Atractylodes lancea

Atractylodes lancea (Thunberg) Candolle, Prodr. 7: 48. 1838.

(Atractylodes lancea (Thunberg) Candolle; Photo how01.com)

Latin Name: Atractylodes lancea (Thunberg) Candolle

Family & Genus: Asteraceae, Atractylodes

Synonym Name: Acarna chinensis Bunge; Atractylis chinensis (Bunge) DC.; Atractylis chinensis var. chinensis; Atractylis chinensis f. chinensis; Atractylis chinensis f. erossodentata (Koidz.) Hand.-Mazz.; Atractylis chinensis var. liaotungensis Kitag.; Atractylis chinensis var. loeseneri Kitag.; Atractylis chinensis var. quiqueloba Baranova & Skvortsov; Atractylis chinensis f. simplicifolia (Loes.) Hand.-Mazz.; Atractylis chinensis var. simplicifolia (Loes.) Baranova & Sk.; Atractylis chinensis var. simplicifolia (Loes.) Baranova & Skvortsov; Atractylis chinensis f. stapfii (Baroni) Hand.-Mazz.; Atractylis erosodentata (Koidz.) Arènes; Atractylis lancea Thunb.; Atractylis lancea f. lancea; Atractylis lancea var. lancea; Atractylis lancea f. lyrata Makino; Atractylis lyrata (Siebold & Zucc.) Hand.-Mazz.; Atractylis lyrata Siebold & Zucc.; Atractylis lyrata f. lyrata; Atractylis lyrata var. lyrata; Atractylis ovata f. amurensis Freyn ex Kom.; Atractylis ovata f. lyratifolia Kom.; Atractylis ovata var. simplicifolia Loes.; Atractylis ovata f. simplicifolia (Loes.) Kom.; Atractylis ovata f. ternata Kom.; Atractylis separata L.H.Bailey; Atractylodes chinensis (Bunge) Koidz.; Atractylodes chinensis f. chinensis; Atractylodes chinensis var. chinensis; Atractylodes chinensis var. liaotungensis (Kitag.) Y.C.Chu; Atractylodes chinensis f. quinqueloba (Baranov & Skvortzov) Y.C.Chu; Atractylodes chinensis f. simplicifolia (Loes.) Y.C.Chu; Atractylodes chinensis var. simplicifolia (Loes.) Kitag.; Atractylodes erosodentata Koidz.; Atractylodes japponica var. coriacea Konta & Katsuy.; Atractylodes lancea var. chinensis (Bunge) Kitam.; Atractylodes lancea var. lancea; Atractylodes lancea subsp. lancea; Atractylodes lancea var. simplicifolia (Loes.) Kitam.; Atractylodes lyrata Siebold & Zucc.; Atractylodes lyrata var. lyrata; Atractylodes ovata var. ternata (Kom.) Koidz.; Giraldia stapfii Baroni.

Common Name: Atractylodes rhizome

Chinese Name: 苍术 cang shu

Vietnamese Name: Thương truật

Description: Herbs (15-)30-100 cm tall. Rhizome thick, horizontal or ascending. Stems solitary or tufted, unbranched or apically few branched, ± glabrous. Leaves ± rigidly papery, green, concolorous, glabrous or abaxially sparsely cobwebby. Basal leaves withered at anthesis. Lower and middle cauline leaves petiolate but lower ones sometimes subsessile; petiole 0.5-8 cm; leaf blade 8-12 × 5-8 cm, undivided or divided almost to base into 3-5(-9) pinnately arranged segments; segments undivided or sometimes near base with few small spiny lobes, ± narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate or obovate, 3-9 × 2-6 cm, base cuneate, apex shortly acuminate to rounded. Upper cauline leaves similar but smaller. Outer bracts few, leaflike; inner bracts numerous, homomorphic, reduced to pectinately arranged pinnate spines, exceeding but not completely hiding involucre. Involucre campanulate, 1-1.5 cm in diam. Phyllaries numerous, imbricate, margin cobwebby, apex rounded to obtuse; outer phyllaries ovate, 3-6 × 1-3 mm; middle phyllaries gradually longer; innermost phyllaries elliptic to linear, 11-12 × 2-4 mm. Corolla white or yellowish, 0.9-1.2 cm. Achene obovoid, ca. 5 mm, hairs white. Pappus brown to dirty white, 7-9 mm. Flowering: July to August, fruiting: August to September.

Ecological: Grasslands, forests, thickets, rock crevices; 200-2500 m.

Distribution: Distributed in Northeast and North China, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi and etc. The medicinal materials are mainly produced in Hebei, Shaanxi, Shanxi. Found in Japan, Korea, Russia

Part Used: Medical part: rhizome. Chinese name: Cangzhu.

Harvest & Processing: After 2-3 years of cultivation, in the first ten days in September to first ten days in November, or the next year in February and March, excavated root and stem, well washed, removed soil, sun-dried, removed fibrous roots.

Chemistry:

- Contains volatile oil: mainly atraclylion, atractylon. Rhizome contains β-eudesmol and atractylodin.

- Rhizome contains sesquiterpenoid glycosides: atractyloside A 14-O-beta-D-fructofuranoside, (1S,4S,5S,7R,10S)-10,11,14-trihydroxyguai-3-one 11-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside, (5R,7R,10S)-isopterocarpolone beta-D-glucopyranoside, cis-atractyloside I, (2R,3R,5R,7R,10S)-atractyloside G 2-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside, and (2E,8E)-2,8-decadiene-4,6-diyne-1,10-diol 1-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside

Pharmacology:

- Gastric-secretion-restraining, influential on the liver, blood-sugar and stomach and intestines movement, anti-anoxia, Na-release-increasing and blocking-up N-receptor.

- Studies showed that atractylodes rhizome has effects in regulating gastric and intestinal movements, anti-peptic, inhibiting digestive secretions, regulating blood sugar and pressure levels, promoting potassium and sodium discharges, protecting liver, facilitating gall-bladder secretions, tranquilizing, pain killing, antioxidant, anti-tumor, inhibiting bacteria and disinfection

Properties & Actions: Taste pungent, bitter, and warm in nature. Drying dampness, benefiting spleen, removing wind-damp and improving eyesight.

Indications & Usage: Used for the spleen and stomach being affected by dampness, lassitude and drowsiness, chest congestion and abdominal distention, poor appetite, vomiting and diarrhea, phlegm and retained fluid, edema caused by dampness, exterior syndrome with dampness, pain of head and body, arthrodynia dominated by damp pathogens, aching pain of limbs, paralysis, caecitas nocturna. Internal: decocting, 3-9g; or made as pills or powders. Not use in case of deficiency of yin and qi.

Examples:   

1. Sudden diarrhea due to summer heat, tonifying spleen and warming stomach, promoting appetite, treating injuries from diets, painful thoracic and abdominal mass: massa medicata fermentata (parched) and atractylodes (immersed in washed water of rice for a night, baked dry) of equal amounts, grind into powder. Prepare into pastes and pills as large as firmianae semen. Take 30 pills each time with no appointed timepoints by washed water of rice.

2. Night diarrhea: atractylodes 100g, small pepper 50g (parched). Grind into extremely fine powder, prepare into pills with vinegar as large as firmianae semen. Take 20 pills each time, or 30 pills, with warm water before meals. Cassia bark tree can be added for patients with refractory dysentery.

3. General pain due to dampness: atractylodes immersed into washed water of rice, cut into pieces, decoct, take thick solution and concentrate into paste, and swallow with water.

References

- libproject.hkbu.edu.hk

- efloras.org

- theplantlist.org

- shen-nong.com

- Chen Pian, Clinical Application of Tonifying Herbs, Second Military Medical University Press, 2008-8.

- Zhao Zhongzhen & Xiao Peigen (editor-in-chief), Contemporary Medicinal Herbal Glossary, Hong Kong Jockey Club Institute of Chinese Medicine, 2006-8.

- Kitajima J, Kamoshita A, Ishikawa T, Takano A, Fukuda T, Isoda S, Ida Y.; Glycosides of Atractylodes lancea. Chem Pharm Bull (Tokyo). 2003 Jun;51(6):673-8.