Rhizome of Oriental Waterplantain

Traditional Use

Primary Actions

• Promotes urination and leaches out dampness ... Ze Xie is a classic herb for edema, inhibited urination, and water retention patterns.
• Drains damp-heat from the lower burner ... it is used for painful or turbid urination and damp-heat accumulation affecting the urinary tract.
• Drains ministerial fire and descends turbid dampness ... traditional use extends to dizziness or head heaviness when phlegm-damp and lower-burner turbidity are part of the pattern.

Secondary Actions

• This page follows the accepted Alisma orientale medicinal tuber lane rather than a generic pond-plant description.
• Ze Xie is often used alongside richer tonics to prevent cloying stagnation, which helps explain its place in both drainage and balancing formulas.

Classic Formulas

• Wu Ling San ... classic formula for water retention, edema, and urinary difficulty in which Ze Xie is the leading draining herb.
• Zhu Ling Tang ... used when fluid damage and urinary irritation coexist, with Ze Xie helping to open water pathways.
• Liu Wei Di Huang Wan ... Ze Xie drains excess turbidity and balances the richer tonic ingredients in a famous Kidney-yin formula.

Classical References

• Traditional herbology describes Ze Xie as sweet, bland, and cold, entering the Kidney and Bladder to promote urination and drain dampness.
• Its classic personality is downward-draining and non-tonifying, even when it appears inside large tonic formulas.