What it is:
This herb is theripe of Schisandrachinensis (Turcz.) Baill., or Schisandrasphenanthera Rehd.et Wils. (family Magnoliaceae). Theformer, the best ofits kind, is produced in northern parts of China and ishabitually called"Northern schisandra fruit"; the latter iscommonly referred to as "Southern schisan-dra fruit", for it is produced in sou-thern parts of China.The fruit is collectedin autumn and dried in the sun after removing the fruit stalks. It is unpre-pared or mixed with vinegar or honey andsteamed, and then dried in the sun foruse.

Property:
Sour and sweet in flavour, warm in property, acting on thelung, kidney andheartchannels.

Effects:
Astringthe lung, nourishingthe kidney, promotingthe production of body fluid, arresting sweating, seminal emission and diarrhea,and tranquilizing the mind.

Used for:
1. Chronic coughand asthma of defici-ency type. For relie-ving cough, it is usually used with poppy capsule and black plum; for alleviating asthma, it is often used with prepared rehman-nia root, dogwood fruit, chinese yam, etc. as in Qi-converging Pill (Duqi Wan).

2. Impairment ofthe body fluid mani-fested as thirst, spontaneous or nightsweating. For the impairment of qi andyin by heat with manifestations of palpitation, feeble pulse, thirst, and profuse sweating, itis often used with ginseng, ophiopogonroot, i.e. Pulse-activating Powder (Shengmai San); to stop incessant swea-ting due to debility,it is often prescribedwith arborvitae seed,ginseng, ephedra rootand oyster shell, asin Arborvitae Seed Pill (Baiziren Wan);to treat diabetes, it is often used with astragalus root,dried rehmannia root,ophiopogon root and trichosanthes root, as in Astragalus Decoction ( Huangqi Tang).

3.To stop seminalemission and sperma-torrhea, it is used either alone or withmantis egg-case anddragon's bone, as in Mantis Egg- case Pill ( Sangpiaoxiao Wan).

4. For deficiencyof both the spleen and kidney with endo-pathic cold manifestedas diarrhea before dawn, it is often used with psoralea fruit,dogwood fruit and nutmeg, as in Pill of Four Wonder-ful Herbs (Sishen Wan).

5. Fidget, palpi-tation, insomnia and dreaminess due to insufficiency of theheart- blood and deficiency of the kidney-yin. It is often used with dried rehmannia root,ophiopogon root, redsage root and wild jujube seed, as in Cardiotonic Pill (Tianwang Buxin Dan). Besides, ground into powder for oraluse, schisandra fruitcan lower the level of GPT in patients of chronic hepatitis with high level of GPT.

Dosage and admi-nistration: 2- 6g, decocted in water for an oral dose, 1-3g of powder each time for oral dose.

Precautions:
Sinceschisandra fruit is sour and astringent in flavour and has astringent actions, it should not be prescribed to patientwith residual super-ficial pathogens and heat of excess typein the interior, orat the beginning of cough and onset of measles.