What is Tian Ma?

Tian Ma, which is also called
Gastrodia elata, the name of traditional Chinese medicine. It is the dry tuber of the orchid plant
Gastrodia elata Bl. Plant up to 2 meters; tuberous, oval to nearly dumbbell-shaped, fleshy, erect stem, orange-yellow, yellow, gray-brown or blue-green, without green leaves, racemes, flower bracts oblong-lanceolate, flowers twisted, orange-yellow, light yellow, blue-green or yellow-white, sepals and petals conjoined, sepals free ovate triangle, capsule obovate ellipse, flowering and fruiting in May-July. Tian Ma is one of the precious Chinese herbal medicines. Tian Ma has been used as medicine for more than a thousand years, and the health-preserving wine brewed from Tian Ma is regarded as a treasure in the palace. In the ancient medical books "Shen Nong's Materia Medica" and "Compendium of Materia Medica", there are records of Tian Ma "eliminating all diseases and prolonging life".
Gastrodia elata
Gastrodia elata is sweet and heavy in quality, soft and moisturizing but not dry, and its nature is flat and unbiased, and it belongs to the liver. It is good for relieving wind and spasm, calming liver yang, and treating symptoms of liver yang and liver wind, regardless of cold, heat, deficiency or excess. Can dispel wind and dredge collaterals, control arthralgia, pain, limb numbness and hand and foot paralysis.
Types of Tian Ma
Red Tian Ma
The plant of Red Tian Ma is relatively tall, as high as 1.5-2m. The rhizome is larger and dumbbell-shaped. The largest single weight reaches 1kg, and the water content is about 85%. The stem is orange-red, and the flowers are yellow and slightly orange-red. The flowering period is from April to May, and it is mainly produced in the provinces of the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin. Red Gastrodia elata grows fast and has strong adaptability. It is an excellent and high-yield variety, with a unit yield of more than 10kg per 1㎡, and a wide range of planting.
Green Tian Ma
The plants of Green Tian Ma are relatively large, up to 1-1.5m. The rhizome is oblong or inverted conical, with dense nodes and many scale-like sheaths on the nodes. The maximum weight of a single plant is 600g, and the water content is about 70%. The stem is light blue-green, the flowers are light blue-green to white, and the flowering period is from June to July. It is mainly produced in northeast to southwest provinces and regions. It is rare in the wild and occasionally planted.
Wu Tian Ma
The plant of Wu Tian Ma is tall, up to 1.5-2m or higher, the rhizome is oval to oval in shape, the nodes are dense, the longest can reach more than 15cm, the maximum weight of a single is 800g, and the water content is 60%- Within 70%, the stem is grayish brown with white vertical stripes. The flowers are blue-green, and the flowering period is from June to July. It is mainly produced in the west of Guizhou, and the northeast to northwest of Yunnan.
Song Tian Ma
The height of the Song Tian Ma plant is 1m, the rhizome is spindle-shaped or cylindrical, the water content is more than 90%, the stem is yellow-white, the flower is white or light yellow, and the flowering period is April to May. It is mainly produced in northwest Yunnan. Under the pine forest, due to the low drying rate, it has not been introduced and planted.
Yellow Tian Ma
The plant height of Yellow Tian Ma is more than 1m, the rhizome is egg-shaped and oblong, and the maximum weight of a single is 500g, the water content is about 80%, the stem is light yellow, light yellow green when young, the flower is light yellow, and the flowering It is from April to May, mainly produced in Henan, Hubei, western Guizhou and northeastern Yunnan. It often grows on the edge of sparse forests and is occasionally planted in the southwest.
Growth environment of Tian Ma

Tianma is distributed in Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Shaanxi, Gansu, Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Tibet and other places. Now more artificial cultivation.
Tianma is born in damp places with thick humus under the forest at an altitude of 1200-1800m. Tianma likes a cool and humid environment, and is afraid of freezing, drought, high temperature, and stagnant water. Tianma has no roots and no green leaves. During the 2-year life cycle from seed to seed, except for the sexual period of about 70 days on the surface, it hides in the soil as tubers all the year round. The nutritional mode is special, and it only obtains nutrition from the Armillaria hyphae that invades the body, and grows and develops. It is advisable to choose sandy loam rich in humus, loose and fertile, with a soil pH of 5.5-6.0, and good drainage.
Processing methods of Tian Ma
Collection and processing
Tian Ma is excavated from the beginning of winter to before Qingming of the next year, washed immediately, steamed thoroughly, and dried at low temperature in the open.
Processing method
Tian Ma
Take the raw medicinal materials, remove impurities and black oily ones, separate the large and small ones, soak until 3-40% transparent, take out, moisten or steam until soft, cut into thin slices, and dry.
Fried Tian Ma
First take the wheat bran and sprinkle it into the hot pot. When it sees smoke, add Tian Ma slices and stir-fry until it turns yellow. When scorched spots are seen, take it out and let it cool. Or use the clear frying method, stir fry until yellow, and when there are a little burnt spots, take it out and let it cool. 100kg of hemp per day, 10kg of wheat bran.
Tian Ma TCM

Medicine part
The rhizome of the orchid plant Gastrodia elata.
Taste
Sweet in taste, flat in nature.
Tropism
Return liver Meridian.
Effect
Expelling wind to relieve spasm, calming liver-yang, dispelling wind and dredging collaterals.
Attending
Internal movement of liver wind, convulsions and convulsions
Tian Ma mainly enters the liver meridian, has the function of relieving wind and relieving spasm, and is sweet in taste and moist in nature, with mild medicinal properties. Therefore, it can be used to treat internal liver-wind movement, convulsions, epilepsy and convulsions of various etiologies, regardless of cold, heat, deficiency or excess, it can be used in combination.
Dizziness and headache
Tian Ma not only relieves liver wind, but also calms liver yang, and is an essential medicine for dizziness and headache. Regardless of deficiency syndrome or excess syndrome, it can be applied with different combinations.
Numbness of limbs, paralysis of limbs, rheumatic arthralgia
Tian Ma can dispel exogenous wind, dredge meridians and relieve pain. Use it to treat apoplexy with hand and foot paralysis, pain in muscles and bones; woman's wind numbness, hand and foot paralysis; rheumatism arthralgia, joint flexion and extension difficulties, etc.
Medicinal properties
Tian Ma is oval or strip-shaped, slightly flat, shrunken and slightly curved, 3-15cm long, 1.5-6cm wide, and 0.5-2cm thick. The surface is yellowish-white to yellowish-brown, with longitudinal wrinkles and multiple rounds of horizontal rings arranged by latent buds, and sometimes tan fungal cords can be seen. There are reddish-brown to dark brown parrot-shaped buds or residual stem bases at the top; there is a round navel-shaped scar at the other end. The texture is hard, not easy to break, the section is relatively flat, yellowish white to light brown, horny. Slight gas, sweet in the mouth.
Dosage
Decoction for oral administration, 3-10g; or into pills or powder.
Precautions
"Lei Gong Pao Shao Lun": Use the root of Yufeng grass instead of Tian Ma, if the two are used together, it will cause intestinal knots.
Related discussion
1. "Medication Methods": "Treat wind-heat headache for adults; wind-heat epilepsy and palpitations for children; paralysis of wind-heat; speech failure due to wind-heat."
2. "Compendium of Materia Medica": "mainly wind in the head, headache, dizziness and spinning, epilepsy with strong convulsions, limb spasms, speech disturbance, all strokes, and wind-phlegm."
Tian Ma benefits
Breathing wind and relieving spasm
Tian Ma is sweet in taste and flat in nature, and has the effect of relieving wind and relieving spasm. It can be used to treat internal liver wind, convulsions and convulsions. It can be used in combination regardless of cold and heat.
Suppressing liver yang
Tian Ma enters the liver meridian, which can not only relieve wind and spasm, but also calm liver yang. It is an important medicine for dizziness and headache. If apoplexy, convulsions, head wind, and dizziness are all syndromes of liver and gallbladder wind, they should be treated with this method.
Dispelling wind and dredging collaterals
Tian Ma is sweet in taste and flat in nature, enters the liver meridian, and has the effect of dispelling wind and dredging collaterals. It is often used for stroke paralysis, muscle and bone pain; women's wind arthralgia, paralysis of limbs; rheumatism arthralgia, joint flexion and extension dyskinesia wait.
Tian Ma side effects
Great loss of appetite and weight loss
The use of Tian Ma will cause people's appetite to decrease and people don't like to eat, which will lead to weight loss.
Fatigue
After using Tian Ma, people will feel tired, which will affect people's enthusiasm for work, life and study.
Unresponsive
Unresponsiveness will appear after using Tian Ma, especially for those who use it for a long time.
Increased heart rate
Some patients will experience rapid heart rate after using Tian Ma.
Hypotension response
Because Tian Ma has the effect of lowering blood pressure, if it is used for a long time, hypotension may appear, such as dizziness and other symptoms. Therefore, you must pay attention to frequent blood pressure measurement during use, and you must pay attention to side effects during the use of this drug.
How to take Tian Ma?

Decoction
Tian Ma Gou Teng Yin
Tian Ma Gou Teng Yin, the name of a traditional Chinese medicine prescription. For treating wind, it has the effects of calming the liver and quenching the wind, clearing away heat and activating blood, and nourishing the liver and kidney. Indications hyperactivity of liver yang, syndrome of disturbance of liver wind. Headache, dizziness, insomnia and dreaminess, or bitter mouth, red face, red tongue with yellow coating, stringy or rapid pulse. It is commonly used clinically to treat hypertension, acute cerebrovascular disease, inner ear vertigo, etc., which belong to hyperactivity of liver yang and disturbance of liver wind.
Ban Xia Bai Zhu Tian Ma Tang
Ban Xia Bai Zhu Tian Ma Tang, the name of a traditional Chinese medicine prescription. It is an expectorant, which has the effects of resolving phlegm and quenching wind, strengthening the spleen and eliminating dampness. Indications wind-phlegm disturbance syndrome. Dizziness, headache, fullness of chest and diaphragm, nausea and vomiting, white and greasy tongue coating, stringy and slippery pulse. Clinically, it is commonly used in the treatment of otogenic vertigo, hypertension, nervous vertigo, epilepsy, facial nerve paralysis and other wind-phlegm disturbances.
Soup
When cooking chicken and duck soup, add Tian Ma, yam and other medicinal materials, and eat them in moderation to have a certain effect of nourishing, dispelling wind and dredging collaterals.
Tian Ma pork slice soup
Appropriate amount of Tian Ma pork. Cut Tian Ma into thin slices and set aside; slice the meat to make soup, add 60 grams of fresh Tian Ma slices and cook together. It has the functions of nourishing and subduing yang, calming the liver and calming the wind. Suitable for dizziness, headache embolism.
Porridge
Tian Ma and bamboo drain porridge
10 grams of Tian Ma, 100 grams of japonica rice, 30 grams of bamboo drain, and appropriate amount of sugar to cook porridge. It has the effects of calming the liver and calming the wind, clearing away heat and resolving phlegm.
Edible
Tian Ma boiled eggs
Use 60 grams of fresh Tian Ma and 3 eggs, first put the fresh Tian Ma slices in the pot and boil for 30 minutes, then add the eggs and cook them before eating. Eat once every other day to treat headache and dizziness.
How to choose Tian Ma?
Shape
Look at the two ends of Tian Ma, there are reddish-brown dry buds on the top (commonly known as "parrot mouth", "red petal"). There are circular scars at the bottom (scars that have fallen off from the mother hemp), traces of links, depressions at the nodes, and remnants of degenerated fibrous roots, commonly known as "belly buttons".
The shape is oblong, flat and slightly curved, with irregular and delicate wrinkles, commonly known as "chicken wrinkled skin"
Smell
Tian Ma has a special smell, commonly known as "horse urine smell". It is not easy to rot when steamed and cooked, and it does not stick to the teeth when chewed, and it has a crisp feeling. The taste is sweet and slightly pungent.
Texture and section
Big, with fine lines and wrinkled skin, firm inside, heavy weight, with a sense of sedimentation in the hand, translucent, hard texture, not easy to break, once broken, the cross-section is flat and waxy.
How to buy Tian Ma?
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