White Peony Root

The effects of White Peony include nourishing the blood, regulating menstruation, reinforcing yin with astringent action to stop sweating, nourishing the liver pain and suppressing the liver-yang.

Why it is Recommended

Uses Include:

• Irregular menstruation, dysmenorrhea, metrorrhagia and metrostaxis due to blood deficiency.  It is often used along with Chinese angelica root, chuanxiong rhizome, and prepared rehmannia root.
• Spontaneous sweating due to exterior deficiency and night sweat due to yin deficiency.  For the former, it is often used with cinnamon twig; for the latter, it is often prescribed with oyster shell, dragon's bone, arborvitae seed, etc.
• Pain in the hypochondrium, stomach and abdomen due to disorder of the liver-qi or spasm and pain in the extremities.  For pain in the hypochondrium due to stagnation of the liver-qi, it is often dispensed with bupleurum root and cyperus tuber, as in Bupleurum Powder for Dispersing Liver-qi (Chai Hu Shu Gan San); for abdominal pain and diarrhea, it can be used with white atractylodes rhizome, tangerine peel and ledebouriella root, as in Prescription of Importance for Diarrhea with Pain(Tong Xie Yao Fang); for dysenteric abdominal pain, it can be used with aucklandia root, areca seed and coptis root; for spasmodic pain of the stomach and abdomen or in the extremities, it is often used with liquorice as in Decoction of Peony and liquorice (Shao Yao Gan Cao Tang).
• For hyperactivity of the liver-yang marked by headache and vertigo, it is often used along with dried rehmannia root, achyranthes root and red ochre, as in Sweeping Down Decoction for Hypertension(Jian Ling Tang).

Instructions

Dosage and administration: 5-10gm, or 15-30gm in large dosage, decocted in water for an oral dose.  For inducing astringency to reinforce yin, calming the liver and treating dysentery, it is usually used unprepared; for nourishing the liver to relieve pain, it is usually used stir-baked; it is made less cold after stir-baking with wine.

Counter-Indicators and Warnings

The herb should not be used alone in cases of yang exhaustion with cold manifestations of deficiency type.  It is incompatible with black hellebore (Radix Veratri).