Siberian solomon seal rhizome

Chinese Name: Huang jing
Medical Name: Rhizoma Polygonati
Latin Name: Polygonatum sibiricum Redoute.
Origin: Root
Taste: Sweet and mild

Quotes from Chinese historical sources

OTHER CLASSIFIED RECORDS OF FAMOUS DOCTORS: "It is sweet and mild in flavour, and not poisonous. Its main use is in invigorating and strengthening the energy of the middle-warmer; eliminating rheumatism; and calming the five internal organs."

RI HUA ZI MATERIA MEDICA: "Repairs the five kinds of impairment (of heart, liver, spleen, lung and kidney) and seven types of damage; strengthens the body; assuages hunger; builds resistance to cold and heat; benefits the appetite; nourishes heart and lungs."

KAI-BAO MATERIA MEDICA: "In flavour it is sweet and mild, and not poisonous. It is mostly used to invigorate the energy of the middle-warmer, to eliminate rheumatism and to calm the five internal organs."

COMPENDIUM OF MATERIA MEDICA: "Sealwort receives the qi of the fifth of the ten Heavenly Stems, and is thus able to invigorate the cardinal point of the body which is known to Taoists as the Yellow Temple. Earth is the mother of creation. When the mother receives its due, then the elements of water and fire coordinate, and wood and metal do likewise. At such times, various evils disappear by themselves, and the Hundred Diseases cease to exist. Sealwort repairs the various consumptive diseases, cools fevers, fills the marrow of the body, and eliminates the three turbidities."

Western Research

Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Za Zhi. 1990 Feb;10(2):71-4, 67.
[Clinical study of 96 cases with chronic hepatitis B treated with jiedu yanggan gao by a double-blind method][Article in Chinese]
Chen Z.
Dept. of Hepatic Diseases, Beijing TCM Hospital.
This paper reported 96 cases with chronic hepatitis B treated by a double-blind method. OG was treated with Jiedu Yanggan Gao consisting of Artemisia capillaris, Taraxacum mongolicum, Plantago seed, Cephalanoplos segetum, Hedyotis diffusa, Flos Chrysanthemi Indici, Smilax glabra, Astragalus membranaceus, Salviae miltiorrhizae, Fructus Polygonii Orientalis, Radix Paeoniae Alba, Polygonatum sibiricum, etc.). CG was prescribed with three charred medicinal herbs (charred Fructus Crataegi, charred Fructrus Hordei Germinatus, charred fermented mixture of several medical herbs and wheat bran). The average duration of treatment was five months. All 96 cases belong to the virus-duplication-type with positive HBsAg for over one year. Among them 65.5% of cases HBeAg, DNAP and HBV-DNA were positive. 20.8% of cases were positive in two out of the above tests. 13 data were compared statistically between two groups, and proved to be comparable (P greater than 0.05) before treatment. 27.3% and 66.7% of cases' ALT, AST returned to normal respectively in OG after treatment. However, in CG they were 9.1% and 22.2% (P less than 0.05). TTT returned to normal in 52% cases of OG and 44% in CG (P greater than 0.05). 20% cases HBeAg shifted to negative in OG, but 6.7% in CG. Cases with negative DNAP in OG occupied 34.2%, but 10.8% in CG. 31.6% cases' HBV-DNA changed to negative in OG, while 17.6% in CG. After comprehensive judgement, the total effective rate was 74.5% in OG and 24.4% in CG respectively (P less than 0.001). Eight cases were basically cured in OG and one case in CG. After one year's follow-up, one recurred in eight patients of OG, however the only one cured in CG still relapsed.