Knowledge Base/Herbs/Bamboo Sugar

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化痰止咳平喘药 · Phlegm-resolving, cough and breathing

Bamboo Sugar tiān zhú huáng · 天竺黄

Bambusa textilis McClure (Bambusae Concretio Silicea)

Nature and flavour. Sweet and cold; Heart and Liver systems.

Traditionally classed as clearing heat, sweeping phlegm, cooling the Heart and settling fright. The drug is a siliceous concretion that forms inside the culm of certain bamboos and is collected after the culm is cut — it is not a plant organ. Recorded for clouding of the mind with hot phlegm in febrile illness, for stroke with phlegm misting the orifices, and for fright and convulsions in children attributed to phlegm-heat. It is grouped with the phlegm-resolving drugs rather than with the spirit-calming drugs because the classical rationale is that the phlegm is the cause and the agitation follows from it.

性味归经。甘，寒；归心、肝经。

传统归类为清热豁痰、凉心定惊。药用部分是某些竹类茎秆内的分泌液干燥凝块，砍竹后采收，并非植物器官。古籍用于热病痰热蒙蔽清窍、中风痰迷，以及小儿痰热所致惊风、抽搐、夜啼。传统归在化痰药而非安神药，理由是痰为其因、惊为其果。

Classical category · no formulas, no dosages, no herb-drug combinations are given.

Safety. This is a drug for acute, severe presentations in the classical sources, not a household remedy; altered consciousness, stroke-like symptoms and convulsions are emergencies for conventional medical assessment, and no outcome for any of them has been established for this substance. Being cold in nature, it is traditionally avoided where the digestion is weak and cold. Note the naming trap: the characters 竹黄 are also used for a fungus (Shiraia bambusicola) that circulates as a separate article, products are not reliably labelled, and the two are not the same thing. Safety in pregnancy and breastfeeding is not established.

古籍所载均为急重证候，并非家用常备之品；意识改变、类中风症状与抽搐均须按急症就医评估，本品对上述任何一种的结局均无确立证据。性寒，脾胃虚寒者传统上忌用。注意同名异物：「竹黄」一名亦指竹黄菌（Shiraia bambusicola），市售品未必标明来源，二者并非一物。孕期与哺乳期安全性未确立。

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