Yin Chen Hao: An Herb Story
Yin Chen Hao, Artemisia capillaris, got its name in China. Its common name is capillary wormwood. Yin Chen Hao belongs to the herb category, 'herbs that drain dampness', and it is used primarily to clear damp heat from the liver and gallbladder and to relieve jaundice. Yin Chen Hao is bitter, cold, descending and draining, which makes it able to break up turbid dampness, reduce jaundice, and promote urination.
The Story of Yin Chen Hao
There was once a man named Zhao who enjoyed baijiu, an alcoholic beverage distilled from fermented sorghum. Frankly, he enjoyed it a little too much. Soon after work each day, Zhao would start to drink and continue until he fell asleep. Over time, Zhao developed jaundice from a fatty liver. His face was yellow. His eyes were sunken and he was as thin as a rail.
One day after becoming feverish, he decided he needed help. Leaning on a crutch and groaning the whole way, he made the two day journey to another precinct to see the famous herbalist doctor, Master Hua To. "Master, please bless me. I need your help," Zhao implored.
On seeing that the patient was suffering from jaundice, Hua To frowned and shook his head. "No doctor has yet found a way to cure this kind of illness. Unfortunately, I can do nothing about it either," said Hua To. Seeing that even Master Hua To could do nothing, the patient with a worried look could only go home to wait for his inevitable death.
Half a year later, while gathering herbs in the countryside, Hua To ran into Zhao again, not only still alive, but he had become strong and was glowing with health. Hua To was very surprised. "Who has cured your illness?" asked Hua To. "I want to learn from him."
"I stopped drinking baijiu, but otherwise it has cured itself."
"That's impossible. You must have had some medicine."
"None."
"That's strange. Are you sure nothing happened to create this change?"
"Oh, I did have a dream one time when I was sleeping off a drunken binge. A short old white haired man wearing old dark trousers and a green tunic appeared in my dream and told me that I needed to eat grass. At first I thought this was a drunken fever dream, but because there was no grain during the past spring's natural disaster, I decided to eat the grass from the field where I fell asleep."
"That's enough! Grass can certainly be medicine. How long did you eat it?"
"I don't know exactly. Several weeks. As I said, there was no grain. After letting the grass dry, I ground the herbs into a kind of flour. Then I made pancakes, which I ate with vegetables. The pancakes were bitter, but I needed to eat something."
"I need to see this grass. Please take me to look at it."
"All right. It grows up in the mountains on the way to my village. Follow me. It's not too far."
After they walked a couple of hours, they climbed up a mountain slope and Zhao pointed to a meadow of verdant grasses. "There it is," Zhao said.
"Isn't this just Qing hao? That is green Artemisia/ Wormwood? I did not know that it could cure any illness. I will get some and try it," said Hua To.
So, Hua To began to try to cure jaundice with this herb he thought was Qing hao. Though he tried it many times to treat jaundice, none of the patients recovered. Thinking that perhaps Zhao didn't describe the use of the grass clearly, Hua to went to him again.
"Is it true that you took Qing hao to cure your jaundice?"
"I don't know the name of the herb, but yes, I showed you. You saw it."
"In which month?" asked Hua To.
Oh, at the end of March, when the yang qi rises and all kinds of grasses begin to sprout."
"Ah, perhaps in March. Qing hao has some special medicinal energy," said Hua To.
The next spring, Hua To gathered a lot of this 'artemisia' in March, when the herb first sprouts from last year's brown vines. He also noticed that the tops of the new sprouts were silverish gray. When he tried this herb with patients who suffered from jaundice this time it was very effective. Whoever took it would be cured. But when this spring was over, this same wormwood gathered in summer was useless.
In order to fully learn the medicinal properties of this Artemisia, Hua To tried another experiment in the third year. He gathered separate parts of the plant and gave them to patients to take. As a result, Hua To discovered that only the old stems and young leaves could be made into medicine for jaundice. Hua To gathered some Qing hao near his village, and after careful examination of and comparison with Zhao's Artemisia, he discovered that Qing hao was not the same herb as Zhao's wormwood, although the plants were likely related. Through his study and experiments, he did discover that Qing hao had medicinal value in treating fever from summer heat, but that Zhao's wormwood was not Qing Hao 青蒿/ green artemisia after all.
So that people could easily tell them apart, Hua To named the medicinal wormwood that Zhao had discovered for jaundice, 'Yin Chen Hao' 茵陳蒿, Yin because it grew in a meadow that was inviting to sleep on. Chen for old, because the sprout of the herb grows from the old dry stem that over winters, plus the silver grey tipped leaves. And Hao, which means artemisia. Both of these venerable herbs are used in Chinese herbal medicine today. They are indeed two different species. Qing hao is Artemisia annua and Yin Chen Hao is Artemisia capillaris.
About the Author
Skye Sturgeon, DAOM is the Quality Assurance Manager and Special Consultant for Mayway, USA. Skye was the former Chair of Acupuncture & East Asian Medicine and core faculty member at Bastyr University, core faculty member and Faculty Council Chair at the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and President and Senior Professor of the Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine College, Berkeley. Before making Chinese medicine his career choice, Skye held various positions in the Natural Foods Industry for 12 years and prior to that was a clinical biochemist and toxicologist.
