HAN Linxiao,XU Shuang,LI Wei,et al.Textual research on therapeutic effects of Zhimu in treating "limb edema" and "draining water" and reasons for its evolution[J].Shanghai Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine,2025,59(12):25-28.
HAN Linxiao,XU Shuang,LI Wei,et al.Textual research on therapeutic effects of Zhimu in treating "limb edema" and "draining water" and reasons for its evolution[J].Shanghai Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine,2025,59(12):25-28. DOI: 10.16305/j.1007-1334.2025.z20250221005.
Textual research on therapeutic effects of Zhimu in treating "limb edema" and "draining water" and reasons for its evolution
) clearly records the therapeutic effects of Zhimu (Anemarrhenae Rhizoma) in treating "limb edema" and "draining water". However, these therapeutic effects are not mentioned in the
Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China
or in
Chinese Materia Medica
textbooks. By reviewing ancient medical texts, including various bencao and formula books, and incorporating philological evidence, we conclude that "draining water" refers to the effect of removing edema, while "limb edema" indicates that Zhimu (Anemarrhenae Rhizoma) exerts its most prominent therapeutic effect specifically in alleviating edema of the limbs. Throughout history, when Zhim
u (Anemarrhenae Rhizoma) was used for its "draining water" effect, the most prominent application recorded was in treating limb edema. However, due to shifts in the expression of its therapeutic effects and a growing emphasis on its heat-clearing effect by clinicians, the traditional indications for treating "body edema" and "draining water" have been gradually forgotten. Therefore, reviewing the therapeutic effects of traditional Chinese medicines that have been lost over time is an important and inevitable aspect of the development of bencaology (the study of Chinese materia medica).