Yu Zhu (Fragrant Solomonseal Rhizome)

Official Yu Zhu (玉竹) is the dried rhizome of Polygonatum odoratum, the classical name Wei Rui. The pharmacopoeial name is Polygonati Odorati Rhizoma. Huang Jing is a related Polygonatum: sweet-neutral, tonifies qi and Yin, strengthens the Spleen, moistens the Lung and benefits the Kidney—Spleen-Lung-Kidney, broader and more cloying. Mai Dong is sweet, slightly bitter and slightly cold: nourishes Yin, generates fluid, moistens the Lung and clears the Heart. Bei Sha Shen is sweet, slightly bitter and slightly cold: nourishes Yin, clears the Lung and benefits Stomach fluid. Yu Zhu is sweet-moistening without much cloy, leaning toward Lung-Stomach Yin damage with dry-heat thirst. Write Yu Zhu. Kitchen “Yu Zhu sweet soup” is not the pharmacopoeial 6–12 g in decoction.

According to the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, Yu Zhu is sweet and slightly cold, enters the Lung and Stomach channels, and acts to nourish Yin, moisten dryness, generate fluid and quench thirst. It is used for Lung-Stomach Yin damage, dry-heat cough, dry throat and thirst, and interior-heat wasting-thirst. Sweet-moistening and slightly cold, it suits dryness-heat damaging Yin—not long use in phlegm-damp qi stagnation or Spleen vacuity with loose stool.

Nourishing Yin and generating fluid more often use sun-dried or lightly steamed translucent slices. As food-and-medicine it may be soup; treatment doses differ from diet. Those with phlegm-damp greasy coat and loose stool should not take it long as a single-herb “beauty soup.”