Properties: Bitter and cold, liver

Meridans Entered:
Primary: Gallbladder, Stomach, Large Intestine and Bladder
Extraordinary Vessels: Yang Wei

1. Clears Heat and dries Dampness
   Damp-Heat in the Lower Jiao with jaundice, diarrhoea, dysenteric disorders, vaginal discharge and sores, viral hepatitis
2. Disperses Wind, kills parasites and stops itching
   Damp-toxin skin lesions or infestations with chronic itching, scabies, seepage and bleeding (internal and topical)
   Genital itching and vaginal discharge (internal and topical)
   Bronchial asthma
3. Clears Heat and promotes urination
   Damp-Heat in the Small Intestine
   Painful urinary dysfunction
   Hot oedema
4. Expels Gu Parasites
   Chronic inflammatory disease (Fruehauf, 2015)

Suggested Daily Dosage: 3-6g in decoction.

Cautions: It is contraindicated for deficiency cold syndrome. Overdose will weaken appetite and consume fluids, and may produce salivation, abnormal gait, dyspnpoea and tachycardia. In larger doses, nervous system stimulation with muscle spasm and seizures can occur.

This herb can not be used together with Li Lu being listed in the eighteen antagonisms.

Interactions:

• The action of matrine on opioid receptors could alter the activity of opioid medications.

• Matrine
  Alkaloid with potential anti-cancer effects, and action as a κ-opioid receptor and μ-receptor agonist. α-matrine, the most common type, is soluble in water, methanol and ethyl alcohol (Sun et al., 2022)
• Sophoraflavanone-G
  A tetrahydroxyflavanone functionally related to naringenin. It has a role as an antioxidant, an antimalarial, an antimicrobial agent.
• Kushenin
  A pterocarpan, a type of furano-isoflavonoid.

Notes:

Analysis of the ancient script forms of 參 Shen suggest it is simplified from 曑 (晶 -> 厽) making an ideogrammic compound of 晶 ("stars") + 光 ("light; brightness") + 彡 ("light rays") meaning the Three Stars astrological mansion (referring to the three stars of Orion's belt in western astronomy at the centre of this constellation). 彡 also acts as a phonetic component. Its main meaning is "joining, merging, being a part of" suggesting the three stars making up a single constellation.

光 may also be interpreted as 卩 ("kneeling person"), representing someone looking at the shining stars above him or be the original character for 簪 a hairpin and thus someone with a ceremonial hat of stars.

參 also appears in the title of the famous alchemical text 參同契 Cantong Qi translated as The Seal of the Unity of the Three, or Joining as One with Unity, with 參 playing on the double meaning as "three" and "joined as one" where it refers to the unity of the cosmology of the Yi Jing, Daoism and internal alchemy (Pregradio, 2011, Seal of the Unity of the Three, p. 3).

These all suggest a great reverence for these herbs, which crosses into the cosmological, religious and self-cultivation realms, while also suggesting a completeness of these herbs in themselves. Herbs with 參 in their name may be used individually, without needing a formula to complement them.