State/School

California License Exam, Pacific College Comps

Pharm Name

Cinnamomi Cortex

Common Name

Cassia Bark

Category

Warm Interior and Expel Cold

Ingredients

Taste

Sweet, Acrid

Pao Zhi

Temperature

Hot

Action / Indication

1. Fortifies the Kidney and Spleen yang, warms the Heart yang and fortifies the yang: for a wide variety of problems due to insufficiency of Kidney yang and waning of the gate of vitality. Common manifestations include aversion to cold, cold limbs, weak back, impotence, and urinary frequency. Also for waning of the Spleen and Kidney yang with abdominal pain and cold, reduced appetite, and diarrhea. It is also important for wheezing due to the failure of the Kidneys to grasp the qi. In addition, an important herb for warming the Heart yang, particularly when deficiency of Heart yang is the etiology of chest painful obstruction. 
2. Disperses deep cold, warms the channels, unblocks the channels and vessels, and alleviates pain: for deep cold causing qi stagnation or blood stasis. Associated problems include cold in the blood causing amenorrhea or dysmenorrhea, cold-damp painful obstruction, yin-type boils (chronic sores that are usually concave and ooze a clear fluid), and sores or abscesses that do not heal. It enters the blood aspect and is often used in small amounts to enhance the blood-moving action of other substances. 
3. Leads the fire back to its source: the principal herb for treating the upward-floating of deficient yang. Manifestations include flushed face, wheezing, severe sweating (when the sweat pours out like oil), weak and cold lower extremities, and a deficient and rootless pulse. This pattern is called false heat and true cold, or heat above/cold below. Also used for other conditions where the upper part of the body is hot (e.g., dry mouth, sore throat, or toothache that wors- en at night) and the lower part is cold (e.g., lower back pain, cold lower extremities, diarrhea, weakness in the proximal position of the pulse). 
4. Encourages the generation of qi and blood: with qi and blood tonics as an auxiliary herb for chronic deficiency of qi and blood.

Treatment Principles

Warms the Mingmen
Strengthens KidneyYang
Redirects Fire Downward
Dispels Deep Cold
Warms and Opens the Channels and Vessels
Stops Pain
Generates Qi and Blood

Contraindication

Pregnancy, yin deficiency fire, interior excess heat, and reckless movement of hot blood.

Dosages

1.5-4.5g added to decoction in the last 5 minutes. 1-2g powdered.

Meridians

LIV, HT, KD, SP

Tom's Comment

1. Rou Gui is the bark and not the twig (Gui Zhi). They do not have the same therapeutics. Rou Gui warms the interior while Gui Zhi unblocks the yang
2. Rou Gui warms and disperses cold. It is particularly useful for Lower Jiao cold pathologies such as Cold Menstrual Pain
3. Rou Gui comes in different grades. Good quality medicinal grade Rou Gui should have a strong pungent sweet smell when crushed.

Source

Formula Type