What it is:
This herb is the ripe fruit of Gardeniajasminoides Ellis (family Rubiaceae), produced mainly in the provinces of Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Hunan. It is dried in sunlight after harvesting, and used unprepared or stir-baked to brown or to charcoal.

Property:
Flavou rand channel tropism: bitter in flavour, cold in property, acting on the heart, lung, stomach and sanjian channels.

Effects:
Purging fire, relieving dysphoria, clearing away heat, promoting diuresis, removing heat from the blood and stopping bleeding.

Used for:
1. Febrile diseases manifested as vexation, melancholia and restlessness. It is used together with prepared soybean, i.e.Decoction of Capejasmine and Fermented Soybean (Zhizi Chi Tang). If excessive noxious heat is present with symptoms of high fever, dysphooria, unconsciousness and delirium, it is often used with coptis root and scutellaria root, as in Antipyretic and Antitoxic Decoction (Qingwen Baidu Yin).

2. Stagnation of damp heat in the liver and gall bladder manifested as fever, jaundice, scanty dark urine, etc. It is often used with Oriental Wormwood, rhubarb and phellodendron bark, as in Oriental Wormwood Decoction (Yinchenhao Tang) and Decoction of Capejasmine and Phellodendron (ZhiziBaipi Tang).

3. Bleeding due to invasion of blood by pathogenic heat, such as hematemesis, epistaxis, dysentery with bloody stool and hematuria. It is often used with cogongrass rhizome, dried rehmannia root and scutellaria root.