Hai Piao Xiao

The cuttlefish is one of my favorite animals. Outstandingly it has the ability to change colour in beautiful ways at a moments notice as a form of communication. It is quick and majestic in the water and has numerous other amazing features such as: “w” shaped eyes, 3 hearts to pump green blue blood around, a large brain and a cuttlebone. The cuttlebone is a calcium structure that is filled with gas to change it's buoyancy. Hai Piao Xiao is cuttlebone.

In TCM it’s used to stabilise and bind.

It enters KD, LR and ST and is salty, astringent and slightly warm

Stops bleeding, secures essence and dries dampness

Used for many bleeding patterns, especially from deficiency and it can also be used to stop traumatic bleeding externally. Drying and inhibiting in its characteristics it enters blood level of the Liver channel and restrains bleed, dries vaginal discharge. It enters the Kidney channel and secures essence, and enters Stomach and controls acidity, stops epigastric pain and treat diarrhea and dysentery disorders.

Bensky et al, 2004, Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica 3rd Edition, Eastland Press, USA

Really great video of cuttlefish:

Patient with Eczema and Dysmenorrhea

Here we have herbs for a patient with eczema and Dysmenorrhea (painful period).

The patient has experienced eczema since very young and has a dry itchy skin on the right elbow crease and behind the left knee, which is sometimes exudes puss.

The diagnosis was

Blood Heat, Wind Damp with underlying Yin and Blood Deficiency

We used:

Shen Di Huang 15 g

Chi Shao 15g

Chuan Xiong 12g

He Shou Wu 15g

Bai Ji Li 15g

Bai Xian Pi 15g

Jin Jie 12g

Ku Shen 12g

Xi Xian Cao 15g

Xuan Shen 15g

Yin Chai Hu 15g

Zhi Mu 12g

Gan Cao 6g

The following week I caught up with the individual. Due to Spring developing (more heat) and an increase in consumption of spicy foods that week there was a little bit of improvement but only a little bit.

Feng Fang! Hornet's Nest!

This caught my attention in the dispensary. It's a dried honeycomb used as medicine. After doing some research I found it's labelled in English as wasp nest, bee's nest or more impresively as Hornet's nest!

From Bensky's Materia Medica it says:
Sweet, neutral and toxic (surprised me)
Enters the Lung and Stomach
Should be used ( after decoction) externally, gargled and never swallowed. Listed in the "Substance for External Application Chapter"
Resolves toxicity, expels wind, alleviates pain. Used topically for skin rash, itching, scabies, tinea, sores: mainly swollen toxic sores and can be used for severe toothache.
Toxicity. Some of the volatile oils irritate the kidneys causing headache, back pain, edema, fatigue, reduced urinary output and acute nephritis. However there are few reports of poisoning because probably the volatile oils are dispersed in the process of decoction. Maybe mainly from overdose or raw form of intake.
I am going to miss this dispensary... I'll have to get my own one later!

Packing and wrapping herbs in the Herbal clinic

Here you can see a months worth of herbs being wrapped up. Takes a little while! This particular patient comes in on the last appointment one Friday a month! We are always scrambling to get it done by that time :P

As you can see we always do a great job though :)

Bamboo!

This is here as I like it!

Tattoo, herbs and students

Here's a picture of a fellow student studying tcm in the year above me and her tattoo "Puff" on her right shoulder. In the background were some herbs she was measuring out for a patient. The name of her tattoo is puff the magic dragon .