Kudzu, the great vine with the rising root

Ge Gen simply reads “the root of kudzu”. The character for kudzu first referred to the vine itself, and for a reason other than medicine: its fibres, woven into a cloth already celebrated in the oldest collection of Chinese poetry. This vigorous vine of the pea family covers ten to thirty metres in a season, and its tuberous root, huge and rich in starch, can weigh up to 180 kg on old plants. It is harvested in autumn and winter, sliced fresh and then dried. It is also a food: in southern China it is eaten as a vegetable and a starch is extracted from it.

A light, rising root

In traditional Chinese medicine, kudzu is cool, sweet and pungent. The pungent disperses, the sweet generates Fluids, the coolness clears Heat; above all, it is light and rising, and everything tradition credits it with goes upwards and outwards. Associated with the Spleen, the Stomach and the Lung, it stimulates the Stomach Qi and makes it rise, and encourages the production of Fluids and their ascent: it replenishes them when Heat has depleted them. It also lifts the clear Qi of the Spleen, and restores the proper distribution of Fluids.

Relaxing the neck and upper back

Its signature action is to release what tradition calls the muscle layer, a little deeper than the very outermost surface. It has a particular affinity for the neck and upper back, which it relaxes, and it promotes circulation along the meridians of this area. It is often compared with bupleurum: both raise the Yang, but bupleurum targets the Liver and Gallbladder, kudzu the Stomach and the muscle layer. Modern research is taking a particular interest in puerarin, the main one of its isoflavones.