What it is:
This herb is theseed of Coix Lacryma-jobi(family Cramineae)produced mainly in Fujian, Hebei and Liaoning provinces. Whole plant is har-vested in autumn when fruit is ripe. The fruit is picked,husked and dried insunlight. It is usedunprepared or stir-baked until slightlyyellow.

Property:
Sweet and bland in flavour, cool in pro-perty, acting on thespleen,lung and kidneychannels.

Effects:
Strengthening the spleen and lung, excreting dampness and inducing diuresis, clearing away heat to drain pus.

Used for:
1. Cancers ofdigestive tract, lungand ovary, and cho-rioepithelioma.
(1)For deficient spleen,excessive dampness and disorderly diges-tion in carcinoma of digestive tract, it is used with olden-landia, white atrac-tylodes rhizome , poria, greenbrier rhizome, shell of areca nut and others.
(2) For phlegm- heat accompanied with dampness in lung cancer, it is used together with lepi-dium seed , trichosanthes fruit, dandelion, hout-tuynia, poria and others.
(3) For accumulation of dampness and excess toxin in cancers of uterine cervix and ovary, it is used with phellodendron bark, seven-lobed yam, Hindu lotus stamen and toona.
(4) For chorioepithelioma, it is used with houttuynia, adsuki bean seed, patrinia, astragalus root, rubia rot, waxgourd seed, chinese ange-lica root, danghsen, donkey-hide gelatin,licorice root, etc. It induces antitumour and en-hances immunologicfunction. The extract and decoc-tion of coix seedinhibit various tumourcells. Its active component, coixeno-lide, promotes cellu-lar immunity and humoral immunity.

2. Diarrhea dueto spleen deficiency,arthralgia caused by wind-dampness, edema, jaundice,lung abscess,appendicitis, chy-luria, leukorrhea,etc.

Dosage andadministration:10-30g, decocted in water for an oral dose, or prepared into a form of powder.