Agrimonia Winter Bud hè cǎo yá · 鹤草芽

Agrimoniae Gemma (Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb. — the winter bud)

Nature and flavour. Bitter, astringent, cool; counted as slightly toxic. Liver, Small Intestine and Large Intestine systems.

The drug is the underground winter bud of Agrimonia pilosa — the same plant whose aerial parts are used as 仙鹤草 for stopping bleeding, which is why the two share a source but not a use. Classical and modern Chinese sources describe the bud as expelling parasites, and it is best known for tapeworm; the constituent usually named as responsible is agrimophol. It is a comparatively late entry to the materia medica rather than a classical drug, and its recorded use rests on traditional and clinical-descriptive sources rather than on controlled human trials.