Lalang Grass Rhizome (Imperata Rhizome) bái máo gēn · 白茅根

Imperata cylindrica (L.) P. Beauv. var. major (rhizome)

Nature and flavour. Sweet, cold; Lung, Stomach and Bladder systems.

Classed as cooling the blood and stopping bleeding, and as clearing heat and promoting urination. It is the mildest of the haemostatics and the only one in common kitchen use: the rhizome is simmered in southern Chinese drinks, most familiarly with sugar cane, and children meet it as a cooling summertime drink rather than as a medicine. In the classical framework its two halves go together — the blood in the urine and the hot, scanty, difficult urination are the same presentation described from two directions — and it is the haemostatic chosen where the tradition reads the picture as heat with fluid rather than heat with stasis.