Hai Feng Teng, “the sea wind vine”
Hai Feng Teng reads “the sea wind vine”. The name is first of all geographical: the vine grows on the south-eastern coasts, battered by winds from the open sea. But it can also be read in medical terms, a vine against Wind, and the two readings have merged. Piper kadsura belongs to the pepper family, and the whole plant smells of pepper; a folk name calls it “the fragrance clinging to the rock”. It is an evergreen woody vine with swollen nodes that climbs trees and rocks by means of its aerial roots. The stems are harvested from summer to autumn, mainly in Fujian and Zhejiang. Among the Hakka of southern China, it has long gone into soups.
Dispelling Wind, Cold and Dampness
In traditional Chinese medicine, the stem is slightly warm, pungent and bitter in flavour, and its three properties divide the work exactly: pungency disperses Wind, bitterness dries Dampness, warmth dispels Cold. This is why it is regarded as a key substance when the meridians are blocked by these three factors: it answers all three at once, which is rare. It enters the Liver alone, which is consistent, since the Liver governs the tendons. A Zhejiang handbook sums it up as follows: lift the blockage, transform Dampness, open the collaterals, make the tendons supple. With cinnamon twig, which warms the meridians, it forms a pairing suited to what cold makes worse.
A vine that enters the collaterals
To explain its action, tradition invokes its form: vines enter the collaterals. A vine twists, climbs, stretches and divides; by the reasoning of “like goes to like”, it is held to penetrate the fine network of the meridian branches, where a root would not go. The Ben Cao Zai Xin also credits it with setting the meridians in motion and harmonising the Blood vessels. It replenishes nothing: it opens. This is why it is readily combined with millettia vine, which nourishes the Blood and makes the tendons supple. True Hai Feng Teng can be recognised by its peppery scent and swollen nodes. Modern research has looked in particular at kadsurenone.
Key benefits
Joint comfort
Pungent, bitter and warm, the vine dispels the Wind, Cold and Dampness lodged in the joints and supports their comfort.
Wind & Dampness dispersed
Pungency disperses Wind, bitterness dries Dampness: according to Chinese tradition, it lifts the blockage of the meridians.
Supple tendons
By opening the fine branches of the meridians, it supports the suppleness of the tendons and joints.
