What it is:
This herb is the root of Pueraria lobata (Willd.) Ohwi or Pueraria thomsonii Benth. (family Leguminosae), grown mostly in the provinces of Henan, Hubei, Zhejiang and Sichuan,dug in spring or autumn, sliced, dried in sunlight, and used unprepared or roasted.

Property:
Sweet and pungent in flavour, cool in property, acting on the spleen and sto- mach channels.

Effects:
Dispelling pathogenic factors from the superficial muscles to allay fever, promoting the production of body fluid to quench thirst, promoting the eruption of measles and invigora- ting the spleen-yang to stop diarrhea.

Used for:
1. Exterior syn- dromes due to affection by exopathogens with symptoms of fever, headache, an- hidrosis, stiffness and pain in the neck and back, etc. For exterior syndrome due to exopathogenic wind-cold, it is often used together with ephedra, cinna- mon twig, and white peony root, as in Decoction of Pueraria Root(Gegen Tang); for exterior syn- drome due to patho- genic wind-heat associated with internal heat,it is used with scutellaria root,talc and bup- leurum root, as in Bupleurum and Puera- ria Decoction for Dispelling Pathogenic Factors from Super- ficial Muscles(Chai Ge Jieji Tang).

2. For the treat- ment of dire thirst in febrile diseases and polydipsia in diabetes, it is used alone or in combination with ophiopogon root, trichosanthes root and rehmannia root, as in Jade Spring Powder (Yuquan San).

3. For measles at the early stage with fever,aversion to cold and inade- quate eruption of measles, it is often used with cimicifuga root and peony root, as in Decoction of Cimicifuga and Pueraria ( Shengma Gegen Tang).

4. Diarrhea due to pathogenic damp- heat or due to deficiency of the spleen. For the former, this herb is often used with scutellaria root, coptis root, etc., as in Decoction of Pueraria,Scutellaria and Coptis (Gegen Qin Lian Tang); for the latter, it is often used with ginseng, white atrac- tylodes rhizome, aucklandia root and others, as in White Atractylodes Powder Seven Ingredients (Qiwei Baizhu San).

Dosage and admi- nistration: 10-20g, decocted in water for an oral dose or prepared into bolus or powder. For diarr- hea, this herb should be roasted in hot ashes, while for other purposes, unprepared.