling and easing pain;

(2). Purified pinellia (Qing). It is soaked, boiled, or salted in Ku fan (alum) solution, which eliminates the side effects of tingling to throat and reduce the toxicity. This form is mainly used for drying dampness and transforming phlegm. They are close to round or kidney-shaped thick slices, 6 to 18mm in diameter, ivory white skin, yellowish brown rim, looming yellowish white stars scattered in vascular. It is slightly pungent and puckery;

(3). Gingered pinellia (Jiang). It is boiled, salted, or steamed by ginger and alum or fried by ginger only, which is mainly used for transforming phlegm by warming middle-burner and stopping vomiting by descending the reversed Qi. It looks like the purified one, thin slice, glossy surface, transparent, greyish yellow or light yellow, keratin-like texture, and crisp. It is slightly pungent and with ginger flavor;

(4). Pro formula (standard) pinellia (Fa). It is the most commonly used form. It is processed by lime, which is mainly used for cold-phlegm and damp-phlegm while regulating spleen and stomach. It looks like the unprocessed one, yellow or light yellowish white thoroughly, with fine mealiness, crisp quality, slight odor, and thin taste;

(5). Bamboo-juice pinellia (Zhu Li). It refers to unprocessed or pro formula pinellia mixed thoroughly with bamboo juice and then dried in the shade, which thus reduces the warm-dry tremendously. It is suitable for vomiting due to stomach heat, yellow sticky phlegm caused by lung heat, phlegm-heat blocking internally, and aphasia from Apoplexy;