- Chinese Medicinal Herbs -- A Modern Edition of a Classic sixteenth-century Manual... Li Shih-chen
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/048642801X/qid=1135130667/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-5285295-4235040?n=507846&s=books&v=glance
I will type one page from the book, it's about ephedra, which was
banned by Bush govement for some sake.
EPHEDRA VULGARIS - 麻黄 (MA-huang), 801. This is a common plant in
north China and Mongolia. The principal supply of the drug seems to
have come from Honan province. The plant, with its leafless branches,
has a slight resemblance to Equisetum(木贼-xw), and in Japan as well
as in China has been confounded with this latter. It bears yellow
flowers, and produces red, edible berries, which have been likened
to the raspberry. Pistillate and staminate flowers are borned on
different plants. The drug consists of the yellow, jointed stems of
the plant, tied up in bundles, or the stems from which the joints have
been rejected, cut up into a chaff-like mass. The reason for rejecting
the joints is because they are considered to have a medical action
differing from, and in a measure counteracting that of the stems.
The action is represented as decidedly diaphoretic and antipyretic.
It is prescribed in fevers, especially malarial fever, in coughs,
influenza, and post-partum difficulties. Its use should not be long
continued, lest it weaken the body.
The root, which is also know as 狗骨(Kou-ku), together with the joints,
is considered to have an action directly opposed to that of the stem,
and is therefore prescribed in profuse sweating, either critical or
natural. It is used as a dusting powder, applied to the whole body.
Although it probably has some astringent property, it is not recommend
-ed for any other difficulty, or to be used in any different way.
The fruit is mucilaginous, with a slightly acrid or pungent flavor, and
is eaten by the Chinese.
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It's quite good a book, translated by Lao-wai doctors.
xw