Corydalis yanhusuo, a traditional Chinese medicine. It is the dried tuber of Corydalis yanhusuo W.T.Wang, a plant belonging to the genus Corydalis in the Papaveraceae family. It has the effects of promoting blood circulation, regulating qi, and relieving pain. It is primarily used for pain in the chest and flanks, epigastric and abdominal pain, chest pain due to bi syndrome, amenorrhea and dysmenorrhea, postpartum blood stasis, and swelling and pain from falls or blows.
Corydalis
Corydalis yanhusuo, a traditional Chinese medicine. It is the dried tuber of Corydalis yanhusuo W.T.Wang, a plant belonging to the genus Corydalis in the Papaveraceae family. It has the effects of promoting blood circulation, regulating qi, and relieving pain. It is primarily used for pain in the chest and flanks, epigastric and abdominal pain, chest pain due to bi syndrome, amenorrhea and dysmenorrhea, postpartum blood stasis, and swelling and pain from falls or blows.
Chinese Name : 延胡索
Latin Name : Corydalis Rhizoma
Aliases : Yanhu, Xuanhusuo, Yuanhusuo, Yuanhu
Authentic Producing Area : Zhejiang
Nature, Flavor & Meridian Tropism : Pungent and bitter in taste; warm in nature; enters the Liver and Spleen meridians
Benefits & Efficacy
Benefits
Promotes blood circulation, regulates qi, and relieves pain.
Indications
Pain in the chest and flanks, epigastric and abdominal pain, chest pain due to bi syndrome, amenorrhea and dysmenorrhea, postpartum blood stasis, and swelling and pain from falls or blows.
Usage and Dosage
Internal use: Decocted, 3–10 g. Taken as a powder, 1.5–3 g per dose. Or incorporated into pills or powders.
Precautions
1. Corydalis is pungent and warm in nature and has a dispersing action; it carries the risk of depleting qi and damaging blood. Use with caution for various types of pain caused by qi deficiency or blood deficiency. 2. Contraindicated for pregnant women. 3. Corydalis may increase the toxic effects of Strychnos nux-vomica; the two should not be used together. 4. The blood pressure-lowering effect of Corydalis can be eliminated or reversed by monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). Corydalis should not be used during treatment with MAOIs or within 2 weeks of discontinuing such medication.
Chemical Constituents
It contains alkaloids (including Corydalis A, B, C, D, G, H, I, J, C, B, and Z), as well as large amounts of starch, small amounts of mucilage, resin, essential oils, and neutral substances.
Pharmacological Actions
This product possesses pharmacological effects including analgesia, improvement of hemodynamics, improvement of blood rheology, protection against myocardial ischemia, antiarrhythmic effects, and protection against cerebral ischemia.
Relevant Discussions
1. *Lei Gong’s Treatise on Medicinal Processing*: “For heart pain so severe it feels like death, seek Corydalis immediately.”
2. *Compendium of Materia Medica*: “Corydalis can resolve qi stagnation in the blood and blood stagnation in the qi; therefore, it is specifically used to treat all kinds of pain throughout the body. When used appropriately, its efficacy is beyond description. Indeed, Corydalis, which promotes blood circulation and regulates qi, is a first-class medicinal herb.”
Applications
Clinical Applications
1. To treat chest pain (xianbi) caused by blood stasis in the heart, it is commonly used in combination with Salvia miltiorrhiza, Cinnamomum cassia, Allium tuberosum, and Trichosanthes kirilowii.
2. To treat stomach pain caused by heat syndromes, it is combined with Melia azedarach, as in the Jinlingzi Powder (*Su Wen: Collection of Disease Mechanisms, Qi Principles, and Life-Preserving Methods*).
3. For stomach pain due to cold patterns, it is combined with Guizhi (or Rou Gui) and Gaoliangjiang, as in the Anzhong Powder (from *Formulas of the Bureau of Harmonious Preparations*).
4. For stomach pain due to qi stagnation, it is combined with Xiangfu, Muxiang, and Sha Ren; for stomach pain due to blood stasis, it may be combined with Danshen, Wulingzhi, and other herbs.
5. For stomach pain due to central deficiency, it is combined with Dangshen, Baizhu, and Baishao.
6. To treat chest and flank pain caused by liver qi stagnation, combine with Chaihu and Yujin.
7. To treat chest and flank pain caused by liver qi stagnation transforming into fire, combine with Chuanlianzi and Shanzhi.
8. To treat abdominal pain caused by cold hernia, combine with Xiaohuixiang, Wuzhuyu, and other herbs.
9. To treat dysmenorrhea, irregular menstruation, and postpartum abdominal pain caused by qi stagnation and blood stasis, it is often combined with Danggui, Honghua, and Xiangfu.
10. To treat trauma-induced injuries, bruising, and pain, it is often used in combination with Ru Xiang and Mo Yao.
11. To treat rheumatic arthralgia, it can be combined with Qin Jiao and Gui Zhi.
Related Compatibility
1. Coptis combined with Cyperus: Coptis is pungent, bitter, and warm in nature, primarily entering the Blood system; its functions include promoting blood circulation, removing blood stasis, regulating Qi, and relieving pain. Cyperus is pungent, bitter, and slightly sweet in nature, with a neutral nature; it primarily enters the Qi system and excels at regulating Qi, dispelling stagnation, promoting blood circulation, and regulating menstruation.When used together, these two herbs not only invigorate blood and resolve stasis but also soothe the liver and regulate qi. When qi flows, blood flows; when blood flows smoothly, qi flows smoothly. By treating both qi and blood simultaneously, the effects of regulating qi and relieving pain are greatly enhanced. This combination is suitable for chest and flank pain caused by liver qi stagnation and blood stasis obstructing the liver and gallbladder, as well as irregular menstruation and menstrual abdominal pain.
2. Corydalis combined with Wuyao: Corydalis primarily enters the Blood Division, invigorates blood and regulates qi, and excels at dispersing blood stasis; Wuyao primarily enters the Qi Division, regulates qi and relieves pain, and excels at dispelling cold. When used together, these two herbs harmonize both qi and blood, jointly achieving the effects of invigorating blood, regulating qi, dispelling cold, and relieving pain. This combination is suitable for conditions involving qi stagnation and blood stasis, as well as epigastric and abdominal pain, and is particularly appropriate for pain caused by qi stagnation with a predominance of cold.
3. Corydalis combined with Fennel: Corydalis promotes blood circulation, resolves blood stasis, regulates qi, and relieves pain; it is a key herb for pain relief. Fennel warms the kidneys and liver, dispels cold, and relieves pain; it is a key herb for treating hernias. When used together, these two herbs exhibit a significant effect in dispelling cold and relieving pain. This combination is suitable for scrotal swelling and pain caused by cold-dampness invading the Jueyin channel and resulting in stagnation of qi and blood.
Medicinal Identification
1. Raw Corydalis and Vinegar-Processed Corydalis: Both possess the ability to promote blood circulation, regulate qi, and relieve pain. However, because the active pain-relieving components in raw Corydalis are not easily extracted during decoction, its analgesic effect is suboptimal. Although it can be used to treat pain syndromes caused by qi stagnation and blood stasis, it is rarely used in clinical practice.After vinegar processing, the solubility of its active ingredients is greatly enhanced, thereby strengthening its analgesic efficacy. It is widely used to treat various types of pain throughout the body caused by qi stagnation and blood stasis, such as chest pain due to chest bi, stomach pain, dysmenorrhea, postpartum abdominal pain due to blood stasis, abdominal pain from cold hernia, trauma, and rheumatic bi pain.
2. Corydalis and Ligusticum: Both herbs possess pungent, dispersing, and warming properties; they can all promote blood circulation, regulate qi, and relieve pain, and are both suitable for treating various pain syndromes caused by qi stagnation and blood stasis. However, Corydalis is particularly effective for pain relief and can be widely used for pain in various parts of the body caused by qi stagnation and blood stasis.Chuanxiong excels at regulating menstrual flow and is a commonly used herb in gynecology for this purpose. It also ascends to the head and eyes to dispel wind and relieve pain, making it a key herb for treating headaches. It is frequently used for chest pain, flank pain, dysmenorrhea, postpartum stasis pain, headaches, and arthralgia caused by wind, cold, and dampness.
Related Medicines
Anwei Tablets, Compound Weining Tablets, Yuanhu Zhitong Tablets (soft capsules, granules, oral solution, droplet pills), Jiqi Niantong Pills, and Women’s Dysmenorrhea Pills.
Related Prescriptions
Jinlingzi Powder (*Shenghui Fang*, excerpted from *Xiu Zhen Fang*), Yanhu Powder (*Qi Fang Lei Bian*), and Yanhu Shenghua Decoction (*Tai Chan Xin Fa*).
Medicinal Diet Therapy
Menstrual Regulation Wine
1. Effects: Tonifies qi, regulates blood, promotes blood circulation, and regulates menstruation. Suitable for women with irregular menstruation and unpredictable cycles.
2. Ingredients: 9g each of Angelica sinensis, Ligusticum chuanxiong, Evodia rutaecarpa, Paeonia lactiflora, Poria cocos, Citrus reticulata, Corydalis yanhusuo, and Moutan bark; 18g of Rehmannia glutinosa; 18g of processed Cyperus rotundus; 6g of Fennel;6g Amomum villosum, 1000ml white liquor, and 500g rice wine.
3. Preparation: First, coarsely crush the herbs, place them in a clay pot, and pour in the white liquor and rice wine. Simmer over heat for 1 hour. Allow to cool, strain out the residue, and bottle for later use.
4. Dosage: Take 10–20ml once in the morning and once in the evening.
Notes
Patients requiring treatment with Chinese herbal medicine should first consult a licensed Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) hospital, where a TCM practitioner will conduct a professional pattern differentiation and prescribe an herbal formula.
Processing & Preparation
Harvesting & Processing
Harvest in early summer when the stems and leaves have withered. Remove the fibrous roots, boil in boiling water until the white core is just gone, then remove and sun-dry. Cut into thick slices or crush. Use raw or after roasting with vinegar.
Processing Methods
1. Corydalis: Take the raw herb, remove impurities, wash thoroughly, soak briefly until thoroughly moistened, slice thinly, and dry; or crush when ready for use.
2. Roasted Corydalis: Place Corydalis slices or chunks in a pan, heat over low heat, and roast until the surface turns yellow; remove and allow to cool.
3. Vinegar-treated Corydalis: Take purified Corydalis, crush it, mix thoroughly with vinegar, let it steep until thoroughly saturated, place in a pan, and stir-fry over low heat until dry; remove and let cool. Alternatively, take purified Corydalis, place it in a solution of rice vinegar diluted with an appropriate amount of water, and boil until the vinegar solution is completely absorbed; remove, slice, or dry and then crush. Use 25 kg of rice vinegar for every 100 kg of Corydalis.
4. Wine-Processed Corydalis: Take cleaned Corydalis slices or碎块, mix thoroughly with rice wine, let stand until thoroughly infused, place in a pot, and heat over low heat until dry. Remove and let cool. Use 20 kg of rice wine for every 100 kg of Corydalis slices.
5. Coptis Charcoal: Place Coptis slices or chunks in a pot and stir-fry over high heat until the surface turns charred black and the interior turns charred brown. Sprinkle with a small amount of water to extinguish all embers, then remove, air-dry, and allow to cool completely.
Storage Methods
Store in a dry, airtight container in a cool, dry place to prevent mold and insect infestation. Charred Corydalis dissipates heat and prevents reignition.
Crude Drug Identification
Identification
1. The powder of this product is greenish-yellow. Agglomerations of gelatinized starch granules are pale yellow or nearly colorless. The thick-walled cells of the lower epidermis are greenish-yellow; the cells are polygonal, square-like, or elongated, with slightly curved, lignified walls; some exhibit bead-like thickening, and the pits are fine and dense. The spiral vessels have a diameter of 16–32 μm.
2. Take 1 g of the powdered sample, add 50 mL of methanol, subject to ultrasonic treatment for 30 minutes, filter, and evaporate the filtrate to dryness. Dissolve the residue in 10 mL of water, adjust to alkalinity with concentrated ammonia solution, and extract three times with 10 mL of ether each time by shaking. Combine the ether extracts, evaporate to dryness, and dissolve the residue in 1 mL of methanol to prepare the test solution.Separately, take 1 g of Coptis root reference material and prepare a reference material solution using the same method. Then, take a reference standard of Coptisine and dissolve it in methanol to prepare a solution containing 0.5 mg per mL, which serves as the reference standard solution.Perform the test according to the thin-layer chromatography method (General Chapter 0502). Pipette 2–3 μL of each of the three solutions mentioned above and apply them separately onto the same silica gel G plate prepared with 1% sodium hydroxide solution. Develop the plate using toluene–acetone (9:2) as the developing agent, remove the plate,allow to air-dry, place in an iodine bath for approximately 3 minutes, then remove; after completely volatilizing the iodine adsorbed on the plate, examine under ultraviolet light (365 nm). In the chromatogram of the test sample, fluorescent spots of the same color appear at positions corresponding to those in the chromatograms of the reference herbal material and reference standards.
Properties of Crude Drugs
The tubers are flattened-spherical, 5–18 mm in diameter. The surface is grayish-yellow or yellowish-brown, with irregular, fine, reticulate wrinkles; the slightly concave base bears a stem scar or root scar, surrounded by several small protrusions;the upper part or sides bear several tuberules of varying sizes; the central depression at the upper part of the main and lateral tubers contains a stem scar and a bud; some tubers are “lobed” or divided into 2–3 lobes at the top. The texture is hard and difficult to break; the fracture surface is yellow or yellowish-brown, horny, with a waxy luster.It has a faint odor and a bitter taste. Those that are large, plump, firm in texture, and have a yellow cross-section are considered the best.
Properties of Processed Slices
1. Corydalis: See “Characteristics of the Medicinal Material.”
2. Roasted Corydalis: Resembles Corydalis, with a deep yellow surface.
3. Vinegar-treated Corydalis: Resembles Corydalis, is deep green, and has a slight vinegar odor.
4. Wine-treated Corydalis: Resembles Corydalis, is deep yellow or yellowish-brown, and has a slight wine odor.
5. Charred Corydalis: The surface is charred black, and the interior is charred brown.
Botanical Information
Botanical Classification
Corydalis, a plant of the genus Corydalis in the Papaveraceae family.
Morphological Characteristics
A perennial herb, 9–20 cm tall, glabrous throughout.The tuber is flattened-spherical, 7–15 mm in diameter, slightly concave at the top, with fibrous roots emerging from the base; it is sometimes longitudinally split into several lobes, with a deep yellow cross-section. The stem is erect or inclined, usually solitary, with a single scale near the base; the stem nodes are often swollen into small tubers, from which new stems emerge; these new stems, in turn, form small tubers at their nodes, often in clusters of 3–4.Basal leaves: 2–4; petioles 3–8 cm long; leaf blades broadly triangular in outline, 3–6 cm long and 4–8 cm wide, twice ternately deeply lobed; first-order lobes petiolate, terminal lobes nearly sessile; lobes aciculate to oblong-elliptic, 20–30 mm long and 5–8 mm wide, entire, with a few in the upper half deeply or shallowly bifid;Cauline leaves usually 2, alternate, smaller than but similar in shape to the basal leaves. Raceme terminal, 2–5 cm long, bearing 3–8 sparsely arranged flowers; bracts ovate to narrowly ovate, those in the lower part of the inflorescence about 10 mm long, apically 3–5-lobed, those in the upper part entire; sepals 2, minute, early deciduous;Corolla pale purplish-red; petals 4, arranged in 2 whorls; the upper petal of the outer whorl is the largest, 15–25 mm long, spreading at the upper part into a broad obovate to broadly elliptic pouch-like lobe with small teeth along the margin and a shallow indentation at the apex, extending into a long spur in the middle to lower part; the lower petal is shorter, similar in shape to the upper petal, with a shallow sac-like projection at the base;the two petals of the inner whorl are 10–15 mm long, enveloping the stamens; their upper parts are broadly obovate, while the middle and lower parts are slender and claw-like; there are 6 stamens, slightly shorter than the inner petals, with every 3 fused into a bundle; the ovary is linear, 8–10 mm long; the pedicel is slender and short; the stigma is nearly circular, with 8 papillae.The capsule is linear, 1.7–2.2 cm long; the style and stigma are persistent, and the capsule splits into two valves when ripe. The seeds are arranged in a single row, consisting of several small, slender, oblong seeds that are black, glossy, and densely covered with small pits on the surface. Cultivated specimens often produce only flowers, and the fruits fall off before ripening. Flowering occurs from March to April, and fruiting from April to May.
Distribution Area
It is distributed in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, and other regions.
Growth Habits
It prefers a warm and humid climate, is highly cold-tolerant, but is sensitive to high summer temperatures and stifling heat, as well as drought; it cannot tolerate waterlogging or intense sunlight. It is best cultivated in well-drained, fertile, loose, humus-rich sandy loam.
Propagation Methods
Propagated by tubers.
Cultivation Techniques
The optimal planting period is from late September to early October.Select tubers from the current growing season that are flattened-spherical, pale yellow in color, have numerous bud eyes, are robust and free of disease or insect damage, have a diameter of 1.4–1.6 cm, and have relatively tender tissue for use as seed. Before planting, soak the tubers in a 1,000-fold dilution of 50% Tebuconazole wettable powder for 5 minutes, allow them to air-dry slightly, and plant immediately. Plant in rows or holes, with row planting being preferable.Dig shallow furrows 20 cm apart with a depth of 6–7 cm, and plant the tubers in two alternating rows. Position the buds upward; avoid planting too shallowly or too deeply to prevent affecting germination. Cover the tubers with soil as you plant, and top with a layer of wood ash or mixed ash.
Pest and Disease Control
1. Downy mildew: Symptoms begin in March, primarily affecting the leaves. Brown spots first appear on the leaves, and a downy, mildew-like coating gradually forms on the underside, causing the leaves to wither and die. Treat with a 200-fold dilution of 40% ethyl phosphonate wettable powder, a 500-fold dilution of 50% carbendazim, or an 800-fold dilution of thiophanate-methyl.
2. Sclerotium rot: Symptoms appear in mid-March, affecting the base of the stem. Initially, yellowish-brown or dark brown, water-soaked, spindle-shaped lesions appear; in severe cases, the stem base rots, causing the above-ground parts to lodge and wither.with mycelium and sclerotia visible on the soil surface. Treat by applying 3% Sclerotium-L or a 1:3 mixture of lime and wood ash to the bed surface, or by broadcasting 5% ammonium chloronitrate powder.
3. Rust: Symptoms appear in early to mid-March. Initially, yellow-green lesions appear on the leaves, later turning yellowish-brown. Lesions on the underside of leaves or on stems become raised and exude a rust-colored powder. Treat by spraying with a 500-fold dilution of 60% zinc mancozeb wettable powder or a 1,000-fold dilution of 25% triazole wettable powder. Additionally, white mold may cause damage.
4. Insect pests include cutworms, which damage seedlings and tubers, as well as mole crickets, scarab beetle larvae, and seed flies.