Ku Shen Gen
English Name: sophora flavescens, light yellow sophora root
Pharmaceutical Name: Radix Sophorae Flavescentis
Medica Category: Heat-Clearing and Dampness-Drying Herbs
Properties: Ku Shen Gen enters the Heart, Liver, Stomach, Large Intestine, and Urinary Bladder channels; it is bitter in nature and cold in temperature.
What is Ku Shen Gen?:
The Chinese Herb Ku Shen Gen is the dried roots of a perennial woody evergreen member of the Sophora genus in the family Leguminosae (Sophora flavescens Ait.).
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Therapeutic Actions of Ku Shen Gen:
Ku Shen Gen clears damp-heat in the lower jiao to address such symptoms as foul-smelling diarrhea and leukorrhea, jaundice, bleeding hemorrhoids, and other bleeding conditions brought on by excess heat driving the blood out of the vessels.
Ku Shen Gen can be used internally or topically to treat a variety of skin issues such as eczema, lesions, carbuncles, urticaria, abscesses, and other kinds of sores that show damp-heat signs (i.e. they are red, angry, itchy and leaking or seeping (or otherwise “wet”)).
Ku Shen Gen promotes urination—this, in combination with its action of draining damp-heat, makes it useful in addressing painful dysuria.
Ku Shen Gen is contraindicated for those with cold/deficiency in the Spleen and Stomach.