About: Cāng zhú

Cāng zhú (苍术 or 蒼术 or 蒼朮), also known as black atractylodes rhizome or Rhizoma Atractylodes, is a Chinese herbal medicine. It is the dried rhizome of Atractylodes lancea (Thunb.) DC., (DC.) Koidz, or certain other local species including Koidz. (One study suggested that A. chinensis is a subspecies of A. lancea, and A. chinensis var. liaotungensis is a subspecies of A. coreana) The medicine is distinguished from bái zhú (白术 or 白朮, white atractylodes rhizome from Atractylodes macrocephala), which is typically cultivated, whereas cāng zhú more often tends to be collected from the wild. It is believed that the distinction between cāng zhú and bái zhú emerged in relatively modern times; a single drug "zhú" described in the Shen nong ben cao jing probably included many Atractylodes species.