Agastache, known in classical Chinese medicine as Huo Xiang, is the aerial parts of the plant Pogostemon cablin. Acrid and slightly warm in nature, entering the Lung, Spleen, and Stomach channels. The classical indications are unusually specific: nausea and vomiting from Damp obstruction, summer heat with dampness in the chest, and the queasy unsettled feeling of a stomach that has eaten something it cannot process.
The defining quality of Huo Xiang is its aroma. The essential oils, particularly patchoulol and pogostone, are what give the herb its clinical signature. Aromatic compounds in traditional Chinese pharmacology serve a specific function: they dispel turbidity. In modern terms, this corresponds to the herb’s effect on intestinal motility, gastric emptying, and the inflammatory tone of the upper GI tract.
Modern research has demonstrated antibacterial activity against several gut pathogens, mild prokinetic effects on stomach emptying, and anti-emetic activity that intersects with the same pathways used by conventional motion sickness preparations. The herb is gentle enough that it appears in classical pediatric formulas, which is unusual for an aromatic.
Huo Xiang is one of the sixteen botanicals in Chorus Gut Harmony, where it works to clear the upper GI of stagnation while the rest of the formula supports the lower digestive tract.
References
Fuentes-Granados, Roger G., Mark P. Widrlechner, and Lester A. Wilson. “An overview of Agastache research.” Journal of Herbs, Spices & Medicinal Plants 6.1 (1998): 69-97.
Zielińska, Sylwia, and Adam Matkowski. “Phytochemistry and bioactivity of aromatic and medicinal plants from the genus Agastache (Lamiaceae).” Phytochemistry Reviews 13 (2014): 391-416.
You have been carrying something. The people you find here have carried it too. Some have come through. They teach the next ones in.
Gut Brain Synchrony is our free community. Walk in. Sit down. The conversation is welcome. There is nothing to pay.
Customized Care is for the work that asks more. A practitioner who stays with you. A formula that moves as your case moves. Held all the way through.
Related from The Table