Scutellaria baicalensis is also known as mountain tea root, and it is the root of the Scutellaria baicalensis plant in the Lamiaceae family. It is mainly produced in Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, and other regions. Shanxi has the highest yield, while the quality from Chengde, Hebei is considered the best. For medicinal purposes, it is often used raw, stir-fried with wine, or charred.
I. Efficacy and Application
Scutellaria baicalensis tastes bitter and is cold in nature. Bitterness enters the heart, and cold overcomes heat. It belongs to the lung, gallbladder, stomach, and large intestine meridians.
Efficacy Clears heat and dries dampness, drains fire and resolves toxicity, stops bleeding, and calms the fetus. Its characteristics include being good at clearing lung heat, good at clearing liver and gallbladder fire, making it an essential herb for treating damp-heat conditions.
Commonly used for the treatment of damp-warmth, summer-dampness, chest tightness and vomiting, damp-heat fullness and distension, diarrhea and dysentery, jaundice, lung heat cough, high fever with restlessness and thirst, blood heat causing vomiting and nosebleed, abscesses and sores, and restless fetal movement.
Abstracts of Famous Works by Renowned Authors:
Ben Jing: "It mainly treats various heat jaundice, intestinal dysentery and diarrhea, expels water, breaks up blood stasis, and treats malignant sores, ulcers, and fire-induced ulcers."
Bie Lu: "Treats phlegm heat, heat in the stomach."
Compendium of Materia Medica: "Treats wind-heat, damp-heat, headache, running piglet heat pain, fire cough lung atrophy, throat fishy smell, various blood loss."
Changsha Medicine Explanation: "Clearing ministerial fire to stop diarrhea, purging Jia wood to cease vomiting, eliminating Shaoyang's stagnant heat, and reducing Jueyin's pent-up steam."
Ben Cao Bei Yao: "Drains fire from the middle jiao, eliminates damp-heat from the spleen. Treats dysentery with abdominal pain, alternating chills and fever, jaundice, five types of strangury, amenorrhea, abscesses, sores, ulcers, and various types of hemorrhage. Dissolves phlegm, promotes urination, relieves thirst, calms the fetus, nourishes yin, reduces yang, and replenishes bladder water. When stir-fried with wine, it ascends to drain lung fire and regulate qi in the chest. Treats wind-heat and damp-heat in the upper jiao, fire-induced cough with fishy throat, red and swollen painful eyes."
"Medical Records of Integrating Chinese and Western Medicine": "It is most effective in clearing heat from the qi level of the lung meridian, descending from the spleen through the triple burner to the bladder to promote urination. It also excels in entering the spleen and stomach to clear heat, descending from the stomach to the intestines to treat dysentery with pus and blood. Additionally, it is adept at entering the liver and gallbladder to clear heat, treating alternating chills and fever in Shaoyang syndrome. For cases where heat arises due to qi stagnation, it can effectively disperse and unblock. It is also highly effective in clearing heat from the body's surface, eliminating heat that is hidden in the meridians or scattered in the interstices. For lung diseases, liver and gallbladder diseases, and surface ailments, dried Scutellaria baicalensis should be used; for gastrointestinal diseases, sliced Scutellaria baicalensis is recommended."
II. Compatibility and Application
1. Used for various damp-heat diseases, such as damp-warm syndrome, jaundice, diarrhea and dysentery, heat strangury, abscesses, sores, and toxins. Scutellaria baicalensis is bitter and cold, drying dampness and draining heat, and can also detoxify. For treating damp-warm fever, chest tightness, and greasy tongue coating, it is often combined with dampness-draining and diuretic herbs such as Talc, Medulla Tetrapanacis, and Fructus Amomi Rotundus, as in Scutellaria and Talc Decoction.
If treating damp-heat jaundice, it is often combined with Gardenia, Yin Chen, and Rhubarb to enhance the effect of clearing the liver and promoting bile flow.
If treating the yang jaundice syndrome with heat in the half-exterior and half-interior, it is often used in combination with Yinchen Wuling Powder.
If treating diarrhea and dysentery caused by damp-heat in the stomach and intestines, it is often combined with Puerariae Lobatae Radix and Coptidis Rhizoma, which is known as Gegen Qinlian Decoction.
In the treatment of diarrhea due to combined disease of Shaoyang and Yangming, it is often combined with sweet and moderating herbs such as peony root, jujube, and licorice root, which is known as Scutellaria Decoction.
For the treatment of abscesses, sores, and toxins, it is often combined with heat-clearing and toxin-resolving herbs such as Trichosanthes Root, Dahurian Angelica Root, and Forsythia Fruit.
If treating damp-heat in the lower jiao with difficult and painful urination, it is often combined with Shengdi and Mutong, known as Huofu Dan.
Li Shizhen said, "There was a person who habitually indulged in alcohol and desire, suffering from unbearable colic in the lower abdomen, with urination as painful as strangury, and all medications were ineffective. By chance, he used three herbs: Scutellaria baicalensis, Akebia quinata, and Glycyrrhiza uralensis, decocted and taken, which then stopped the symptoms."
2. For damp-heat disease with high fever, excessive thirst, yellow tongue coating, and rapid pulse, etc. Scutellaria baicalensis is effective in clearing excess heat from the qi level and has the function of reducing fever. For treating heat syndrome in the qi level, it is often combined with Coptis chinensis, gypsum, and Gardenia jasminoides.
If treating pathogenic factors entering Shaoyang, with symptoms such as chest and hypochondriac fullness, alternating chills and fever, it is often combined with Bupleurum, Pinellia, Ginseng, and Licorice, forming Minor Bupleurum Decoction. The combination of Bupleurum and Scutellaria is a key remedy for clearing heat from the liver and gallbladder, used in various formulas, embodying profound principles.
Li Shizhen said, "It ascends with wine, eliminates liver and gallbladder fire with pig bile, and reduces chills and fever with bupleurum."
Wang Ang said, "When combined with Bupleurum, it alleviates chills and fever; with Peony, it treats dysentery; with Magnolia Bark and Coptis, it relieves abdominal pain; with Mulberry Bark, it purges lung fire; with Atractylodes, it is a sacred medicine for stabilizing pregnancy."
3. For cough due to lung heat. Scutellaria baicalensis is particularly effective in clearing lung heat. When used alone, it shows remarkable efficacy, known as Scutellaria Powder. Li Dongyuan treated cases of lung heat as intense as a raging fire, with irritability and excessive thirst that worsens during the day, using a single-ingredient Scutellaria Decoction, often achieving immediate and remarkable results.
If treating cough with profuse phlegm syndrome, it is often combined with Pinellia ternata and Arisaema erubescens, known as Xiaohuang Pill.
Zhu Danxi said, "Scutellaria baicalensis reduces phlegm by virtue of its ability to lower fire. According to this, since phlegm is stirred by fire, one should first lower the fire."
4. For syndromes such as hematemesis, hemoptysis, epistaxis, hematochezia, and metrorrhagia caused by internal heat exuberance forcing blood to flow recklessly. Scutellaria baicalensis has dual effects of clearing heat and stopping bleeding. It can be used alone as Scutellaria baicalensis charcoal, and is often combined with heat-clearing, blood-cooling, and hemostatic herbs such as Rehmannia glutinosa, Imperata cylindrica, and Panax notoginseng.
If treating excessive fire in the upper jiao, with symptoms of hematemesis and epistaxis, it is often combined with rhubarb and coptis, known as the Rhubarb and Coptis Heart-Draining Decoction.
For treating distant bleeding (lower gastrointestinal bleeding) syndrome, it is often combined with aconite and yellow earth, known as Yellow Earth Decoction.
5. For fetal heat restlessness. Scutellaria baicalensis also has the effect of clearing heat and calming the fetus. It is often combined with Atractylodes macrocephala, Angelica sinensis, etc., which is known as Danggui San.
Wang Ang said: "During pregnancy, it is advisable to clear heat and cool the blood; when blood does not flow recklessly, the fetus remains calm."
6. Usage of Scutellaria baicalensis in "Treatise on Cold Damage Diseases". For treating heat accumulation in the qi aspect, it is often combined with Bupleurum, as seen in various Bupleurum formulas.
When treating heat accumulation in the blood aspect, it is often combined with peony, as seen in formulas such as Scutellaria Decoction, Major Bupleurum Decoction, Coptis and Ass Hide Glue Decoction, Turtle Shell Decoction Pill, Rhubarb and Ground Beetle Pill, and Tangkuei Powder.
When treating damp-heat obstruction in the middle, it is often combined with Coptis chinensis, as seen in formulas such as various Xiexin Decoctions, Gegen Qinlian Decoction, and Ganjiang Huangqin Huanglian Renshen Decoction.
"Synopsis of the Golden Chamber": "For all types of jaundice with abdominal pain and vomiting, Bupleurum Decoction is appropriate.
III. Usage and Dosage
Scutellaria baicalensis is often used in decoctions and also in pills and powders. The usual dosage in decoctions ranges from a few grams to over ten grams. The dosage can be adjusted as needed based on the desired therapeutic effect.
For clearing heat, raw Scutellaria baicalensis is often used; for calming the fetus, stir-fried Scutellaria baicalensis is often used; for clearing heat in the upper jiao, wine-processed Scutellaria baicalensis is often used; for stopping bleeding, charred Scutellaria baicalensis is often used.
Huang Yuanyu said, "Use the dried for clearing the upper, use the solid for clearing the lower, stir-fry with vinegar for internal use, stir-fry with wine for external use."
Wang Ang said, "The yellow and bright ones are good. The ones with hollow centers are called Ku Qin, also known as Pian Qin, which purge lung fire and clear heat from the muscle surface. The ones with solid centers are called Tiao Qin, also known as Zi Qin, which purge large intestine fire and nourish bladder water. For ascending effects, they are stir-fried with wine. To purge liver and gallbladder fire, they are stir-fried with pig bile."
IV. Application Notes
Scutellaria baicalensis is a bitter and cold medicinal substance, which can easily impair the vital energy of the human body. Therefore, it is contraindicated for those with deficiency-cold of the spleen and stomach, reduced food intake, loose stools, and habitual insufficiency of middle yang.
Wang Ang said: "Excessive consumption harms the stomach, and it is contraindicated for those with blood deficiency or cold in the middle."
Practical Notes on Traditional Chinese Medicine: Second Draft, January 14, 2021
