Taste and Action of Chinese Herbs. ITM Home Page Article Index. TASTE AND ACTION OF CHINESE HERBSTraditional and Modern Viewpointsby Subhuti Dharmananda, Ph. D., Director, Institute for Traditional Medicine, Portland, Oregon. Since ancient times, Chinese herbalists have classified medicinal materials according to their tastes Chinese wei. The taste was understood to have a relationship to the effect of the herb when ingested. This relationship was seen as having great importance in guiding the combining of herbs within formulas. In most traditional Chinese herb books, taste was the first property of an herb to be mentioned, helping to orient the reader to the information that followed. There are five tastessweet, salty, sour, bitter, and acrid sometimes called pungent or spicyconsistent with the five element concept. Additionally, some herbs are said to be bland in taste, meaning that there is hardly any taste sensation on the tongue when the herb is tested. This term bland, however, doesnt quite capture the Chinese meaning that the taste is natural, unspoiled, or pure. The bland taste is sometimes considered a subdivision of the sweet taste. Dance Movements Sparke Pdf. Whereas sweet herbs can contribute to accumulation of dampness if taken in too great a quantity, the bland tasting herbs tend to be diuretic, a property that counteracts dampness. There is additionally the designation astringent, which is often considered a subcategory of the sour taste. Some materialsespecially minerals and shellscan be astringing without an obvious sour sensation on the tongue, while most sour tasting herbs also have an astringent action. In some texts, astringent taste is added to the basic group of five flavors plus bland herbs, thus yielding seven categories. It is reasonable to raise the question whether or not the tastes really have a strong correlation with herbal effects now that there is so much more known about the actions of herbs as the result of long historical experience and modern research methods. The answer to this might influence modern herbalists in their decisions about which herbs are appropriate to combine within a formulation. Unless noted otherwise, the traditional designation of taste for herbs mentioned in this article comes from Oriental Materia Medica 1. In several instances, other texts may provide different designations this is most often the case when an herb is said to have two or more tastes. SWEET TASTEThe sweet taste of herb materialsand foodsis traditionally associated with a tonic effect. The main sweet tasting constituents in nature are now known to be carbohydrates including simple sugars, complex starches, pectins, and polysaccharides and proteins. There are some rare exceptions, such as the glycyrrhizin in licorice which is about 5. Raw licorice is often used as a detoxicant and anti inflammatory, as one would do with bitter herbs see below, and licorice does contain bitter components. To fully utilize licorice as a tonic herb, it is first baked with a substantial amount of honeyadding considerable sugar and possibly neutralizing some of the bitter, cooling, and anti inflammatory components. The sweet taste is one of the few in nature that is inherently pleasing to all, young and old and regardless of culture. This situation is no doubt a biological survival mechanism by which humans are directed to consume nutritious substances as food of the three basic macro substances needed in nutrition, sugar and protein tend to be sweet, while the third, fat, appears to elicit appreciation for other flavors, especially sweetness. In nature, fat usually accompanies protein as in nuts and meat, and thus the food with substantial fat is usually sweet. It is rare that sweet tasting natural substances are poisonous, which is why it is the only inherently pleasing taste especially to young children who are exposed first to the sweet taste of mothers milk. Although the full range of tastes are associated with a relatively limited non toxic part of our natural environment, most of them are acquired tastes, things that are first approved by those who have survived eating them, and then, with some convincing, passed on to the next generation. Green vegetables, with their slight to strong bitter component, are normally avoided by children, and by quite a large portion of the adult population in America, despite persisting pressure to eat them because of their healthful value. In a modern culture inundated by isolated sugars, it may be hard to imagine how sweet tasting things can be considered beneficial to health, but in the native culture of China there was little in the way of isolated sweets or even overly sweet native foods. Thus, the sweet tasting food substances in Chinese culture were usually starches such as rice, which have a very mild sweet taste, and meats mainly chicken and pork. Relying on a natural diet, one tends to be more sensitive to the sweetness of complex sugars a perception which seems to vanish with the experience of refined sugars, and more appreciative of their healthful qualities. Most modern research regarding dietary simple sugars is aimed at showing their negative impact, because of the large amounts consumed. Complex carbohydrates are repeatedly demonstrated to be of benefit at least up to a certain proportion of the diet, and that focus of dietary research comes, in part, from our modern reliance on refined simple sugars replacing complex carbohydrates as the sweet part of the diet. Actually, both types of sugars can be beneficial in the appropriate amounts. Too much of some complex carbohydrates can be detrimental. Very simple sugars, such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose, are not only nutrients, but they are calming to the body. That is one reason why they are so often sought out now in the form of treats. In modest amounts, they not only calm agitation, they also invigorate basic energy as a fundamental nutrient. Sugars also soothe irritated membranes and are thus used successfully in making cough syrups, throat lozenges, and the like. In China, simple sedative formulas are made from jujube, wheat, licorice, maltose, and other sweet herbs honey based cough syrups have been used since ancient times. The modern experience of children becoming uncontrollable when consuming sweets reflects two problems disharmony in the childs body and carbohydrate consumption that far exceeds the amounts that would provide a soothing effect. Complex sugars are even better at soothing irritated membranes, and they also bind water in such a way that they can help treat mild diarrhea. Pueraria starch and the pectin like materials of hoelen are examples. Certain complex sugars interact with cell membranes and promote immune functions these are polysaccharides that have been of growing interest since their isolation and testing in the late 1. Astragalus has been a major source of such sugars. As an illustration of the connection between traditional and modern approaches to taste and medicinal activity, at a 1. Harbin, China, a researcher described how she had decided to test astragalus polysaccharides, one of several types of the herbs active constituents for immune promoting. She said that in traditional Chinese medicine, the tonic quality of astragalus was associated with the sweet taste she reasoned that the sweet taste would likely be made up of sugars, and so she isolated various saccharides, and tested them for a tonic action, namely, for increasing resistance to disease as measured by specific immunological tests. Her studies showed that the astragalus polysaccharides had a marked effect on several immune responses this work was followed up in the U. S. and became the basis of recommending astragalus for treatment of cancer patients suffering from chemotherapy induced leukopenia. Viewpoints Textbook' title='Viewpoints Textbook' />ITM Home Page Article Index. TASTE AND ACTION OF CHINESE HERBS. Traditional and Modern Viewpoints. Subhuti Dharmananda, Ph. D., Director, Institute for. IMPORTANT NOTICE Once you click on any one of the following links, you will leave this website. Please note that we are not responsible for any content posted on. Published in partnership with the American Holistic Nurses Association AHNA, Core Curriculum for Holistic Nursing Second Edition is the ideal resource for nurses. Kuby, Harner, Gober Human Geography in Action, 5th Edition. Home. Browse by Chapter. Browse by Chapter. The standards will guide textbook purchases and classroom instruction over the next decade and maybe not just in Texas. National publishers usually cater to its.