Borago, Borage

Gaozaban (Unani

Dioscorides Materia Medica, Mathias, 1563

Herbarum Vivae Eicones, Otto Brunfels, 1530

Flora von Deutschland (19), Kohler, 1884

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Botanical name:
Borago officinalis

Parts used:
Root (bark removed); Leaf; Flower

Temperature & Taste:
Cool (some said Warm), moist; Schroder said Warm and Moist in the 1st degree

Classifications:
2E LENITIVE.   2L. EMOLLIENT.   2O. ASTRINGENT.  
3B. FEBRIFUGE & ANTIPYRETIC.   3C. ALEXIPHARMIC.   3K. EXPECTORANT
4a. CEPHALIC.   4e. STOMACHIC.   4f. SPLENETIC

Uses:
1. One of the Four Cordial Plants:
-Palpitations, heart weakness

2. Clears Melancholy:
-pensiveness, sadness, grief, depression, anxiety

3. Nourishes Yin, Clears Heat:
-chronic illness, low grade Fever, dry mouth

4. Nourishes the Lungs, Stops Cough:
-Heat or dry type Cough, Bronchitis, Asthma

5. Clears Heat, Promotes Urine:
-painful, dark or scanty urine; Kidney pain from heat, Nephritis

6. Clears Heat, Resists Poison:
-venomous Bites and Stings; Snake, Scorpion, Rabid Dog bites

7. Promotes Milk:
-Increases Milk flow (leaf, seed)

8. Externally:
-applied to heat and inflammation

Main Combinations:
Borage & Fumitory

1. Consumption and Hectic Fever: combine Borage with  ... available in PRO version
2. Cool and cleanse the Blood, combine Borage with  ... available in PRO version
3. To make good Blood, the fresh herb is taken with  ... available in PRO version
4. Eruptive Fevers: Borage with  ... available in PRO version
5. Cold and weak Heart: Borage with  ... available in PRO version
6. To Cool the Heart, Borage with  ... available in PRO version
7. Cough and harshness of the Lungs, decoct Borage with  ... available in PRO version
8. Loss of speech following Stroke, Borage with  ... available in PRO version
9. Neurasthenia, Borage with  ... available in PRO version
10. Melancholy:
i. Borage with  ... available in PRO version
ii. Borage with  ... available in PRO version
iii. Borage with  ... available in PRO version
11. As an Exhilarant, Borage with  ... available in PRO version
12. Skin diseases from Bile (Heat) and Melancholy Borage with  ... available in PRO version

Major Formulas:
Common Decoction
Decoction of Fruit and Flowers
Decoction for Apoplexy (Countess of Kent)
Decoction of Fumitory of Mesue
Cordial Decoction (French Pharmacopoeia)
Exhilarative Syrup (Laurent)
Powder to Cool the Heart

Cautions:
1. Caution as it contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids. Do not overdose and avoid long-term use.
2. Best avoided in Pregnancy and the very young. It was used to promote Breasl Milk but is probably best not used during Breastfeeding.

Main Preparations used:
Waters of both Herb and Flower, Syrup of the threefold infusion of the Flowers, Syrup of the Leaf Juice, an Essence of the Juice (thickened and clarified), Conserve of the Flowers