Glehnia
北沙参 · Běi Shā Shēn
Moistens dry coughs and a parched gut
What it does
Glehnia eases the kind of dry hacking cough that lingers after a cold and the parched stomach lining that comes with chronic dryness. In TCM, it nourishes lung and stomach yin, the cooling fluids that get depleted by heat or chronic illness. It's one of the gentler 'sha shen' herbs, with the 'bei' (northern) variety more focused on lung yin than its 'nan' (southern) cousin.
How to take it
Decoct 6–12g of dried glehnia root in 4 cups water for 30 minutes. Drink 1 cup, 1–2x daily during dry-cough recovery. Pairs with dwarf lilyturf, lily bulb, and pear.
Try a glehnia-and-pear soup during the dry tail end of a cold
Safety
- Generally well tolerated for daily use
- Skip with cold-pattern cough or chronic loose stools
- Skip with stuck phlegm or wet productive cough
- Skip during pregnancy in concentrated medicinal doses
- Talk to your doctor before starting, especially if you take medication
Where it comes from
Glehnia littoralis grows in coastal sand dunes across northeast China, Korea, and Japan, which gives it the Chinese name Běi Shā Shēn ('northern sand root'). The southern equivalent (Nán Shā Shēn) is a different plant, Adenophora, with similar but more lung-focused effects. Glehnia is a key herb in Sha Shen Mai Dong Tang, a classical formula for chronic dry cough with parched throat, often given to recovering tuberculosis patients in older Chinese medicine.