Learn One Chinese Herb Each Week: Ze Xie (Water Plantain)
Pharmaceutical Name: Alismatis Rhizoma
English Name: alisma rhizome, water plantain
Chinese Name: 泽泻(Ze Xie)
Properties: sweet, bland, cold
Channels Entered: Kidney, Bladder
Key Characteristics: facilitates the fluid pathways, clears blazing ministerial fire
Dosage: 4.5-9g.
Cautions and Contradictions: Use with caution in those with sunken middle burner qi.
Actions and Indications:
Promotes urination and leaches out dampness: for the stagnation associated with dampness with such symptoms as urinary difficulty, edema, painful urinary dribbling, diarrhea, or dizziness. Especially useful when there is damp-heat in the lower burner.
Settles ministerial fire in the Kidneys by draining damp-heat from the lower burner: spermatorrhea due to lower burner damp-heat disturbing the ministerial fire of the Kidneys.