Ba Ji Tian

English Name: morinda, medicinal Indian mulberry root

Pharmaceutical Name: Radix Morindae Officinalis

Medica Category: Yang-Tonifying Herbs

Properties: Ba Ji Tian enters the Kidney channel; it is acrid and sweet in nature and slightly warm in temperature.

What is Ba Ji Tian?:

The Chinese Herb Ba Ji Tian is the dried roots of a plant commonly known as Indian Mulberry (Morinda offcinalis How.). It grows naturally along riversides, mountains, and forests and in China is produced mainly in Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian provinces. It has succulent cylindrical tubers which are harvested year-round; first the wooden core is removed from the tuber, and then what remains is dried and then either used unprocessed or salt-fried (to guide it to the Kidney) for use as medicine.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Therapeutic Actions of Ba Ji Tian:

Ba Ji Tian mildly tonifies Kidney yang, augments jing (essence) and builds blood. It is used to address clinical presentations of deficiency and cold such as infertility, clots with menses, urinary incontinence, and cold and pain in the abdomen that is relieved by heat and pressure.

Ba Ji Tian strengthens sinews and bones and treats bi zheng (painful obstruction syndrome) by shoring up the bodily deficiency that allows the invasion of external pathogens (in formula with Niu Xi, Wu Jia Pi, and Gui Xin).

–safety/clinical notes:

Contraindicated for use as a single herb in cases of yin-deficient fire.

Contraindicated for persons with damp heat.