Wu Mei乌梅
Mume Fructus · Smoked Plum · Mume Fruit · Black Plum
Overview
The unripe green plum, smoked and dried until it is black and wrinkled — the smoking is what makes it Wu Mei rather than simply dried fruit. Intensely sour and astringent but neutral in temperature, it does three quite different jobs, each following from the sourness: it gathers in what is leaking (chronic cough, chronic diarrhoea), it generates fluids where they have been consumed (thirst, wasting-and-thirsting disorder), and it quiets roundworms, the property behind Wu Mei Wan. Dry-frying and vinegar-frying deepen the astringency for chronic diarrhoea; charred to Wu Mei Tan, it is used for bleeding.
Nature & Flavor
Sour, astringent · NeutralChannels
Liver · Spleen · Lung · Large IntestineTypical Dosage
3–10 g in decoctionActions
4 core actions
- Astringes the Lung, stops coughChronic dry cough of long standing where the Lung no longer holds, with little or no phlegm.
- Binds the intestines, stops diarrhoeaChronic diarrhoea and long-standing dysenteric disorder that will not settle.
- Generates fluids, quenches thirstThirst from fluid damage after fever, and the persistent thirst of wasting-and-thirsting disorder; the base of the summer drink suan mei tang.
- Quiets roundworms, relieves colicCramping abdominal pain with vomiting from roundworm — the pattern behind Wu Mei Wan 乌梅丸. Modern practice diagnoses and treats parasites conventionally first.
In Formulas
Formulas containing Wu Mei
Indications & Clinical Uses
- Chronic cough with scant phlegm
- Chronic diarrhoea and long-standing dysenteric disorder
- Thirst after febrile illness; wasting-and-thirsting disorder
- Roundworm colic with vomiting (conventional diagnosis first)
Western Medical Keywords
Searchable condition terms
Contraindications
Cautions
Astringent herbs hold things in, so timing decides whether this one helps or harms: it is contraindicated while an exterior pattern is unresolved, in a new cough from wind-cold or wind-heat, and in the early stage of damp-heat dysentery or food-stagnation diarrhoea, where binding traps what needs to leave. Its strong acidity can aggravate reflux, gastritis and ulcer pain, and repeated sipping of sour plum drinks over the day is hard on tooth enamel. Roundworm infection has a reliable conventional test and treatment, and that comes first. Diarrhoea lasting more than two weeks, or containing blood, needs a diagnosis rather than an astringent.
Contraindicated in pregnancy: No specific restriction — practitioner judgment applies.
For licensed practitioners’ reference only
References
- Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing《神农本草经》(classical source, public domain).
2. Bensky, Clavey & Stöger. Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica, 3rd ed.
3. 《中华人民共和国药典》.
Professional reference notice. Entries are scholarly references for licensed TCM practitioners and students — not medical advice, and not a recommendation to self-prescribe. Chinese herbal formulas should be used under the guidance of a qualified practitioner. Content is an original editorial compilation by Cura x Cura, cross-checked against the cited references.