Honey Suckle- Jin Yin Hua

[vikinggoddess]

Jin Yin Hua "Gold Silver Flower" Honeysuckle Lonicera japonica

Find the picture of my honeysuckles here: http://www.chinesetherapeutics.org/jinyinhua.html

Unopened Honeysuckle Flowers are used traditionally in Chinese Medicine in decoctions to clear heat and toxicity. It is antimicrobial and useful to treats all types of fevers and infections, as well as spider bite. The legend of this flower is that when nothing else would help 2 young twin girls who had a fever with skin eruptions. This flower is safe for children, and I have used it successfully combined with other herbs to treat various infections.

The meridians entered are the Lung, Stomach and Large Intestine. It is sweet and cold in nature.

The stem is called Ren Dong Teng is also used in Chinese medicine to clear heat toxicity, unblock the meridians, and stop pain from skin infection and Wind-Damp heat painful obstruction disorder.

Dose in Decoction for the dried flower is 9-15g and for the stem ia 9-30g. Notes on Harvesting from Herbal Emmisaries by Steven Foster and Yue Chong-Xi: "The stems are harvested in autumn and winter. The floweres are harvested May-June. In early morning after dew has dried from the flowers, the large unopened buds are picked and dried in the sun."

[herb ox]

Sister Vikinggoddess,

Thank you for your previous post on Jin Yin Hua.

Jin Yin Hua is an essential ingredient in Yin Qiao Chieh Tu Pian a favorite 'cold (really heat)' remedy of mine. Would you be so kind as to enlighten us on the nature of one of the other major ingredients in the formula - Forsythia or Lian Qiao - is this the Qiao of Yin Qiao?


Qiao,

herb ox

[frog]

Yup, the formula is named after jin yin hua and lian qiao, which are generally considered the king herbs of the formula.

Qin Bo-wei (a famous modern master of TCM) disagreed. He maintained that since the focus of the formula was on releasing the exterior, the chief herbs should naturally be dan dou chi, jing jie and bo he. He maintained that the author of this formula, Wu Ju-tong, named the formula this in order to emphasize that exterior heat disorders should be treated with cold herbs. It wasn't until the 18th century when wen bing (warm disease) theory begun to replace shang han lun formulas for use in warm exterior disorders. Until then, most practitioners only used Zhang Zhong-jing's formulas which only used warm herbs.

[vikinggoddess]

I would not agree with Qin Bo-Wei on the emphasis of Exterior releasing herbs for wind-heat/ common cold. I actually find that using Jin Yin Hua singly is very effective for heat infections/ bacterial or viral. I am not a TCM purist in my formulations. For example, with success I use for 1) Lung infection with phlegm: Jin Yin Hua, Huang Qin, Ban Xia, for 2) Throat infection: Jin Yin Hua, Qing Dai, for 3) Ear infection: Jin Yin Hua, Huang Qin, Chai Hu. Number 3 I have used for infant as young as 3 months. Most formulas I add Gan Cao, like a good TCM person, but I almost always add Shan Zha to promote digestion of the formula.

I would like to have the Forsythia/ Lian Qiao. It is on my wish list of plants. It likes full sun or partila shade. It is hardy throughout the US. The fruits are used to treat sore throat among other things and are anti microbial.

I am really focused to grow my own Chinese herbs and am making a lot of progress in this direction. I wish that more TCM people would grow their Chinse herbs. Just received Angelica archangelica, She Gan, Jie Geng, etc. seeds in the mail from doing seed trades on gardenweb.com

[YuanZhideDiZhen]

isn't forsythia a mild neuro toxin?