Individual Herbs Notebook

Huang Lian

Translation: Yellow Links

Pharmaceutical: Rhizoma Coptidis
Taxonomy: Coptidis chinensis

Other names: Coptis Rhizome / Goldthread Rhizome / Mamira ममीरा

Category: Herbs that Clear Heat



Properties: Bitter, cold

Meridans Entered:
Primary: Heart, Stomach, Large Intestine and Liver
Divergent Zones: Yangming


Traditional Actions/Indications:
  1. Clears Heat and drains Dampness
    Damp-Heat in the Stomach or Intestines with diarrhoea or dysenteric disorder
    Stomach Heat with vomiting and/or acid regurgitation
  2. Drains Fire and resolves Fire toxicity
    Heat with Blazing Fire (Toxic Heat) with high fever. irritability, disorientation, delirium, a red tongue and a rapid, full pulse
    Heat from Excess with toxicity: painful, red eyes and a sore throat
    Boils, carbuncles and abscesses (Chuang Yung)
  3. Clears Heat and stops bleeding
    Blood Heat with epistaxis, hematuria, hemafecia and hemoptysis
  4. Clears Heat topically
    Infected wounds, red and painful eyes, ulcerations of the tongue and mouth (topical)
  5. Clears Heart Fire (sedative)
    Heart Fire
    Lack of communication between the Heart and Kidneys
  6. Drains Stomach Fire
    Stomach Fire

Suggested Daily Dosage: 2-10g in decoction.


Cautions: It is contraindicated for deficiency-cold syndrome. Because its taste is extremly bitter and dryness, overdosage and long-time taking will impair spleen and stomach, yin and fluids.


Interactions:

  • Medications changed by the liver (Cytochrome P450): Repeated adminstration of berberine decreases the activity of substrates 2C9, 2D6 and 3A4 which may increase the levels of medications broken down by these enzymes.
  • Decocting with licorice will reduce the efficacy approx 30% due to the reaction of glycyrrhizin with berberine forming an insoluble precipitate (Kamigauchi et al, 2008)


Notable Constituents:
  • Berberine
    Alkaloid with antibiotic, anti-fungal, antidiarrheal, antilipemic, hypoglycemic and antioxidant properties. It also functions as a potassium channel blocker and an antineoplastic agent, among other things.
  • Palmatine
    Protoberberine alkaloid studied for its potential use in the treatment of jaundice, dysentery, hypertension, inflammation, and liver-related diseases.
  • Coptisine
    The component that gives Huang Lian its bitter taste and probably the one responsible for its effects on digestive disorders from bacterial infections.
  • Jatrorrhizine
    Protoberberine alkaloid with antiinflammatory, antimicrobial and antifungal activity. It binds and noncompetitively inhibits monoamine oxidase and can interfere with multidrug resistance by cancer cells in vitro when exposed to a chemotherapeutic agent.
  • Columbamine
    Another berberine alkaloid.
  • Epiberberine
    Protoberberine alkaloid.
  • Melatonin
    A hormone with powerful sleep regulatory, antioxidant and immunoregulatory properties. It is mainly found in animals but Chen et al (2003) found it in 2,460 ng/g in this herb.

Notes: Some other species considered to have the same effect as Huang Lian include C. deltoidea, C. omeiensis and
C. teetoides. C. teetoides is the species used in Ayurvedic medicine.


Appears in 105 formulae listed on this site: (click to display)
Research Links & References: (click to display)