Baikal Skullcap

Baikal Skullcap

(Ben Jing)

[synonyms] Fu Chang (Ben Jing), Huang Wen, Hong Sheng, Jing Qin, Yin tou, Neixu (Wu Pu Ben Cao), jejunum (BIE Lu), Yuan Qin, Tu Jin Cha Gen (northeast medicine Zhi).

[source] it is the root of Scutellaria baicalensis.

[plant morphology] Scutellaria baicalensis, also known as hollow grass and golden tea.

Perennial herb with long main root, slightly conical and brown outer skin. Stem square, 25-60 cm high, base divergent, smooth or short hairy. Leaves opposite, ovate lanceolate, lanceolate or linear lanceolate, 1.5-4.5 cm long, 3-12 mm wide, apex obtuse or acute, base rounded, entire, ciliate, glandular punctate above, smooth or only short hairs in middle rib below; sessile or shortly stipitate. Raceme purulent, flowers inclined to one side; calyx bell shaped, white villous, apex 5-lobed; corolla lip shaped, upper lip longer than lower lip, tubular, upper expanded, base very thin, purple, 2-2.5 cm long, surface covered with white pubescence; stamens 4, 2 strong; pistil 1, ovary 4-cleft, style base attached. Nutlets 4, suborbicular, black. The flowering period is from July to August. The fruit period is from August to September.

Born in grassland, high dry gravel hillside. Distributed in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Sichuan, Yunnan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Inner Mongolia and other places.

The fruit of this plant (Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi) is also used for medicine. See special section for details.

The following plants of the same genus are also used for medicine:

① Scutellaria mucilaginosa, also known as Scutellaria baicalensis. Its shape is similar to that of Scutellaria baicalensis, but its plant is shorter, only 10-27 cm high. Flowers pale yellow, calyx densely glandular and pilose. Nutlets villous.

Sandy land, wasteland or grass slope. Distributed in Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Hebei and other places.

② Scutellaria yunnanensis, also known as Scutellaria southwest. The plant is short, 10-25 cm high. Stem erect, each internode densely covered with two longitudinal white pilose and glandular hairs. Leaf blade oblong or broadly lanceolate, 3.5 cm long, 1.2 cm wide, entire or slightly sparsely dentate, both surfaces sparsely puberulent; sessile. Raceme terminal; corolla blue purple, outside densely pilose and glandular hair. Nutlets elliptic, brown, pilose.

It grows on the edge of forest or in sparse forest in mountain area. It is distributed in Sichuan, Yunnan and other places.

③ The morphology of Scutellaria kansuensis is similar to that of Scutellaria yunnanensis, but its leaves are wide, oval triangular, with unequal serrations and distinct petioles.

Most of them grow on the sunny grass slope of stone mountain. It is distributed in Gansu, Shaanxi and Shanxi.

④ Scutellaria tenuifolia, plant small, about 35 cm high. The leaves are thin, glabrous or scattered short hairs on the top, short hairs on the veins and margin of the lower leaves, scattered glandular spots.

It is distributed from northeast to Ningxia.

⑤ The stem of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi var. Lijiang is 20-36 cm in height, with small pubescence. Leaves subsessile, elliptic ovate or elliptic. Corolla yellowish white, yellow to greenish yellow, often with purple spots.

Under shrubs, grass slopes or pine forests. It is distributed in Northwest Yunnan.

⑥ The stem of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi is 10-30 cm high. The leaves are mostly ovate. Corolla white, green white to purple, purple blue. Nutlets ovoid, tuberculate.

It grows on the edge of grass slope and alpine forest. It is distributed in Western Sichuan.

[collection] harvest from spring to early summer (or autumn). Plants growing for 3-4 years were selected. After digging out the roots, remove the stems and seedlings, fibrous roots and soil. When the roots are half dry, knock off the cork, and then dry them completely.

[medicinal material] the dry roots are oblong, twisted and not straight, 7-27 cm in length and 1-2 cm in diameter. The surface is dark yellow or yellowish brown. The upper part of the skin is rough, with twisted longitudinal wrinkles or irregular reticulation, the lower part is fine, with parallel or fine wrinkles, and there are sparse warty branch root marks. It is hard and brittle, easy to break; the section is dark yellow, with a brownish red center in the middle. The center of the old root section is dark brown or brown black rotten flake, which is commonly known as "Scutellaria baicalensis" or "Scutellaria baicalensis"; or because it is hollow but not hard, it is split, which is commonly known as "Scutellaria baicalensis petal". The roots turn yellow green when they are wet or cold. Odorless and bitter. It is better to have thick and long strips, solid quality, yellow color and clean skin. It is inferior in short, loose, dark yellow and petal shape.

It is mainly produced in Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shandong, Shaanxi and other places. In addition, it is also produced in Liaoning and Heilongjiang.

Scutellaria from Sichuan and Yunnan is the root of Scutellaria yunnanensis. They are similar in appearance, but relatively thin, about 0.5-1 cm in diameter, often branched, with a very obvious yellow green cross section and poor quality.

[chemical constituents] the root of Scutellaria baicalensis contains baicalein, baicalin, wogonin, wogonin, baicalein, benzoic acid and β - sitosterol. The stems and leaves contain baicalin.

[pharmacological action] ① anti inflammatory and anti allergic reaction

Baicalin and baicalin can alleviate the allergic contraction of the trachea of guinea pigs and the allergic asthma of the whole animals, and cooperate with ephedrine. Baicalin can inhibit the sehultz Dale reaction of isolated trachea and ileum. It can also inhibit the passive skin allergic reaction and histamine skin reaction of guinea pigs. In terms of anti allergic reaction, the effect of baicalin is stronger than that of baicalin. This kind of antiallergic reaction of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi is due to damaging the enzyme activation system (SH enzyme) of mast cells and inhibiting the release of allergic mediators, so it does not produce allergic reaction. In addition, it also has a direct relaxation effect on smooth muscle itself. Both baicalin and baicalin can inhibit allergic edema and inflammation, and reduce the permeability of ear capillary in mice. The latter can also prevent pulmonary hemorrhage in mice caused by low pressure.

② Anti microbial effect

Scutellaria baicalensis has a wide range of antimicrobial spectrum. It can inhibit dysentery bacilli, diphtheria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Streptococcus pneumoniae and meningococcus in the test tube. It is also effective for meningitis carriers. Even Staphylococcus aureus, which is resistant to penicillin and other antibiotics, is still sensitive to Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi. The inhibitory effect of the decoction on experimental tuberculosis in mice was effective, but not on guinea pigs. In vitro, it can inhibit the PR strain of influenza virus. After infected with the virus, it can reduce the lung damage and prolong the survival time. It can also inhibit a variety of skin pathogenic fungi in vitro and kill Leptospira.

③ Antipyretic effect

In the early years, it was reported that intravenous injection of 6% Scutellaria extract (4-6 ml) had antipyretic effect on rabbits with fever caused by vaccine. Later, oral administration or intramuscular injection of large dose of Scutellaria extract (4-30 times larger than the amount of intravenous injection of Scutellaria extract reported above) could not prove its antipyretic effect, but intravenous injection had slight antipyretic effect, which was the same as intravenous injection of normal saline G / kg could not reduce the fever of rabbits. However, intraperitoneal or intravenous injection of baicalin and oral administration of baicalin decoction can relieve fever in rabbits caused by vaccine or yeast. The results of the above studies are inconsistent, which may be due to the lack of pharmacognostical verification of plants, confusion of varieties, and the influence of intravenous injection of crude drugs on blood pressure and antipyretic effect. Therefore, whether Scutellaria baicalensis has antipyretic properties remains to be further studied. The extract of Scutellaria baicalensis has no cooling effect on normal rabbits.

④ Antihypertensive and diuretic effects

The tincture, extract, decoction, alcohol or water extract and baicalin of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi can cause hypotensive effect on anesthetized dogs, cats and rabbits by intravenous, intramuscular injection or gavage. Oral administration of the extract can reduce the blood pressure of normal and chronic renal hypertension dogs, and tincture can make the blood pressure of nerve hypertension dogs return to normal. The antihypertensive effect of oral extract was the best in Yunnan Province, followed by Hebei Province and the worst in Northwest China. The principle of lowering blood pressure of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi is generally believed to be the direct dilation of blood vessels. It may also act on the vascular receptors and cause the lowering of blood pressure reflexively. Scutellaria galericulata has no antihypertensive effect.

In the acute diuretic test, baicalin had the strongest effect, followed by wogonin and baicalin. The alcohol extract and decoction of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi also have diuretic effect.

⑤ Effect on blood lipid and blood glucose

Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi and Sanhuang preparation (Coptis: Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi: Rhubarb: 1:1:1) had no effect on the ratio of total cholesterol / total phospholipids in the serum of normal rabbits, but they could reduce the ratio of cholesterol / total phospholipids in rabbits fed with cholesterol for 7 weeks, and Sanhuang preparation could also reduce the ratio of cholesterol / total phospholipids in rabbits with thyroidectomy. Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi can slightly increase blood sugar.

⑥ Harmonizing gallbladder and relieving spasm

Baicalein had no effect on it. Baicalin increased the bilirubin (compared with the control group) in 1-6 hours, but decreased it after 24-48 hours. The tincture of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi can antagonize the phenomenon of intestinal motility enhancement induced by pilocarpine, but it does not affect the effect after vagotomy. The antispasmodic potency of small intestine segment in mice was determined. Wogonin has only weak antispasmodic effect, but baicalin has no antispasmodic effect.

⑦ Sedative effect

Baicalin can inhibit the spontaneous activity of mice, the intensity of action is related to the dose. Baicalin decoction can inhibit the positive conditioned reflex of mice, this effect may be due to its enhanced cortical inhibition process. It can be used for hypertension patients with increased nerve excitability and insomnia.

⑧ Other functions

The tincture of Scutellaria baicalensis can eliminate the spasm of dogs and prevent the animals from being poisoned by the tincture of Scutellaria baicalensis. Baicalin and glucuronic acid can reduce the mortality of strychnine poisoning in mice, and the former can increase the median lethal dose by 2.5 times. Determination of liver sugar in mice poisoned by carbon tetrachloride

Chinese PinYin : Huang Qin