What It is:
This herb is the rhizome of Atractylodes lancea (Thunb.) DC., or Atractylodes(DC.) koidz (family Compositae), produced mainly in Jiangsu and Hubei provinces and Inner Mongolia. It is dug in spring or autumn and dried. The herb is sliced after being soaked with water. The herb slices are stir-baked to yellowish color, together with water in which rice has been washed.

Property:
Flavour and channel tropism: pungent and bitter in flavour, warm in property, acting on the spleen and stomach channels.

Effects:
Drying dampness, strengthening the spleen, dispelling wind and removing dampness, diminishing cataract and improving acuity of vision.

Used For:
1. Disturbance of the middle-jiao due to the accumulation of dampness with manifes-tations of epigastric distress, abdominal distension, anorexia, nausea and vomiting, lassitude, turbid and greasy tongue coating, etc. This herb is one of the most important herbs for eliminating dampness and strengthening the spleen. It is often used with magnolia bark and tangerine peel, as in Peptid Posere (Pingwei San).

2. For wind-cold-damp arthralgia-syndrome with pain in the joints and extremities, it is often used with notopterygium root and cinnamon twig. Besides the effects of dispelling wind and removing dampness, this herb can also induce diaphoresis, so it is also used for exterior syndrome due to affection by exopathogens marked by headache and anhidrosis and aches in the extremities, in combination with notopterygium root and ledebouriella root; for swelling pain in the knees and feet due to the downward flow of damp-heat, it is often used with phellodendron bark and achyranthes root in powder form called Powder of Three Wonderful Herbs(Sanmiao San).

3. Eye problems such as external orinternal oculopathy, optic atrophy, night blindness, etc. It can be used alone or together with black sesame seed and pig's liver, as in Atractylodes Pill (Cangzhu Wan).

Dosage and administration: 5-10g, decocted in water for an oral dose.