Styrax – 1 lb (454 g)

Styrax, known in Chinese as 苏合香 (Sūhéxiāng) and scientifically as Styrax, is a valued herb in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). This TCM herb has been traditionally used to support natural wellness, maintain vitality, and encourage holistic balance. At TCMforyou.com, we provide premium-quality Styrax carefully sourced to preserve its therapeutic properties.

As a herbal supplement, Styrax helps promote overall well-being and supports natural energy, immunity, and balance. Integrating this herb into your wellness routine offers a gentle, time-tested approach to enhancing daily health. Whether brewed as tea, added to herbal remedies, or taken as part of a TCM formula, Styrax provides a safe, natural way to experience the benefits of traditional Chinese medicine.

Trusted for centuries, Styrax has been used in TCM to harmonize the body and encourage optimal functioning of key systems. At TCMforyou, we prioritize authenticity and quality. Each batch undergoes rigorous testing to ensure purity and potency, delivering an herbal product aligned with traditional practices.

Experience the natural support of Styrax, promoting immune health, vitality, and holistic well-being. Embrace the wisdom of TCM and incorporate this gentle, effective herbal remedy into your daily wellness journey.

[Overview] This herb is also known as Styrax oil or Storax oil. It is the fragrant resin exuded from the trunk of the Styrax tree, Liquidambar orientalis Mill., of the Hamamelidaceae family. It is originally native to southern Asia Minor, Turkey, and northern Syria. Currently, small-scale cultivation has been introduced in southern China, such as Guangxi. In early summer, the bark is cut deeply to the wood to induce secretion of the fragrant resin, which infiltrates the bark. In autumn, the bark is harvested and the resin is pressed out. The residue is boiled with water and pressed again to remove impurities and moisture, yielding the crude Styrax product. If the crude product is dissolved in ethanol, filtered, and the ethanol evaporated, refined Styrax is obtained.

[Properties] Pungent in taste, warm in nature. Enters the Heart and Spleen meridians.

[Actions] Opens orifices, resolves phlegm, dispels filth, relieves pain.

[Applications]
1. Used for cold closure syndrome of the heart orifices caused by turbidity or phlegm-dampness blocking the heart orifices, often due to stroke, phlegm syncope, or qi syncope. Symptoms include a bluish face, cold body, white tongue coating, and slow pulse. Commonly combined with musk, sandalwood, clove, rhinoceros horn, cinnabar, and Qingmuxiang (Aquilaria) powdered and formed into pills, such as Styrax Pills (Suhexiang Wan).
2. Used for sudden heart and abdominal pain. If heart yang is deficient and attacked by cold evil, or phlegm turbidity obstructs chest yang causing severe chest pain and oppression, it is often combined with borneol or sandalwood, frankincense, and costus root, as in Guanxin Suhe Wan and Subing Di Wan, which are currently used to treat coronary heart disease. If sudden abdominal pain with vomiting and diarrhea is caused by summer-heat damp turbidity, it is combined with patchouli and five-spice fat.
3. Used for convulsions and epilepsy, often combined with ginger pinellia, dried gallbladder star, and bamboo bezoar.
Additionally, combined with perilla leaf, chuanxiong, aged tangerine peel, and Changshan, it has antimalarial effects and can treat warm malaria; externally, it can treat frostbite, burns, ulcers, scabies, and tinea.

[Dosage and Administration] Internal use: powdered, 0.3–1 g, taken as pills or powders; not used in decoctions. External use: appropriate amount dissolved in ethanol or made into ointments or liniments for topical application.

[Cautions] Contraindicated in deficiency syndromes; not to be used in heat closure with coma, yin deficiency with excessive fire, blood dryness and fluid injury, qi deficiency, or pregnancy.

[Modern Research]
1. Chemical constituents: The resin contains volatile oils including α- and β-pinene, laurene, camphene, limonene, isopinene, eucalyptol, para-cymene, linalool, α-terpineol, cinnamaldehyde, trans-cinnamic acid methyl ester, ethyl phenyl, allyl phenol, β-phenylpropionic acid, benzoic acid, palmitic acid, linoleic acid, cinnamate esters, cis-cinnamic acid, ursolic acid, 3-epimers of ursolic acid, and vanillin.
2. Pharmacological effects: Styrax has antithrombotic effects, shortening thrombus formation length and reducing weight; in vitro tests show it significantly prolongs plasma recalcification time, prothrombin time, and partial thromboplastin time, reduces fibrin content, and increases fibrinolytic activity. Styrax resin and its component cis-cinnamic acid exhibit significant anti-platelet aggregation effects in rabbits and rats. Styrax is an irritant expectorant with mild antibacterial effects, useful for various respiratory infections; topically, it has mild irritant effects that relieve inflammation such as eczema and itching and promote healing of ulcers and wounds.
3. Clinical reports: Psoriasis—using Guanxin Suhe Wan, 1–2 pills per dose, 2–3 times daily, chewed and swallowed or swallowed directly. Typical treatment dose is 3–5 pills daily, maintenance dose 1–3 pills daily. In 45 cases of common psoriasis, the effective rate was 75.6%, with a marked effect rate of 37.8%. Follow-up of 16 cases showed only 3 relapses. [Chinese Patent Medicine Research, 1982, (2):26]