Eden Apothecary · Herb Profile
Rehmannia glutinosa
Pronounced Rehmannia: reh-MAH-nee-uh. Rehmannia glutinosa: reh-MAH-nee-uh gloo-tih-NOH-suh.
Sweet, deeply moistening, gently warming when prepared: the archetypal restorative for the burned-out, dried-out, yin-and-blood-depleted constitution.
Insufficient modern safety data; use only under qualified professional supervision. Rehmannia is a common constituent of supervised TCM blood-nourishing formulas but robust human pregnancy data are lacking. Source: Bensky, Clavey and Stoger, Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica; NCCIH (general guidance).
Insufficient data; avoid internal medicinal doses while breastfeeding without professional guidance. No controlled lactation studies. Source: Mills and Bone, Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy.
Avoid therapeutic doses under 12 except under professional care; no established pediatric dosing, and the rich root readily burdens a young digestion. Source: Bensky et al.; Mills and Bone.
The rich, sweet, moistening root can cause loose stool, abdominal fullness, and poor appetite in Spleen-damp constitutions; it is cloying and should be combined with qi-moving, aromatic herbs. Prefer the prepared form (Shu Di Huang) for tonifying; the raw form is cooling and clears heat. Use cautiously with poor digestion.
Damp-cold accumulation, Spleen deficiency with loose stool or poor appetite, and acute infection with fever. Caution with poor digestion; introduce gradually.
Cultivated root; Henan province is the classical source. Quality varies widely with the preparation method (the nine-times steaming and drying for Shu Di Huang). Not a conservation concern; prefer verified, properly-prepared sources.
Not in canonical biblical texts; classical TCM use traces to the Han dynasty and the Shennong canon; cultivated principally in Henan province, China.
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