Ying Su Ke罂粟壳
Papaveris Pericarpium · Poppy Capsule · Opium Poppy Husk · Poppy Straw
Overview
- ·.*
Ying Su Ke is the seed capsule of the opium poppy, and it is a scheduled narcotic. It contains morphine and codeine. It is not lawfully available as a herbal medicine in the United States or in most of Europe, and in China it may only be dispensed on a narcotics prescription. This entry records what the classical materia medica did with it. It is not a recommendation, and there is no circumstance in which a reader should obtain or take it on their own.
The drained, dried capsule of Papaver somniferum, sour and astringent and neutral in temperature, was the classical materia medica's strongest binding herb: it clamped down a chronic cough that would not stop, held in chronic diarrhoea and dysentery, and eased severe pain. Its power was never mysterious — the same opium alkaloids that make morphine work are what the capsule contains, in a variable and unmeasured amount. Everything that follows about dependence, sedation and slowed breathing follows from that single fact.
Nature & Flavor
Sour, astringent · Neutral · ToxicChannels
Lung · Large Intestine · KidneyTypical Dosage
3–6 g in decoctionActions
3 core actions
- Binds the Lung, stops chronic coughA dry, exhausting, long-standing cough in a depleted patient, where the pathogenic factor has already cleared and only the cough remains. Modern practice reaches for cough suppressants under medical supervision instead, and investigates the cause first.
- Binds the intestines, stops chronic diarrhoeaLong-standing diarrhoea and chronic dysentery that has outlasted its cause, and rectal prolapse from prolonged loss. The classical warning attached to this action is emphatic: used while the illness is still active, it seals the pathogen in and makes matters worse.
- Stops painSevere abdominal pain, sinew and bone pain, and traumatic pain, in the classical record. This is opioid analgesia by another route, and pain of that severity belongs with a physician who can prescribe an assayed medicine at a known dose.
In Formulas
Formulas containing Ying Su Ke
Indications & Clinical Uses
- Historical: chronic unremitting cough in a depleted patient, with no remaining pathogenic factor
- Historical: chronic diarrhoea, chronic dysentery, rectal prolapse
- Historical: severe abdominal, sinew-and-bone or traumatic pain
- No self-directed use exists. Where it is legal at all, it is a prescription narcotic.
Western Medical Keywords
Searchable condition terms
Contraindications
Cautions
Ying Su Ke is a narcotic. It contains morphine, codeine, thebaine, papaverine and noscapine in amounts that vary from batch to batch and are not declared on the herb. Everything an opioid does, it does.
- Addiction. Dependence develops with repeated use, tolerance rises, and stopping produces a withdrawal syndrome. This is the single reason the classical literature already warned against taking it for long or taking it often, centuries before the alkaloids were isolated.
- Slowed breathing. Opioids depress respiration. The risk rises sharply when combined with alcohol, sedatives, benzodiazepines, sleeping tablets, gabapentinoids or any other opioid, and combinations of this kind are the usual mechanism of an opioid death.
- Children. Absolutely contraindicated. Codeine and morphine have caused fatal respiratory depression in children, and the dose in a capsule decoction is unknowable. Regulators in Europe and North America have restricted codeine in anyone under twelve for exactly this reason.
- Breastfeeding. Contraindicated. Morphine and codeine pass into breast milk, and a mother who metabolises codeine unusually fast can deliver a dangerous dose to a nursing infant.
- Wrong stage of illness. The classical contraindication still holds and is clinically sensible: do not use it at the onset of a cough or a diarrhoeal illness while the pathogenic factor is active. Suppressing the symptom hides a condition that needs diagnosis — an unresolved infection, a bleeding bowel, an obstruction, a tumour.
- Other cautions. Avoid in respiratory disease with carbon dioxide retention, in head injury, in paralytic ileus, in acute abdominal pain of unknown cause, in liver impairment, in the elderly and the frail, and in anyone with a history of substance dependence. Do not drive or operate machinery.
- It shows up on a drug test. Poppy capsule produces a positive opiate result on urine screening, and morphine is prohibited in competition under anti-doping rules. Athletes and anyone subject to workplace testing must not take it.
- Legal status — read this before anything else. In the United States, poppy straw, which includes the capsule, is a Schedule II controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act; it is not available as a herbal remedy and possession without authorisation is a federal offence. In the United Kingdom opium and poppy straw are Class A controlled drugs, and comparable prohibitions apply across the European Union, Canada and Australia. In China Ying Su Ke is on the narcotic drugs schedule: it may be dispensed only on a narcotics prescription written by a licensed physician, only as part of a compound prescription and never on its own, in limited quantity and for a short course, and adding it to food is a criminal offence that is prosecuted. Do not order it online, do not import it, and do not accept it in an unlabelled preparation.
Contraindicated in pregnancy: Contraindicated in pregnancy and while breastfeeding. Opioids cross the placenta; regular use in pregnancy causes neonatal withdrawal (neonatal abstinence syndrome) in the newborn, and morphine and codeine are excreted in breast milk and can dangerously sedate a nursing infant. There is no acceptable dose in either setting.
For licensed practitioners’ reference only
References
- 罂子粟 appears in the Song 本草 literature and the capsule is treated as a separate drug in later works; sources differ on which text first records it, and no first source is asserted here.
2. Bensky, Clavey & Stöger. Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica, 3rd ed.
3. 《中华人民共和国药典》— 3–6 g, dispensed under narcotics control.
4. 《麻醉药品和精神药品管理条例》and the Chinese narcotic drugs schedule, under which 罂粟壳 is prescription-controlled and may not be added to food.
5. Poppy straw is a Schedule II controlled substance under the US Controlled Substances Act; opium and poppy straw are Class A controlled drugs in the United Kingdom. Confirm the position with your own regulator.
6. Morphine is a substance prohibited in competition under the World Anti-Doping Code.
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.