Dr. Leung on Skin Care with Herbs - Part 3 of 3

The following information was originally published in Dr. Leung's newsletter in 1997. Today's post concludes the series with Dr. Leung's discussion of a report on using Sanqi (Panax notoginseng) in treating severely chapped skin.

Note: Contains material derived from Sanqi (Panax notoginseng) powder for treating severely chapped skin [Jiangxi Zhongyiyao, 23(1): 35(1992)].

In addition to other effects (immunomodulating, antiinflammatory, antioxidant, etc.), sanqi is well known for its hemostatic and wound-healing properties. In this report, results of treating 68 patients with chapped skin are presented. Thirty-six patients were complicated with ringworm of the feet and 41 experienced different degrees of pain or bleeding. Duration of illness ranged from 6 months to 15 years. Method: Mix 30 g of sanqi powder well with an adequate amount of sesame oil to form a uniform paste, place it in a sealed clean container, and reserve for later use. Soak the afflicted areas with hot but tolerable water for 10-20 minutes before applying the oily paste. Do this 3-4 times daily for 30 days. Results: After treatment, 45 patients were healed, with no recurrence after more than 1 year; and 23 showed improvement, with longer periods between recurrences, which again responded to the same treatment. The fastest response was 3 weeks and the longest 7 weeks, with an average of 3.7 weeks. It is recommended that the paste be also used as a preventive by applying it to affected areas once every 1 to 2 days.

Sanqi or tienchi ginseng is readily available in any Chinese herb shop. It comes in spindle-shaped whole roots, 2-4 cm long and 1-3 cm in diameter, and is very hard. Unless you have a Chinese bronze mortar and pestle with a lid, it is not easy to powder this herb. You may have to break it up with a hammer first and then grind it in a sturdy coffee mill.

These and more herbal remedies are available from the volumes of Dr. Leung’s newsletter, of the same name as this blog (Leung’s Chinese Herb News). This newsletter was published and sent to subscribers (most were industry-insiders) from 1996 to 2004. The collected works now serve as an excellent reference work, created with Dr. Leung’s frank, honest opinions and down-to-earth communication style.

For more information about Dr. Leung and his writings, visit www.earthpower.com. To order the newsletter mentioned above, visit the bookstore, click “Buy Now” on the newsletter, and select Issue # 10 from the drop down list.

Licorice

Licorice comes from Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fish. (Chinese licorice) and Glycyrrhiza glabra L. (European licorice) [Family Leguminosae]. The root and rhizome is used. Licorice has the following properties: demulcent, expectorant, antitussive, mild laxative, detoxicant, antioxidant, anti-allergic, antiinflammatory, healing. The most common tradtional uses of licorice relate to gastrointestinal ulcers, sore throat, cough, bronchial problems, food poisoning, abdominal pain, insomnia, sores, and abscess.

Licorice is perhaps the most widely used herb in the world. Its water extract is extensively used in flavoring foods (especially licorice candy) and tobacco, particularly in Western countries. Licorice is present in many Chinese herbal formulas, most of the time as an adjuvant to bring out the good effects of major herbs or to mitigatet some of their undesirable effects. Considering the fact that there are about 100,000 herbal formulas published in Chinese books (64,000 in one work alone), there must be at least another 100,000 not published but used by over 1 billion of the world's population. Just imagine how much licorice is being consumed daily in China alone!

One of the best known uses of licorice is in treating ulcers (e.g., gastric and duodenal). Unfortunately, prolonged use leads to such undesirable effects as potassium depletion, sodium retention, fluid retention, and high blood pressure. Up until recently, the active principle was believed to be glycyrrhizin, which is also a sweetening agent; it is also responsible for the above-mentioned side effects. It turns out, however, that glycyrrhizin is not the only active principle in licorice. After removing glycyrrhizin from licorice, researchers found that the deglycyrrhizinated licorice extract is still effective in treating ulcers, but without the toxic side effects of whole licorice. Japanese and Chinese scientists have determined the active principles in the deglycyrrhizinated licorice to be flavonoids. Scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have also found these flavonoids to have very strong antioxidant properties. Thus, in one experiment measuring oxygen free radical scavenging, they found that weight to weight, one part of the flavonoids removed almost twice the amount of free radicals that were removed by 100 parts of vitamin E. Based on this single experiment, licorice flavonoids are certainly the strongest antioxidants I have ever come across.

Licorice extracts in glycerin or water have very good healing properties which can be used beneficially in skin care cosmetics.

Dr. Albert Leung’s book, Better Health with (mostly) Chinese Herbs and Food discusses the use of 60 different herbs as healing foods, including licorice on pages 56-57.
For more information about Dr. Leung and his writings, visit www.earthpower.com.

Ginger - Part 1 of 2

The following is excerpted from Dr. Leung's book, Chinese Healing Foods and Herbs.

Ginger has been used in both Eastern and Western folk medicine for centuries.  Many Westerners who know about ginger probably first came across it by biting into it when eating in a Chinese restaurant and then wondering whether to spit it out or swallow it without further chewing.  To the untrained palate, ginger is no fun to bite into.  Even Chinese do not eat it much, except on special occasions.  They use it mostly in small quantities, mostly as a condiment.  The only time I have seen ginger eaten in any sizable amount is by women after childbirth to rebuild their strength.

What is commonly called ginger root is actually an underground stem.  The plant is known scientifically as Zingiber officinale of the ginger family.  In Chinese, fresh ginger is called sheng jiang and dried Chinese ginger is called gan jiang.  It is a perennial herb with thick tuberous rhizomes (underground stems) from which the aerial stems rise to about 1 m. (3.3 ft) tall.  They bear relatively large leaves that are 15 to 30 cm. (6-12 inches) long and about 2 cm (0.8 inches) wide.  The cultivated ginger plant seldom flowers.

Ginger is believed to be native to the Pacific Islands.  It is now widely cultivated in the tropics and in warm climates.  Major ginger producing countries include China, India, Jamaica, and Nigeria.  

Both fresh and dried ginger roots are used in food and in medicine.  But dried ginger is produced in much larger quantities; it is used for the preparation of ginger oil, extracts, and oleoresins.  These are used widely in flavoring processed foods and soft drinks (e.g., ginger ale and ginger beer) as well as in cosmetic products such as perfumes (especially Oriental types and men's fragrances).

In Western folk medicine, ginger is mainly used as a carminative, appetite stimulant, and daphoretic (promoting perspiration).

Many chemical constituents have been found in ginger.  They include 1% to 3% volatile oil, pungent essences called gingerols, zingerone, and shogaols, about 9% protein, up to 50% starch, 6% to 8% fats, resins, minerals, vitamins (especially A and niacin), amino acids, and other biologicallly active chemicals.  The volatile oil in turn contains dozens of chemical compounds and is responsible for the smell of ginger.  Gingerols, zingerone, and shogaols are responsible for its biting, pungent taste.

A protein digesting enzyme (protease) has recently been isolated from fresh ginger root in relatively high yield (2.26%).  If further research is successful, ginger may some day turn up on your kitchen shelf as a meat tenderizer, which is now made mainly from papain from papaya.

Some Japanese studies have found ginger to contain strong antioxidants, which can keep potato chips, oily and fat foods, and cookies from turning rancid or stale.

Although much of the chemical research on ginger has been done in the West,most of the biological research has been done by Chinese and Japanese scientists. They have found that  ginger has a wide variety of effects on microorganisms, animals, and humans.  The best known is its  ability to stop vomiting in experimental animals (e.g. dogs) and nausea and vomiting in humans.  Shogaols are among its anti-emetic constituents.  The carminative properties of ginger are also well known.

In experiments with rats previously fed cholesterol, scientists found that ginger extracts lowered the cholesterol levels in the blood and liver of these rats.

In one Chinese study, healthy human subjects were given 1 g. (0.04 oz.) of fresh ginger and told to chew it but not to swallow it.  Their blood pressure was found to increase temporarily by an average of 11.2 mm. systolic and 14 mm. diastolic pressure.

To be continued...

Next time, we discuss traditional and modern uses of ginger, and some home remedies.

This information is excerpted from Dr. Albert Leung’s book, Chinese Healing Foods and Herbs. This publication includes further information and home remedies using ginger as well as over 45 other herbs.

Learn more about ginger and read further about Dr. Leung and his writings! Visit www.earthpower.com.

Diet Therapy for Diabetes: Part 4 of 5

NOTE: Following is the fourth of five excerpts on diabetes from one of Dr. Leung's earlier writings. This originally appeared in 1997 in Dr. Leung's newsletter, Leung's Chinese Herb News, Issue 11, page 3. -ed

In a recent issue of the Shizen Journal of TCM Research [Shizhen Guoyao Yanjiu,8(6): 553 (1997)], numerous simple treatments of diabetes using common Chinese foods or herbs are summarized by three doctors from the Caiyuan Municipal People's Hospital of Shandong Province. The following recipes are based on herbs/foods that should be available in Chinese or other ethnic stores in North America.

Lycium Fruit

This is the fruit of the above Lycium species (editor's note: see the third post in this series). For diabetes, simply eat 10 to 20 g a day. It can be eaten as one would raisins. It has a similar texture as raisin but a little bit less sweet. Lycium fruit is a well-known Chinese yin tonic widely used in traditional Chinese medicine and as a disease-preventive food. It is rich in amino acids and its polysaccharides have been shown to have broad biological activities (antioxidant, antimutagenic, immunomodulating, antistress, antitumor, etc.). I have written about it in previous issues of this newsletter (see Issues 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7). It has become one of my favorite Chinese herbs for very personal reasons. I am one of those people with excessive yang. These people are full of energy, usually hyperactive, and prone to constipation, especially if they do not watch their diet. After using a lycium fruit product daily for the past 16 months, everything else as usual, I have not had a single incidence of constipation, despite my hectic traveling schedule. The reason I hadn't started correcting my problem earlier is for two reasons. First, I was torn between my scientific training and my traditional Chinese medical belief. On the one hand, despite my open-mindedness regarding nonconventional health practices, my scientific mind kept admonishing me not to accept anything that has not been "proven" by science. Besides, occasional constipation is only an inconvenience, not a major problem, which can easily be corrected by a laxative. For this reason, I never pushed for the alternative solution. Second, in order to solve my problem, it is not just a matter of watching my diet. It used to occur once in a while, whether or not I ate lots of fruits and vegetables during that time. I knew it was not the foods that I was eating, nor stress, but rather, my basic yang constitution. If it were a more serious problem, I could have started cooking up Chinese yin tonics to correct it. To do so would involve preparing the concoctions daily for months, which I was too lazy to do, especially for such a minor and common condition. But then I had the opportunity to prepare such a product in a convenient modern dosage form for one of my clients. That was 16 months ago. I can tell you, I have been a happy camper since. And I have not lost my other yang qualities, either! Modern nutritionists think that if you eat a "nutritionally" balanced diet, you should never have a constipation problem. But it is not true, because we are not all equal "living machines". Every one of us is different. A yin person can eat the same foods as a yang person and have diarrhea, while the yang person has constipation. Why can't we accept that? A basic flaw in modern conventional medical practice, in my opinion, is that it assumes everyone is the same and does not take common sense and empirical wisdom seriously. Where are the doctors' grandmas?!

These and more herbal remedies are available from the volumes of Dr. Leung’s newsletter, of the same name as this blog (Leung’s Chinese Herb News). This newsletter was published and sent to subscribers (most were industry-insiders) from 1996 to 2004. The collected works now serve as an excellent reference work, created with Dr. Leung’s frank, honest opinions and down-to-earth communication style.For more information about Dr. Leung and his writings, visit http://www.earthpower.com/. To order the newsletter containing the remedies mentioned above, visit the bookstore, click “Buy Now” on the newsletter, and select Issue # 11 from the drop down list.

Properties and Uses of Celery Seed

Celery seed is the fruit of the celery plant, Apium graveolens L. (Family Apiaceae). Also referred to simply as celery fruit, celery seed possesses diuretic, digestive stimulant, nervine, muscle relaxant, emmenagogue, and uterine stimulant properties. The most common traditional uses for celery seed are for rheumatism, arthritis, gout, bronchitis, and nervousness.

Celery seed conatains numerous types of chemical components, including coumarin glycosides, flavonoids, phthalides, and plant acids. There is some scientific evidence to support its sedative and muscle-relaxant properties, with the phthalides being the active principles. The seed also has antioxidant effects.

Other parts of the celery plant have been reported to have hypotensive (juice and extract of stem) and antiinflammatory (water extract of stem) activities.

Dr. Albert Leung’s book, Better Health with (mostly) Chinese Herbs and Food discusses the use of 60 different herbs as healing foods, including celery seed on page 13. For more information about Dr. Leung and his writings, visit www.earthpower.com.

Schisandra is Wuweizi a.k.a. Five Flavored Seed

The dried ripe fruit of Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill. and other Schisandra spp. (Family Schisandraceae) are prized for their properties including lung astringent, kidney tonic, male tonic, adaptogenic, detoxicant, antimutagenic, antioxidant, liver protectant, central stimulant, and tranquilizing.

Schisandra berries have been traditionally used for cough, asthma, involuntary seminal discharge, impotence, insomnia, neurasthenia, chronic diarrhea, night sweat, spontaneous sweating, physical exhaustion, and excessive urination. More modern and recent uses include use as a treatment for liver diseases.

Schisandra is known as wuweizi (five-flavored seed) in Chinese because it tastes simultaneously sweet, sour, bitter, salty and pungent when chewed. In addition to its use as a medicine, it is also used as an ingredient in soup mixes.

Schisandra is one of those Chinese herbs without much adequate published English information even though there are many published reports on it in Chinese and Japanese.

It is a well-known tonic, especially for the male. Modern laboratory studies have found some of its constituents (e.g., lignans) to have strong antioxidant and liver-protectant properties. Its extracts and lignans are now being used to effectively treat liver diseases (e.g., viral hepatitis). In the West, silymarin (from milk thistle) is well known for its beneficial effects on the liver. One can soon add schisandra as its equal or superior.

A typical tonic like ginseng, schisandra's actions in the body are subtle. They cannot be readily duplicated in the laboratory. The antioxidant and liver protectant effects of schisandra just mentioned only give you an isolated glimpse of its various pharmacological effects. Believe me, there are too many to list here!

Dr. Albert Leung’s book, Better Health with (mostly) Chinese Herbs and Food discusses the use of 60 different herbs as healing foods, including schisandra on page 83. For more information about Dr. Leung and his writings, visit www.earthpower.com.