Zong Lu Pi

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Trachycarpus fortunei (Hook.) H.Wendl.

Not yet clinically reviewed

Pinyin: Zong Lu Pi

Trachycarpus Stiple Fiber

Traditionally used for

Cough & breathing
Bowel health
Menstrual & women's health

Traditional use

☯ TCM Properties

Category: regulating blood

Temperature: neutral

Taste: bitter

Meridians: liver, large intestine, lung, spleen

Functions:

Astringes leakage of Blood and stops bleeding

Traditional Chinese Uses

Zong Lu Pi (Petiolus/Fibra Trachycarpi) is the dried fibrous leaf-sheath of the windmill palm, Trachycarpus fortunei. Bitter, astringent and neutral, entering the Liver, Lung, Spleen and Large Intestine channels, it is an herb that stops bleeding through astringency. Almost always used charred (Zong Lu Tan), it strongly restrains and stabilizes the Blood, checking chronic and profuse bleeding, including excessive uterine bleeding and flooding (beng lou), hemoptysis, hematemesis, epistaxis, bloody stool and blood in the urine.

It is more binding than Ou Jie and is chosen when bleeding is not accompanied by active Heat or Blood Stasis. Because its astringency can trap pathogens, it is used only after any stasis has been resolved and is generally avoided when heat or stasis is still driving the bleeding. It is often combined with other charred hemostatics such as Ce Bai Ye or Xue Yu Tan, and is also applied to chronic diarrhea and leukorrhea.

Western Herbalism Properties

Actions:

astringent

Relationships

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Botanical Description

Zong Lu Pi is the dried fibrous leaf-sheath bark of Trachycarpus fortunei (Arecaceae), the windmill palm, an evergreen palm 4–12 m tall native to central and southern China and widely cultivated. The slender, unbranched trunk is densely cloaked in a coarse brown matting of persistent fibrous leaf-base sheaths from which the medicine is taken. Leaves are clustered at the crown; petioles 50–100 cm long, often armed with marginal teeth, support large fan-shaped (palmate) blades 50–90 cm across divided nearly to the base into many narrow stiff segments. Inflorescences are large, much-branched panicles bearing many small yellow flowers, and the small reniform, blue-black drupes follow. The medicinal fibre is brown, tough and coarsely matted.

Historical Texts

Ben Cao Shi Yi

Tang dynasty, compiled by Chen Cangqi about 739 CE

Earliest medicinal record of the windmill palm, entered as bing lu mu pi, palm wood bark. The action recorded is for the burnt drug: burned to ash it governs breaking blood stasis and stopping bleeding. The charred preparation is therefore the classical form of this drug, not the raw fibre.

Ben Cao Gang Mu

Ming dynasty

Li Shizhen records that palm ash is astringent in nature, and that it is exactly appropriate where blood loss has been heavy and stasis is already fully resolved, this being what is meant by astringency being able to arrest collapse. This is the origin of the standing caution against using the drug while blood stasis remains.

References

Chen Z, Ye SY, Yang Y, Li ZY. A review on charred traditional Chinese herbs: carbonization to yield a haemostatic effect . Pharmaceutical Biology (2019) [DOI]

This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace professional medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before using any herbal remedy, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, or taking medications.

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