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:
Neutral (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. Strengthens the Heart, Nourishes Yin:
-One of the Four Cordial plants
-Heart fire, Insomnia, Agitation
-Palpitations, heart weakness
-a “Great strengthener of Nature”. (Culpeper)
-“good for treating Restlessness, Melancholic diseases and Palpitation”. (Avicenna)
2. Clears Melancholy:
-‘frees the Vital and Animal Spirits from Oppression’. (Salmon)
-cherishes the Heart and Spirit: pensiveness, sadness, grief, depression, anxiety
-“It is a mild purgative for Melancholy humours”. (Avicenna)
3. Nourishes Yin, Clears Heat:
-chronic illness, low grade Fever, dry mouth
-dryness with constipation
4. Nourishes the Lungs, Stops Cough:
-Heat or dry type Cough, Bronchitis, Asthma
-“useful in cough and roughness of wind-pipe” (Avicenna)
5. Clears Heat, Promotes Urine:
-painful, dark or scanty urine
-Kidney pain from heat, Nephritis
-Jaundice and Rheumatism
6. Clears Heat, Resists Poison:
-heat-toxin Spotted Fevers in children
-venomous Bites and Stings; Snake, Scorpion, Rabid Dog bites
7. Promotes Milk:
-Increases Milk flow (leaf, seed)
8. Externally:
-juice applied to the eyelids, or the distilled water or infusion dropped in improves sight; dimness of sight.
-applied to heat and inflammation
-ashes used as a gargle in Honey water for sores or ulcers of the mouth
-topically for Itch, Ringworm, Eczema, Scabs, Sores, Ulcers
-steam wash improves the skin and removes wrinkles
-distilled Borage water applied on linen to Bee stings takes away pain.
Dose:
Powder 1–3 grams
Brief Decoction: 2–6 grams
Substitite:
1. Bugloss
Main Combinations:
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
