Benzoin – 1 lb (454 g)

Benzoin, known in Chinese as 安息香 (ānxīxiāng) and scientifically as Benzoinum, 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 Benzoin carefully sourced to preserve its therapeutic properties.

As a herbal supplement, Benzoin 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, Benzoin provides a safe, natural way to experience the benefits of traditional Chinese medicine.

Trusted for centuries, Benzoin 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 Benzoin, 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 Huangshen, Dijing, and Shencao. It is the root of Panax ginseng C.A. Mey., a plant of the Araliaceae family. It is distributed in Northeast China, mostly cultivated with very few wild specimens. Cultivated ginseng aged 5 to 7 years is harvested in autumn, cleaned, and after removing stems and leaves, sliced or crushed for use. Wild ginseng is commonly called “Shanshen” (Mountain Ginseng), and when sun-dried, it is called “Shengshai Shanshen” (Raw Sun-Dried Mountain Ginseng). Cultivated ginseng is commonly called “Yuanbushen” (Garden Supplement Ginseng); fresh ginseng cleaned and dried is called “Shengshai Shen” (Raw Sun-Dried Ginseng); steamed and dried ginseng is called “Hongshen” (Red Ginseng); roots broken off during processing are called “Shenxu” (Ginseng Rootlets).

[Properties] Taste is sweet and slightly bitter; nature is neutral. Enters the Lung, Spleen, and Heart meridians.

[Actions] Greatly tonifies original qi, strengthens the spleen and benefits the lungs, calms the spirit and enhances intelligence.

[Applications]
1. Used for sudden collapse of original qi and yang qi exhaustion, such as from massive bleeding, profuse sweating, vomiting, diarrhea, or any severe or chronic illness causing pale complexion, cold limbs, excessive sweating, and a faint pulse nearly fading. In such cases, ginseng alone is decocted into a strong soup and taken orally (formula named Dushen Tang). If qi and yang are exhausted with cold sweat dripping, cold limbs, and weak breathing, ginseng is combined with aconite (Fuzi) as in Shenfu Tang. For heat injuring qi and yin with fatigue, shortness of breath, reluctance to speak, sweating, thirst, and a thin rapid pulse, ginseng is combined with Ophiopogon (Maidong) and Schisandra (Wuweizi). For bleeding from vomiting, stools, or uterine bleeding with qi loss following blood loss, ginseng is used urgently with added charcoal of Biota (Ce Bai Tan), Schizonepeta (Jingjie Tan), or raw Rehmannia and Angelica.
2. Used for spleen and stomach qi deficiency with poor appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, or prolapse of rectum or uterus due to sinking middle qi. Ginseng is a key herb for spleen deficiency and is often combined with Atractylodes (Baizhu) and Poria (Fuling), as in Si Jun Zi Tang. For spleen and stomach cold deficiency with epigastric fullness and inability to digest or hunger without appetite, it is combined with aconite and fresh ginger. For sinking middle qi with chronic diarrhea, rectal prolapse, uterine prolapse, and visceral prolapse, ginseng is combined with Astragalus (Huangqi), Bupleurum (Chaihu), and Atractylodes, as in Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang. If there is cold in the middle burner with vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and cold limbs, it is combined with dried ginger, Atractylodes, and aconite, as in Li Zhong Wan or Fuzi Li Zhong Wan.
3. Used for deficiency cough and asthma. For lung qi deficiency with shortness of breath and chronic cough and asthma, it is combined with Astragalus and Chinese yam (Shanyao). For lung yin deficiency with dry cough and scanty sputum or blood-tinged sputum, emaciation, and shortness of breath, it is combined with raw Rehmannia and Poria in a paste for regular use. For lung and kidney deficiency with shortness of breath and wheezing worse on exertion and inability to lie flat, it is combined with Gejie (Gecko), walnut kernel, and Schisandra, as in Renshen Gejie San.
4. Used for qi deficiency with injury to fluids causing thirst and wasting-thirst syndrome. For febrile diseases injuring qi and fluids with fever, irritability, unquenchable thirst, and profuse sweating, it is combined with Gypsum, Anemarrhena, polished rice, and licorice, as in Bai Hu Jia Renshen Tang. For wasting-thirst, ginseng powder can be taken with egg white or made into pills with Trichosanthes and taken with Maidong Tang.
5. Used for spontaneous sweating and night sweating due to deficiency, often combined with Atractylodes and cinnamon twig. For yang deficiency with excessive sweating, it is often combined with aconite. For night sweating, it is combined with sour jujube seed and Poria, as in Shenling San. For yin deficiency night sweating, Schisandra, Maidong, and white peony may be added.
6. Used for palpitations, anxiety, forgetfulness, insomnia with many dreams due to heart and spleen deficiency and qi and blood insufficiency. Often combined with Astragalus, longan fruit, and sour jujube seed, as in Gui Pi Wan. For heart and kidney deficiency with yin and blood deficiency causing palpitations, many dreams, and forgetfulness, it is combined with raw Rehmannia, Maidong, and Biota seed, as in Tian Wang Bu Xin Dan. For heart qi deficiency, it is combined with Acorus, Polygala, and Poria, as in Ding Zhi Wan.
7. Used for kidney deficiency with impotence and premature ejaculation, often combined with deer antler, Cuscuta, and Cordyceps. When combined with mulberry mistletoe, Alpinia oxyphylla, sand seeds, and Ginkgo, it can also treat frequent urination due to kidney yang deficiency.
Additionally, ginseng combined with herbs that expel pathogens has a role in supporting the upright qi and expelling pathogens. For qi deficiency with external invasion, it is combined with Notopterygium, Angelica pubescens, and Bupleurum, as in Renshen Baidu San. For internal excess with true deficiency and constipation, it is combined with Angelica, Rhubarb, and Mirabilite to support the upright and purge downward, as in Huanglong Tang.

[Dosage and Administration] Oral administration: decoction 3–9 g; wild mountain ginseng powder swallowed 2 g per dose, twice daily; or made into paste, soaked in wine, or included in pills and powders.

[Cautions] Contraindicated in excess syndromes, heat syndromes, and when the upright qi is not deficient. Not suitable for concurrent use with tea. Contraindicated with Veratrum.

[Modern Research]
1. Chemical constituents include ginsenosides, volatile oils, amino acids, sugars, vitamins, inorganic elements, and niacin.
2. Pharmacological actions: Ginseng and its various preparations and components regulate the central nervous system; enhance the body’s resistance to harmful factors; modulate immune function; extracts protect and stimulate bone marrow hematopoiesis; enhance the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis; promote estrus and prolong mating time in animals; reduce blood cholesterol levels; and have preventive and therapeutic effects on atherosclerosis. Additionally, it has anti-aging, anti-tumor, and stress resistance enhancing effects.
3. Clinical reports:
1) Coronary heart disease: Using Dushen injection (2 ml per vial containing 200 mg raw ginseng), 6–10 ml added to 40 ml 10% glucose solution, intravenous push once or twice daily. In 31 cases of coronary heart disease angina, total effective rate was 93.54%; in 30 cases with ischemic ECG changes, total effective rate was 76.66%. [Anhui Medical Supplement, 1988, 9(3):51]
2) Arrhythmia: Ginseng cut into 0.5–1 mm semi-translucent slices, one piece slowly dissolved in mouth each morning or before sleep; during treatment two pieces daily, consolidation one piece daily; 10 days per course. In 25 cases, significant efficacy was achieved. [Zhejiang Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 1990,(2):81]
3) Sick sinus syndrome: 5 g dry ginseng taken by mouth morning and evening, combined with intravenous drip of polarization solution; 10 days per course. In 67 cases, 42 cured (62.69%), 16 effective (23.88%), 9 ineffective (13.43%), total effective rate 86.57%. [Chinese Journal of Industrial Medicine, 2000, 13(3):213]
4) Chronic aplastic anemia: 30 patients treated with total ginsenoside capsules (purity 86.3%, 30 mg raw drug per capsule) 120 mg daily in two doses plus androgen; 27 control patients with androgen alone. Basic cure rates were 16.7% vs. 3.7%, remission 43.3% vs. 14.8%, ineffective 16.7% vs. 48.1%, marked improvement 23.9% vs. 33.3%, with significant differences between groups. [Zhejiang Medicine, 2001, 23(3):178]
5) Impotence: Ginsenosides, deer antler extract, Epimedium, and leech extract made into suppositories (named Baishan Xiong Shuan) for rectal insertion. In 20 cases, total effective rate was 85.8%. [Jilin Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 1989,(2):11]
6) Allergic rhinitis: After 2% lidocaine mucosal surface anesthesia, red ginseng injection (2 ml per vial containing 2 mg raw drug) injected submucosally into bilateral inferior nasal conchae, 1 ml per side once every 4 days, 4 injections per course, 1–2 courses. In 70 cases, total effective rate was 47.1%. [Journal of Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine, 1988,(11):675]
7) Malignant pleural effusion: Ginseng polysaccharides 36–60 mg dissolved in 20 ml saline injected into pleural cavity. In 20 cases, 5 (25%) relieved, 10 (50%) partially relieved, 5 (25%) ineffective; best effect in gastric cancer cases. [Chinese Journal of New Drugs, 1999, 8(9):619]

Appendix: Red Ginseng (Hongshen) is the steamed and dried product of cultivated ginseng. It has the same actions as ginseng but is slightly warm in nature, thus not suitable for yin-deficient constitutions.