Aidus & E-Fong Herbal Solution
Herbal Medicine for Inducing Diuresis and Removing Dampness- Che Qian Zi

                                        Che Qian Zi
                           
                            
                                                             Plantain Seed
                                                          Semen Plantaginis

This herb is the ripe seed of perennial herbaceous plant Plantago asiatica L. or Plantago depressa Willd of family
Plantaginaceae, produced throughout China.Its ears are collected in autumn when the seed is mature, dried in the sun, rubbed
to get their seeds, which are cleared of impurities and used unprepared or stir- baked with saline.
Properties: The herb is sweet in flavour, and cold in nature. It acts on the liver, kidney and lung channels. Being sweet and
cold for lubricating, clearing, lowering and descending, Moreover it can clear away damp-heat from the lower jiao to induce
diuresis and treat stranguria, and it is indicated for edema, stranguria, diarrhea and other syndromes due to damp-heat.
Moreover it can also clear away heat from the lung and liver, relieve cough, improve vision and treat cough due to lung-heat
and conjunctival congestion due to liver-heat and other syndromes.
Effects: Inducing diuresis, treating stranguria, clearing heat from the liver for improving vision, removing heat from the lung to
clear phlegm.
Indications:
1. The herb is often used in combination with Zhu Ling (umbellate pore-fungus), Fu Ling (poria), Ze Xie (oriental water
plantain rhizome) and other herbs for inducing diuresis and alleviating edema, to treat edema, abdominal distention and dysuria;
with capejasmine fruit, manshurian aristolochia stem, armstrong and other herbs for inducing diu- resis and treating ‘
stranguria, such as Bazheng Powder, to treat damp-heat in the urinary bladder and dysuria; and with Bai Zhu (white
atractylodes rhizome), Fu LIng (poria), Ze Xie (oriental water plantain rhizome) and other herbs to treat diarrhea due to
summer dampness.
2. The herb is often used in combination with Long Dan (gentian root), Ju Hua (chrysanthemum flower) and other herbs for
clearing heat and fire from the liver to improve vision, to treat flaming up of the liver fire and conjunctival congestion with
swelling and pain; and with Tu Shi Zi (Chinese dodder seed), Di Huang (rehmannia root) and other herbs to nourish the liver
and improve vision, to treat Yin deficiency of the liver and kidney and bluned vision.
3. To treat cough with yellow, sticky and thick phlegm due to lung heat, the herb is often used in combination with HUang Qin
( scutellaria root), Guo Lou (trichosanthes fruit), Jie Geng (platy codon root), Ku Xin Ren (apricot kernel), and other herbs for
clearing heat, phlegm, and cough.
Dosage and Administration: 5~10g  Wrapped in gauze and decocted in water.
Modern Rearches: The herb has obvious effect of diuresis and at the same triple increasing the excretion of urea, sodium
chloride and uric acid. It also has the effects of fining phlegm, inhibiting typhoid bacillus, Flexner's bacillus,
Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and other pathogenic bacteria. In modern times, the herb is often clinically
used to treat nephritis, kidney stone, enteritis, bacillary dysentery, hepatitis, and other diseases.