What It Is:
This herb is the root of Bupleurum Chinese DC or Bupleurum scorzoneri folium Willd.(family Umbelliferae), the former being habitually known as Northern Bupleurum. Grown chiefly in the provinces of Liaoning, Gansu and Hubei, while the latter being known as Southern Bupleurum yielded mainly in the provinces of Hubei, Jiangsu and Sichuan. Bupleurum root is dug in spring or autumn, dried in sunlight, sliced, used unprepared or stir-baked with wine or vinegar.

Property:
Flavour and channel tropism: bitter and pungent in flavour, slightly cold in property, acting on the liver and gall bladder channels.

Effects:
Expelling pathogenic factors from the exterior to reduce fever, soothing the de-pressed liver and invigorating the spleen-yang.

Used for:
1. Fever of common cold and alternate spells of chills and fever, feeling of fullness and dis-comfort in the chest. Also for hypochondrium, bitter taste in the mouth and dryness in the throat due to pathogenic changes in the Shaoyang channel in exogenous febrile diseases. For the former, it is often used with liquorice, known as Bupleurum Powder (Chaihu San), or with pueraria root, as in Bupleurum and Pueraria Decoction for Dispelling Pathogenic Factors from Superficial Muscles (Chai Ge Jieji Tang); for the latter, it is always used together with scutellaria root, pinellia and dangshen, as in Minor Decoction of Bupleurum (Xiao Chaihu Tang).

2. Stagnation of the liver-qi shown as feeling of fulless and oppression in the chest and diaphragm region, distending pain in the hypochondrium region, etc. Bupleu-rum is often used with cyperus tuber, chuanxiong rhizome, bitter orange and so on, as in Bupleu-rum Powder for Disersing Depressed Live-qi (Chaihu Shugan San). In cases of irregular menstruation due to stagnation of the liver-qi and deficiency of the blood, it can be used with Chinese angelica root, white peony root and others, as in Ease Powder (Xiaoyao San).

3. Proctoptosis, hysteroptosis, gastroptosis and short breath, fatigue and lassitude due to deficiency and sinking of qi. It is often used in combination with gin seng, astragalus root, cimicifuga and other, as in Decoction for Reinforcing Middle-Jiao and Replenishing Qi (Buzhong Yiqi Tang). Besides, if this herb is used in combination with scutellaria, dichroa root and so on, it is effective for malaria.

Precautions:
Because bupleurum has lifting and floating actions, it is contraindicated for tinnitus, deafness, dizziness and headache caused by exuberance of fire due to yin deficiency and hyperactivity of the liver-yang.