What it is:
This herb is therhizome of Cyperusrotundus L. (familyCyperaceae) which is produced in all parts of China. It is dug in autumn, washed clean, dried in sun-light, sliced, brunt off the hairy root-lets, and used un-prepared or stir-baked with vinegar.

Property:
Pungent, slightly bitter and lightly sweet in flavour, neutral in property, acting on the liver and the San-jiao channels.

Effects:
Soothing the liver, re-gulating the circula-tion of qi and re-gulating menstruation to relieve pain.

Used for:
1. Distension and pain in the chest, hy-pochondrium and abdo-men due to the stagna-tion of the liver-qi. To treat pain in thehypochondrium,it isused in combination with bupleurum, bitter orange and white peony root, as in Bupleurum Powderfor Relieving Liver-qi (Chaihu Shugan San); for gastric and abdo-minal pain due to the attack of hyperactive liver-qi on the stomach, it is used with aucklandia andfinger citron; for the treatment of perium-bilical colic due to invasion of cold, it can be used with com-mon fennel fruit andlindera root; totreat distending pain in the breasts, it can be used with bupleu-rum, trichosanthes fruit and tangerine leaf.

2. Irregular menstruation and dysmenorrhea due tostagnation of theliver-qi. It is often used together with chinese angelica root, chuanxiong rhizomeand white peony root;in cases of dysmen-orrhea accompanied with cold pain in thelower abdomen, it can be given with argyi leaf, as in Pill of Argyi and Cyperus (Ai Fu Wan).

Dosage andadministration: 6-12g, decocted in water for an oraldose. Precautions:This herb should becautiously sued incases of deficiencyof qi and heat in the blood.