The gallbladder is connected with the liver and contains bile. The bile comes from the liver and is the accumulation of the surplus part of liver-qi. The bile is yellow in color and bitter in taste, playing an important role in assisting the absorption of food. That is why the bile is called "the essential juice" or "the lucid juice" and the gallbladder is called "the fu-organ of essential juice" or "the fu-organ of lucid juice" in TCM.

The physiological function of the gallbladder is to store and excrete the bile. The gallbladder itself is empty. After produced by the liver, the bile is stored in the gallbladder and directed by the dredging and dispersing functions of the liver, excreted into the small intestine to participate in the process of digestion and absorption of food and promote the small intestine to separate the lucid from the turbid.

     

 Whether the excretion of the bile is normal or not is concerned with the dredging and dispersing functions of the liver on the one hand and the unobstructed condition of the gallbladder on the other. Failure of the liver to dredge and disperse or obstruction of the gallbladder itself will affect the excretion of the bile and disturb digestion and absorption, frequently leading to anorexia, abdominal distension, vomiting, hypochondriac pain or even jaundice if the bile is extravasated in the muscles and skin.