Release exterior
Sheng Ma
升麻
Cimicifuga rhizome
Cimicifuga foetida
Raises yang and vents a heat rash in textbook language.
Not for self-dosing. This page is not a formula, not a strength, and not a substitute for a licensed herbalist or physician.
Category
Cool · Acrid, Sweet
Meridians entered
Traditional uses
Two classroom jobs: helping a collapsed middle “lift,” and venting measles-like surface heat in historical pediatrics. The raising idea is why it is mentioned with Du20 and prolapse patterns. It is not a hormone strategy.
Common pairings
- Huang Qi 黄芪
Huang Qi tonifies, Sheng Ma lifts. The pair is the teaching skeleton of formulas that raise sinking qi.
- Ge Gen 葛根
Both can lift and release. Used together when the head and the neck are part of the pattern.
Cautions
Not for self-dosing. Care in pregnancy. People sometimes confuse it with black cohosh supplements; species and dose are not interchangeable, and those products have their own risks.