Dahurian angelica, the poets’ fragrant root
Bai Zhi reads “white angelica”: white for the floury flesh of the cut root, zhi for a fragrant riverside herb. The name is older than the pharmacopoeia: it appears in the Li Sao of the poet Qu Yuan, around 300 BC, among the fragrant plants that symbolise uprightness. In ancient China, people carried these aromatic herbs on their person to ward off harmful influences. It is the taproot of a large plant of the Apiaceae family, 1 to 2.5 m tall, and few plants have so many reference terroirs: the trade distinguishes four, in Zhejiang, Sichuan, Henan and Hebei.
Dispersing Wind and Cold
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the root is warm and pungent. Pungency disperses and sets things in motion, warmth turns it against Cold, and its frank aroma, says tradition, penetrates and opens the passages. It enters the Lung, which governs the surface, and above all the Yang Ming, the channel of the Stomach and Large Intestine, whose pathway covers the forehead, eyebrows, cheekbones and nose. It releases the surface and disperses Wind-Cold, restores the passage of Qi where Wind and Cold have blocked it, and opens the nasal orifices, often with magnolia buds.
Drying Dampness, holding the forehead and face
Warm and drying, it also addresses a cold Dampness settled in the lower body. But its most singular trait is to guide other plants into the Yang Ming: when each herb holds its own channel, Bai Zhi holds the forehead and face, and Sichuan lovage the sides and top of the head. Gently dry-roasted, it becomes kinder to the Stomach. A good root is firm, full, a natural grey-brown and powerfully fragrant; a root of an overly bright white may have been sulphur-fumigated.
Key benefits
Wind & Cold Dispersed
Pungent and warm, Dahurian angelica releases the surface and dispels wind and cold, according to Chinese tradition.
Dampness Dried & Lightness
Warm and drying, it dries the cold Dampness that settles in the lower body.
Gentle Warmth & Aroma
Its aromatic warmth gently warms the body and restores the passage of Qi where Cold had blocked it.
