Cortex Moutan, also known as Danpi, is the root bark of the peony plant from the Ranunculaceae family. It is mainly produced in Anhui, Sichuan, Shandong, and other regions. It is commonly used raw or stir-fried.
I. Efficacy and Application
Peony bark tastes bitter and pungent, slightly cold. It belongs to the heart, liver, and kidney meridians.
Efficacy It can clear heat and cool blood, activate blood circulation and dissipate blood stasis, and reduce deficiency heat. Its characteristic is that it is good at treating bone steaming without sweating, and it is effective in resolving coagulated blood to treat abdominal masses. Yi Lao said, "Peony is the essence of heaven and earth, the head of all flowers. The leaves are yang and promote growth, the flowers are yin and bear fruit, and the red color represents fire, so it can purge fire within yin." Wang Ang stated that it is an essential medicine for vomiting blood and nosebleeds.
It is commonly used for the treatment of conditions such as heat entering the nutrient and blood levels, warm toxin causing macules, vomiting blood and nosebleeds, night fever with morning coolness, bone steaming without sweating, amenorrhea and dysmenorrhea, injuries from falls and trauma, and abscesses, swellings, sores, and toxins.
Summary of Masterpieces by Renowned Authors:
"The Classic of Materia Medica": "It primarily treats cold and heat, wind stroke, convulsions and spasms, fright epilepsy and pathogenic qi, eliminates hard masses and stagnant blood, retains and disperses in the stomach and intestines, calms the five viscera, and treats abscesses and sores."
The Pearl Pouch: "Treats gastrointestinal blood stasis, nosebleeds, vomiting blood, and bone-steaming without sweating."
"Compendium of Materia Medica": "Harmonizes blood, generates blood, cools blood, treats hidden fire in the blood, and eliminates vexation and heat."
Medicine Classification and Image: It is an essential medicine for treating gastrointestinal blood stasis, as well as nosebleeds and vomiting blood.
Changsha Medicine Explanation: Its various therapeutic effects include unblocking meridians, promoting childbirth, clearing blood heat, cooling bone steaming, stopping vomiting of blood, ceasing dribbling urination, calming injuries from falls, mending fractures, eliminating leprosy, and reducing unilateral testicular swelling.
Ben Cao Bei Yao: "Drains hidden fire from the blood, harmonizes the blood, cools the blood, and generates blood. Breaks up stagnant blood, unblocks the channels and vessels. Treats wind stroke, five strains, fright epilepsy, and convulsions. Eliminates vexation and heat, treats welling-abscesses and sores. Expels the placenta, and reduces bone-steaming without sweating."
II. Compatibility and Application
1. Used for warm-heat diseases with heat entering the blood aspect causing macules and rashes, as well as symptoms such as hematemesis and epistaxis due to blood heat causing reckless bleeding. Moutan bark can clear heat and cool the blood, remove stagnant heat, and stop bleeding. For treating heat entering the blood aspect leading to heat disturbing the heart spirit, fever with delirium, or heat damaging the blood vessels causing dark purple macules, hematemesis, epistaxis, hematochezia, hematuria, etc., it is often combined with water buffalo horn, raw rehmannia root, and peony root, as in the Rhinoceros Horn and Rehmannia Decoction.
2. For Yin deficiency with internal heat syndrome. Cortex Moutan can clear heat and cool blood, especially effective for steaming bone fever without sweating. In the later stage of warm disease, when pathogenic factors lurk in the Yin aspect, presenting with fever at night and coolness in the morning, fever subsiding without sweating, red tongue with little coating, and thin rapid pulse, it is often combined with Anemarrhena Rhizome, Turtle Shell, and Rehmannia Root, as in Qinghao Biejia Decoction.
Zhang Yuanshu said, "Cortex Moutan treats bone-steaming without sweating, while Cortex Lycii treats bone-steaming with sweating."
Today, the concept of supporting yang in traditional Chinese medicine is receiving increasing attention, and there is a deeper understanding and interpretation of the syndrome of yin deficiency with internal heat in traditional Chinese medicine. Therefore, the application of formulas such as Qinghao Biejia Tang, which nourish yin and damage yang, has become more cautious.
If treating women with premenstrual fever, it is often combined with white peony root, scutellaria, and bupleurum, known as the Xuan Yu Tong Jing Decoction.
If treating Shaoyin deficiency with yin deficiency and internal heat, it is often combined with prepared rehmannia root, Chinese yam, dogwood fruit, and alisma, which is Zhongjing's Kidney Qi Pill.
Li Shizhen said, "Fu fire is yin fire, and yin fire is ministerial fire. People commonly use Phellodendron to treat ministerial fire, unaware that the efficacy of Moutan bark is even superior, which is why Zhang Zhongjing used it in his Kidney Qi Pills."
Zhang Yuanshu said, "Insufficiency of spirit is related to the hand shaoyin, insufficiency of will is related to the foot shaoyin. Therefore, Zhang Zhongjing's Shenqi Pill uses moutan bark to treat insufficiency of spirit and will."
Cheng Zhongling said, "The seven emotions, sexual desires, and exhaustion from labor consume the spirit, which are considered subsidiary fire. Subsidiary fire can be nourished but should not be harmed."
3. For conditions such as blood stagnation leading to amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, or abdominal masses. Moutan bark promotes blood circulation and removes blood stasis to unblock menstruation and disperse masses. It is often combined with cinnamon twig, peach kernel, and poria, as in the Cinnamon Twig and Poria Pill, to treat women with long-standing abdominal masses, blood stasis causing amenorrhea, menstrual pain, or postpartum lochia that does not cease.
If treating upper heat and blood stasis in the Jueyin channel, it is often combined with Evodia rutaecarpa, donkey-hide gelatin, Ophiopogon japonicus, and Chinese angelica, which is known as Wenjing Tang.
For treating injuries from falls and contusions, with blood stasis and pain, it is often combined with frankincense, myrrh, notoginseng, and ground beetle, known as the Die Da Wan.
4. For carbuncles, sores, and internal abscesses. Moutan bark not only clears heat and cools the blood but also activates blood circulation and disperses stasis, thus having the effect of cooling the blood and resolving abscesses. For external abscesses, it is often combined with heat-clearing and detoxifying herbs such as honeysuckle, forsythia, and angelica dahurica.
In the early stage of intestinal abscess, it is often combined with rhubarb, peach kernel, and wax gourd seed, known as Rhubarb and Moutan Decoction.
III. Usage and Dosage
Peony bark is often used in decoctions and can also be made into pills or powders. The usual dosage in decoctions ranges from a few grams to over ten grams.
Li Shizhen said, "White flowers tonify, red ones purge, a distinction rarely understood by people, and thus they should be differentiated."
Wang Ang said: "The single-petal red peony flowers are used in medicine, and those with thick flesh are the best. They are steamed with wine."
IV. Application Notes
Peony bark is bitter in taste and cold in nature, and it also has the ability to remove blood stasis. Therefore, it is not suitable for those with blood deficiency and cold, pregnant women, or those with excessive menstrual flow.
Practical Notes on Traditional Chinese Medicine: Second Draft on the Afternoon of January 25, 2021#TCM Practical Notes#
