Anti-Inflammatory Effects of 81 Chinese Herb Extracts and Their Correlation with the Characteristics of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Table 2

Characteristics (flavor, nature, and meridian distributions) of the 10 most potent anti-inflammatory herbs.

Plant name and authority	Flavors^a,b	Natures^a,b	Meridian distributions^a,b
Daphne genkwa Sieb.et Zucc.	Bitter, pungent	Warm	Lung, spleen, kidney
Caesalpinia sappan L.	Sweat, salty	Moderate	Heart, liver, spleen
Forsythia suspensa (Thunb.) Vahl	Bitter	Litter cold	Lung, heart, intestinum tenue
Zingiber officinale Rosc.	Pungent	Hot	Spleen, stomach, kidney, heart, lung
Inula japonica Thunb.	Bitter, pungent, salty	Little warm	Lung, spleen, stomach, intestinum crassum
Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort.	Pungent	Warm	Liver, gallbladder, pericardium meridian
Curcuma longa L.	Pungent, bitter	Warm	Spleen, liver
Typha angustifolia L.	Sweat	Moderate	Liver, pericardium meridian
Nigella glandulifera Freyn et Sint.	Sweat, pungent	Warm	Liver, kidney
Bletilla striata (Thunb.) Reichb.f.	Bitter, sweet, astringent	Little cold	Lung, liver, stomach

aBased on Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2010).
^bBased on Chinese Materia Medica (1998).