Qingdai

Not to be confused with Qingdao.

Qingdai (青黛), a traditional Chinese medicine, is derived from dried leaves and stems of baphicacanthus cusia (Nees) Bremek., Polygonumtinctorium Ait., or Isatis indigotica Fort. Its main production is Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hebei and other places. The best quality of Qingdai is Fujian’s production, called “Jian Qingdai”. It is harvested and collected leaves of above said plants in fall, then immersed them into water to rotten, taken out the rotten leaves before added to a defined mount of lime milk, fully stirred immersion, and when the color of immersion changed from black green to deep red, taken out liquid foam and dried in the sun, finally, grinded powder.

Qingdai was first recorded in Yaoxinglun.

Property, flavor and meridian tropism

Salty in property, cold in flavor, acts on the meridians of lung and liver.

Effect

Removes heat and poison, cooling blood-heat and eliminating speckle, clearing the liver.

Indication

For warm poison and speckle of appearance, blood-heat and spitting blood, sore throat and mouth ulcer, fire poison and swelling and ulcer on the body surface, cough and chest pain, blood in the sputum, summer-heat and fright, convulsion.