A Chinese Herbal Reference For The West

By Alexander Berks L. Ac.
Licensed Acupuncturist and Herbalist
Practitioner of Chinese Medicine

http://www.snowlotus.org/html/books/jaderemedies.html

Appeared in the Winter 1998 issue of Forum
and Summer 1999 issue of California Currents

.....Jade Remedies: A Chinese Herbal Reference for the West by Peter Holmes is an
important book in the development of Chinese medicine and a great clinical
reference. The genius of this two-volume materia medica is its application
of terminology that bridges the syndromes of Chinese medicine with the terms
of Western pharmacology so that each informs the other. The actions,
indications and chemical constituents of the herbs in Western terms
elucidate the broad Chinese symptom pictures, and the symptom groupings of
Chinese medicine syndromes help make the precise information of Western
pharmacology more clinically useful.

.....These volumes are about drawing together the ancient and the modern and the
East and the West. To do this, Holmes makes links between herb actions and
treatment strategies, between pharmacology and therapeutics and between
plant chemistry and pharmacology. The result is that the author is able to
make a large amount of scientific information available in relation to
traditional uses without reducing the Chinese syndromes to facile and
clinically useless actions.

.....Where applicable, Holmes also relates the Chinese herbs to similar Western
counterparts. He's had his eye on translating herbs from one tradition to
another for quite some time. This is his second major cross-cultural
pharmacopoeia reference work. The first was The Energetics of Western Herbs:
An Herbal Reference Integrating Western and Oriental Medicine Traditions.
This two-volume opus presents the pharmacopoeias of Western herbal
traditions with the symptom pictures of Chinese medicine. In essence, Jade
Remedies is a continuation of The Energetics of Western Herbs.

.....For the Western practitioner unfamiliar with the language of Chinese
medicine, Jade Remedies is organized according to Western anatomical
systems. By doing this, Holmes is able to skirt the problems of explaining
concepts unique to Chinese medicine. For example, the function of the
Chinese concept of Liver shares little similarity with the Western liver and
essentially describes nervous system pathology. Therefore, an herb like
Bupleurum Chai Hu that spreads Liver qi is placed in the "Nervous Sedative"
class, more appropriate to its primary Western action.

The Chinese symptom picture of Bupleurum Chai Hu is referred to as: "Qi constraint with nerve excess" - feeling stressed, unrest, chest pain and tightness, menstrual pain, headache, painful digestion with bloating, allergies.

Translated into Western terms Bupleurum Chai Hu is:
analgesic, anti-inflammatory, spasmolytic.

The Western indications include:
nervous hyperfunctioning with restlessness and pain, headache, dysmenorrhea, intercostal neuralgia, myalgia, dyspepsia, peptic ulcer, biliary and intestinal colic, IBS, spasmodic coughing and deafness.

.....Holmes continues in his thorough description. This is one of nine
Western indications for this herb. Its other actions are: hypotensive;
antipyretic; anti-infective, antiviral, anti-bacterial, interferon inducent;
immune regulator, anti-allergic; liver protective; radiation protective;
pituitary-adremocortical stimulant; astringent, antiprolapse. Each indication
itself contains an explanation. At the same time, the text also includes the
traditional Chinese syndromes, in the case of this remedy: Gallbladder fire
and Shao Yang heat. A Notes section following each herb highlights the
common use and explain mode of action and modern applications.
This section makes the book a must read for the student who need
to find "handles" to hold the herbs in his/her mind.

.....One's image of an herb's function changes when its class is reorganized.
The new organization provides therapeutic knowledge that localizes the herbs'
functions. We begin to think of them in terms of body system functions
rather than purely energetic functions. For example, Cinnamon Rou Gui is
classed in the "Cardiac Stimulants" instead of the more traditional
"Interior Warming."

.....Jade Remedies' listing of Chinese syndromes is even more complete than
Bensky and Gamble. The additional information makes the text expansive and
thought provoking. Holmes assigns extra vessel channel affinities where
appropriate (for example Bupleurum Chai Hu has affinity to the Yang Wei
channel) and assigns qualities such as moistening and drying that go far
beyond the Bensky presentation.

.....This materia medica is an important contribution to herbal medicine. It
pulls Chinese medicine out of its timeless mindset as an ancient, imperially
sanctioned system of classical medicine to a viable system of health care
for the West. Allopathy needs the therapeutic potentials of Chinese medicine
to more effectively treat chronic and degene-rative diseases. Chinese
medicine needs a language for the West that scientifically validates it.
This materia medica is most probably the first that preserves the soul of
three-thousand plus years of vitalistic art/science in a way the West can
use. It is for this feat that Jade Remedies becomes an indispensable
reference source and will earn this book and its author a place in history.
.....

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