Used as a decoction, extract, tincture and dietary supplement.

This legendary medicinal plant is a perennial with long, fibrous roots, native to North China and Inner Mongolia. It is sold in both wild and cultivated forms. Chinese pharmacies sell bundles of thin root-slices that resemble tongue depressors and have a sweet taste.

These are simmered in medicinal soups, the slices being removed before serving because they are too tough to chew. Obviously, the root powder can be swallowed along with the rest of the decoction.

Practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine consider astragalus a true tonic that can strengthen debilitated patients and increase resistance to disease in general.

In contemporary Chinese medicine, it is also a chief component of zheng fu therapy, a combination herbal treatment designed to restore immune function in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Astragalus is a complex combination of polysaccharides, triterpene glycosides, flavonoids, amino acids, and trace minerals

Astragalus polysaccharides have been shown to stimulate pituitary-adrenal cortical activity and restore depleted red blood cell formation in bone marrow. Again, confirming traditional Chinese medicine, Astragalus has been shown to stimulate the body's natural production of interferon.

Astragalus is now prescribed, in both the East and the West, for immuno-compromised people, or people who easily 'catch' illnesses. The decoction is safe to use repeatedly on a daily basis.

Research in China has demonstrated increased survival in patients receiving both herbal and Western therapies, as well as protection from the immunosuppressive effects of the latter. Studies in the West confirm that astragalus enhances immune function by increasing activity of several kinds of white blood cells and boosting production of antibodies and interferon, the body's own antiviral agent.

Numerous scientific studies have confirmed the medicinal value of astragalus. Immunopharmacology (1990;20) and Mutation Research (1992) found enhancement response by Astragalus extract, Journal of Ethnopharmacology (1990) reported a hepatoprotective effect and indicated that ethanol extract of Astragalus alleviates liver injury, Archivos del Instituto de Cardiologia de Mexico (1993) announced the vasodilator and antihypertensive properties of Astragalus extract.

Since the 1950s, scientists have discovered the potential use of Astragalus for treatment of cancer (The Journal of Urology 1991;146:486-490). Investigations conducted by institutions for cancer research indicated that in areas where selenium content in foods is high, rate of stomache cancer, liver cancer, lung cancer, bladder cancer, colon cancer, etc, is low. Selenium content prevents cell damage caused by hydrogen peroxide and oxidative lipids. Antioxidation effect of selenium is 500 times that of vitamin E. Recently the immunity enhancing properties of Astragalus have led medical scientists to use it in experiments of AIDS treatment (Virology, March 1992).