Chinese Cornbind

Latin name: Radix Polygoni Multiflori

Chinese Name: HeShouWu

Traditional Uses

Actions: Nourishes yin, replenishes sperm and blood, tonifies liver kidneys

Applications: Deficiency of liver and kidney yin, prematurely white hair, pain in the loins and knees, involuntary emission, functional bleeding, intestinal wind, chronic malaria, carbuncle, scrofula

Pharmacology

(1) Purgative effect: It stimulates peristaltic movements of the intestine to induce defecation. The active constituents are the derivatives of anthraquinone.

(2) Cholesterol level-lowering effect: In experiments with rabbits, it inhibits the increase of serum cholesterol and also decreases the absorption of cholesterol by the alimentary canal. This action is probably due to the ability of its constituents to combine with cholesterol to inhibit increase in cholesterol.

(3) Effect on arteriosclerosis: It prevents the retention of lipid in the serum or inhibits the deposition of lipoid on the inner membrane of arteries, probably because of its lecithin content.

(4) Antiviral effect: It has been shown to act against viruses.

(5) Other effects: It is cardiotonic, especially to exhausted hearts; it stimulates extirpated frog heart and also causes blood sugar to first rise and then fall. The anthraquinon derivatives in the herb possess a stimulatory action on the nervous system.

Reference: Hung-yen Hsu, Ph.D. and Associates: Oriental Materia Medica A Concise Guide 1986, Keats Publishing