Botanical Name: Ophiopogonis Radix
Mai Men Dong
Category: Tonify the Yin
Taste: Sweet, Slightly Bitter
Temperature: Slightly Cold
Channels Entered: Heart, Lung, Stomach
Dosage: 6-15g
Key Characteristics: Nourishes the yin, clears the Lungs, augments the Stomach, and generates fluids.
Cautions and Contraindications:
- Contraindicated in those with loose stools from Spleen deficiency, turbid phlegm or thin mucus in the Lungs or Stomach, or in the early stages of wind-cold coughs.
Actions and Indications:
- Moistens the Lungs and nourishes the yin: used whenever the Lung yin has been injured with such signs as either a hacking, dry cough or a cough with thick sputum that is difficult to expectorate, or coughing up blood. Most suitable when the cause is pathogenic warm-dryness or dryness that has transformed into fire, as the herb also has some ability to cool the Lungs.
- Augments the Stomach yin and generates fluids: for dry tongue and mouth due to insufficient Stomach yin.
- Moistens the Intestines: for constipation, dry mouth, and irritability, as in the aftermath of a febrile disease or any pattern of yin deficiency.
- Clears the Heart and eliminates irritability: for irritability due to yin deficiency or a warm-heat pathogen disease at the nutritive level. In both cases, the fever and irritability worsen at night.
