Herbs in Chinese Medicine: Xiang Fu

Video Transcript

"Xiang Fu is the next herb we're going to look at. It's kind of an interesting herb, it's oftentimes used in formulas to help what we call 'chi stagnation' so we say it 'spreads the liver chi' and that's an idea where we talk about stress. So when we look at the liver, we say the liver control menstruation and when we have a lot of stressors in our life we say that the energy is stuck and we need to un-stuck it. So this is one of those herbs that we use to move and regulate that liver function in the body. So, we can use it not only to help with stress, we can use it for irritability, depression, anger, and also for a number of menstrual problems. In particular, when we have pain that feels better with some massage, and there's certain types of menstrual blood that comes out, this is oftentimes very helpful. Interestingly enough, it actually tastes quite good, it's a very aromatic herb. And so we also, oftentimes can also use it for certain types of pain both internally and topically. It can be helpful for particular types of stagnation pain. So next time you're with your Chinese herbalist, make sure that you check with him before you take this herb since it should be prescribed in a formula."