Learn One Chinese Herb Each Week: Ze Xie （Water Plantain）

Ze Xie plant

Pharmaceutical Name: Alismatis Rhizoma

English Name: alisma rhizome, water plantain

Chinese Name: 泽泻（Ze Xie）

Properties: sweet, bland, cold

Channels Entered: Kidney, Bladder

Key Characteristics: facilitates the fluid pathways, clears blazing ministerial fire

Dosage: 4.5-9g.

Dried Tubers of the Ze Xie plants

Cautions and Contradictions: Use with caution in those with sunken middle burner qi.

Actions and Indications:

1. Promotes urination and leaches out dampness: for the stagnation associated with dampness with such symptoms as urinary difficulty, edema, painful urinary dribbling, diarrhea, or dizziness. Especially useful when there is damp-heat in the lower burner.

2. Settles ministerial fire in the Kidneys by draining damp-heat from the lower burner: spermatorrhea due to lower burner damp-heat disturbing the ministerial fire of the Kidneys.

Traditional Chinese Medicine: Ze Xie