What Is Chuan Xin Lian
Chuan Xin Lian is also known as Andrographis Paniculata, which is an annual herb belonging to the family Acanthaceae. It is commonly used in Chinese herbal medicine and Ayurvedic medicine with a medicinal history of over 5000 years.
This plant is native to India and Sri Lanka and is now widely distributed in South and Southeast Asia. Indians use it to treat diabetes, dysentery, hepatitis, skin infections, and snake bites. Thai people use it to treat common colds and non-infectious diarrhea.
In the early autumn of each year, people gather the above-ground part of Andrographis paniculata, wash them with water, remove their impurities, cut them into segments, dry them in the sun, and make them into Chinese herbal medicines.
Chuan Xin Lian contains andrographolide, andrographoside, isoandrographolide, deoxygenated andrographolide, deoxygenated andrographoside, dehydrated andrographolide, dehydrated andrographoside, flavonoids, phenylpropanoids, iridoids, alkaloids, sterols, phenolic glycosides, organic acids, triterpenes, and proteins.
According to <Ling Nan Cai Yao Lu> (Records of Medicinal Harvest in Lingnan), the medicinal nature of Chuan Xin Lian is relatively cold, with a bitter taste. It has a certain therapeutic effect on the pathological changes of heart, lung, large intestine, and bladder meridians.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, it is often used to clear heat and remove toxins, dry dampness, cool blood and alleviate swelling, treat respiratory infections, acute bacterial dysentery, gastroenteritis, leptospirosis, pneumonia, pertussis, tuberculosis, otitis media, pelvic inflammation, thromboangiitis obliterans, acute pyelonephritis, infectious conjunctivitis, acute icteric hepatitis, neurodermatitis, eczema, burns and snake bites.
About 50 kinds of traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions contain it, such as Chuan Xin Lian Kang Yan Pian, Fuke Qianjin capsule, and Chuan Xin Lian Pian.
Benefits
- Anti-inflammation, anti-oxidation, and anti-tumor.
- Enhancing the phagocytic ability of leukocytes to bacteria and lowering blood sugar.
- Promoting bile secretion, terminating a pregnancy, and having an antipyretic effect.
- Inhibiting platelet aggregation and preventing atherosclerosis and thrombosis.
- Preventing liver damage caused by HCH.
- Inhibiting the synthesis of angiotensin II and endothelin in plasma, increasing the activity of lactate dehydrogenase in myocardial tissue, the synthesis of plasma atrial natriuretic peptide and serum NO, and inhibiting myocardial hypertrophy and heart failure.
- Treating fever and headache caused by wind-heat or warm diseases.
- Clearing lung heat and treating cough caused by lung heat.
- Eliminating phlegm and relieving sore throat and lung carbuncle.
- Clearing damp-heat in the stomach and intestine, treating abdominal pain, diarrhea, and hemorrhagic dysentery.
- Clearing damp-heat in the bladder and relieving difficult and painful urination.
- Drying dampness and relieving eczema, jaundice, and leukorrheal diseases caused by damp-heat.
- Treating snake bites, carbuncles, and sores caused by heat toxins.
- Inhibiting Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus, Dicoccus pneumoniae, Streptococcus haemolyticus, Dysentery Bacillus, Typhobacter typhi, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Aspergillus niger, and Penicillium.
Combinations
- It can be used in combination with Jin Yin Hua (Flos Lonicerae), Lian Qiao (Fructus Forsythiae), Bo He (Mentha), etc. to treat fever and headache caused by wind-heat or warm diseases.
- It can be used in combination with Huang Qin (Radix Scutellariae), Sang Bai Pi (Cortex Mori), Di Gu Pi (Cortex Lycii), etc. to treat cough caused by lung heat.
- It can be used in combination with Xuan Shen (Radix Scrophulariae), Niu Bang Zi (Fructus Arctii), Ban Lan Gen (Radix Isatidis), etc. to relieve a sore throat.
- It can be used in combination with Ku Shen (Radix Sophorae Flavescentis), Mu Xiang (Radix Aucklandiae), etc. to treat difficult and painful urination caused by damp-heat in the bladder.
- It can be used in combination with Che Qian Zi (Semen Plantaginis), Bai Mao Cen (Rhizoma Imperatae), Huang Bai (Cortex Phellodendri), etc. to alleviate itching and treat eczema.
Side Effects
- Taking it in large doses may cause nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, stomach pain, or fatigue.
- Its injection may cause drug eruptions, upper abdominal pain, and anaphylactic shock. In severe cases, it may cause death.
Precautions and Warnings
- The dosage of Chuan Xin Lian should be controlled at 6-9g.
- Its decoction is easy to induce vomiting, so it is often made into powder and pills.
- People who are allergic to Chuan Xin Lian should not take it.
- Patients with stomach and duodenal ulcers should not take it.
- Patients with loose stools should not take it.
- Patients with deficiency-cold in the spleen and stomach should not take it.
- Pregnant women and children should not take it.