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Scrophularia ningpoensis Hemsl.
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English Name |
Figwort, |
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Latin name |
Scrophularia ningpoensis Hemsl. |
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Family & Genus |
Scrophulariaceae, Scrophularia |
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Description |
Perennial herb, 60-120cm high. Root enlarged, nearly cylindrical, lower part often branched, bark greyish yellow or grey brown. Stems erect, tetragonal, with groove, smooth or glandular pilose. The lower leaves opposite, upper leaves sometimes alternate, petiolate; leaf blade ovate or ovate-oblong, length 7-20cm, width 3.5-12cm, apex acuminate, base rounded to nearly truncate, margin serrulate, glabrous, veins on dorsal surface hairy. Cymes loosely shaped, conical; pedicels 1-3cm long, rachis and pedicels glandular hairy; calyx 5 cleft, lobes ovate, apex obtuse, margin membranous; corolla dark purple, tube inclined urn-shaped, ca. 8mm long, apex 5 cleft, unequal in length; staminal 4, didynamous, and another staminode, scaly, adnate to corolla tube; ovary ca. 8mm, deep green or dark green, calyx persistent. Flowering: July to August, fruiting: August to September. |
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Distribution |
Growing under slope forests. Distributed in Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Sichuan, Guizhou. Cultivated in all the southern parts of China. The medicinal materials are mainly produced in Zhejiang. |
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Part Used |
Medical part: roots. Chinese name: Xuanshen. |
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Harvest & Processing |
After cultivation of one year, collected from Oct-Nov when leaves wither. Excavated the whole plant, picked off root tuber, sun-dried or baked to half dried, piled up, covered with straw, compacted tightly, sundried, repeated several times till inner tuber turn black and sun-dried (or baked) to full dry. |
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Chemistry |
Roots contain iridoids compounds: harpahide, harpagoside [1], aucubin, [7-hydroxy-9-hydroxymaethyl-3-oxo-bi-cycol[4.3.0]-8-nonene]; ningpogenin, ningpogoside A and B; asparagine, essential oils, fat and acid, etc. |
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Pharmacology |
Preserving effects on cardiovascular system, CNS-inhibiting, anti-bacterial and slightly blood-sugar-lowering. |
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Properties & Actions |
Taste sweet, bitter, salt, little cold in nature.Clearing heat and cooling blood, nourishing yin and clearing pathogenic fire, detoxifying and dissipating binds. |
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Indications & Usage |
Damp heat, pyretic diseases and Ying blood, general fever, dipsesis, dark red tongue, eruptions, osteopyrexia and over-strained cough, deficient dysphoria and insomnia, constipation due to body fluid deficiency, dryness and uncomfortable feeling of the eye due to dizziness, swelling pain in the throat, scrofula and tuberculosis, superficial infection and pyocutaneous disease.Oral administration: decocting, 9-15g; or made as pills or powders. External application: appropriate amount, smashed for applying or powdered for applying. |
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Examples |
Treat scanty saliva and stomach dryness: figwort 90g, moutan bark, stir-fried jujube kernel 30g each, dan-shen 15g, biotae semen, lotus seed kernel 9g each, decoct in water and swallow. |
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