This acrid and spicy tuber grows in early summer in the shadowy damp places on hillsides, beside streams and mullberry plantations. It is toxic in raw form, thus is prepared with Sheng Jiang and Ming Fan. Ban Xia appears in 18 formulas in the Shang Han Lun and around 30 prescriptions in the Jing Gui Yao Lue.

Ban Xia directs counterflow downward, stops vomiting and disperses clumps.

As we always prepare herbs in synergistic pairs and formulas, here are the most common pairings (Dui Yao):

+ Gan Jiang: Nausea and vomiting

+ Fu Ling: Palpitations and insomnia

+ Tiang Ma & Bai Zhu: Headaches and dizziness

+ Huang Lian & Gua Lou: Chest fullness with coughing

+ Huang Lian & Huang Qin: Epigastric focal distention with irritability and restlessness

+ Hou Po, Zi Su Ye & Fu Ling: Sensation of something being stuck in the throat

+ Zhi Shi, Fu Ling, Gan Cao, Zhu Ru & Chen Pi: Panic and being easily startled, nausea and vomiting, dizziness and insomnia

+ Sheng Jiang, Xi Xin & Wu Wei Zi: Coughing with profuse sputum

+ Hou Po, Sheng Jiang & Ren Shen: Reduces abdominal fullness

+ Ren Shen, Feng Mi: Acid regurgitation and epigastric focal distention with firmness.

+ Gua Lou & Xie Bai: Painful chest obstruction or chest pain. 

Ban Xia is a phlegm-transforming herb. It treats all types of phlegm, not only sputum that can be coughed up, but also phlegm retained in the body and formless phlegm in invisible.

Phlegm gets stuck in different places, let’s have a look:

• Phlegm misting the heart: mental issues, insomnia, irritability.
• Phlegm in the lungs: cough with lots of sputum that is hard to expectorate.
• Phlegm obstructing the diaphragm: Nausea, vomiting, ‘something stuck in the throat’
• Wind-Phlegm harassing upward: dizziness, headache, numbness of the limbs, spasms
• Phlegm-heat lodged in the heart: chest stuffiness, profuse sputum, palpitations, and nausea.
• Phlegm stagnating collaterals: hemiplegia and limb numbness
• Phlegm in the joints: joint swelling, pain and deformity
• Phlegm nodules: Lumps, swollen lymph nodes that are neither painful nor itchy nor red nor hot.
• Phlegm obstructing the womb: obesity, infertility, amenorrhea, profuse vaginal discharge
• Phlegm fire: irritability, restlessness, dry mouth, constipation, and a red tongue.
• Phlegm-dampness: heavy and tired body, sallow complexion, abdominal distension, watery stools, white greasy tongue coating.

Definitive presentations:

1. Nausea or occasional nausea, which when severe results in vomiting
2. Slippery, moist or greasy tongue coating
3. Sallow or dull, ashen complexion

Body Type:

‘Ban Xia’ people tend to have puffiness, wet tongue coating (can’t be dry), psycho-emotionally sensitive, skin lacks lustre.

To differentiate ‘Ban Xia Type’ with ‘Gan Jiang Type’; Gan Jiang type normally has abdominal fullness, watery stools, an aversion to cold, and a thick, white, greasy tongue coating, whereas Ban Xia type includes nausea and vomiting, accompanied by constipation, and no aversion to cold, the tongue has a white greasy coating, but is not thick.