Astragalus · huáng qí, the yellow root of the steppes

The quiet kingdom — roots, polypores, mycelium. The resilience of the living, ready for every day.

The astragalus of Chinese medicine, Astragalus membranaceus, is a perennial legume of the steppes and dry hills of northern China, Mongolia and southern Siberia. Above ground, a light plant, half a metre to a metre tall, with leaves made of many small leaflets and clusters of pale yellow flowers. Below ground, a long straight root that plunges into the dry earth, brown outside, yellow within.

The yellow elder

In Chinese it is written 黃耆, today 黄芪: huáng qí. Huang is yellow, the colour of the cut root. Qi, in its old form 耆, means the elder, the respected old man, the one who comes first.

It was Li Shizhen who explained the name, in 1578, in his Bencao Gangmu: the root is yellow, and he held it to be the eldest of its whole category of plants, hence huang qi, the yellow elder. The Shennong Ben Cao Jing, compiled under the Han, already placed it among its superior plants, shang pin, those taken over the long run.

The Latin tells another story. Membranaceus means membranous: after flowering, the plant bears swollen pods with walls as thin as paper, which dry in the steppe wind. It is also named Astragalus mongholicus, Mongolian astragalus; the floras disagree on whether it is one species or two.

An immense family

The genus Astragalus counts several thousand species on every continent, and they do not all look alike. In North America some of them, the locoweeds, are toxic to livestock. The huang qi of the Chinese tradition comes from the root of A. membranaceus and its close relative A. mongholicus.

The root in slices

The root is harvested after several years of growth. It is washed, dried, then cut into long, slanting slices, supple and fibrous, butter-coloured at the centre, which look like tongue depressors of pale wood. That is how it is found in Chinese herb shops, tied in bundles or loose in the drawers.

The taste is sweet, faintly floury, with an undertone of dried bean: you can tell it is a legume. Chinese medicine counts its flavour among the sweet ones.

Almost all the huang qi on the market today is cultivated, in Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and Gansu. Wild harvesting has become rare and is restricted in places.

In the pot

In China, astragalus root is first of all a kitchen matter. A few slices simmer for one to two hours in a chicken broth, with jujube dates, goji berries and a piece of ginger. The broth takes on a round sweetness; the slices are chewed or left at the bottom of the bowl. Southern China, Canton first among them, has made these long soups a family art.

In the formulas of Chinese medicine it travels in company: with Chinese angelica, dang gui; with codonopsis; with schisandra; or in yu ping feng san, the jade windscreen powder, made from three roots.

Ways with the root

• In broth: a handful of slices in the pot, one to two hours over a low heat, with whatever the season offers.
• As a decoction: a few slices in half a litre to a litre of water, at a gentle simmer for about thirty minutes. The liquid comes out pale yellow, sweet like vegetable cooking water.
• With rice: a few slices slipped into a simmering congee, taken out before serving.

Astragalus is not in the House catalogue. We tell its story for its own sake, as a root Chinese kitchens know well, alongside the reishi of the same herbals.

Precautions

• Never pick a wild astragalus yourself: the genus includes toxic species.
• Fever or acute infection: Chinese medicine itself sets it aside during these episodes.
• Autoimmune disease, organ transplant, immunosuppressant treatment: avoid without medical advice.
• Pregnancy and breastfeeding: medical advice first.
• Ongoing treatments (anticoagulants, lithium, diabetes medication, blood pressure medication): talk to your doctor.

When in doubt, your doctor before the plant.

Sources

• Shennong Ben Cao Jing, transl. Yang Shouzhong, The Divine Farmer's Materia Medica, Blue Poppy Press, 1998.
• Li Shizhen, Bencao Gangmu (1578), transl. Compendium of Materia Medica, Foreign Languages Press, 2003.
• Dan Bensky, Steven Clavey and Erich Stöger, Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica, Eastland Press, 3rd ed., 2004.
• Dan Bensky and Randall Barolet, Chinese Herbal Medicine: Formulas & Strategies, Eastland Press, 2nd ed., 2009.