Latin: Thuja occidentalis
TCM: Bai Zi Ren is Thuja orientalis
It is a “vaso-tonic alterative.” (Menzies-Trull in "The Herbalist's Prescriber")
“Thuja’s main action is due to its stimulating and alterative oil. In bronchial catarrh Thuja combines expectoration with a systemic stimulation beneficial if there is also heart weakness … avoid if there is dry irritable cough … [or] pregnancy”. (David Hoffman in “The New Holistic Herbal”).
Bai Zi Ren (Thuja orientalis) is “sweet, neutral … nourishes the heart and calms the spirit: for irritiablity, insomnia, forgetfulness, and palpitations with anxiety due to heart blood deficiency.”
Dan Bensky and Andrew Gamble, in “Chinese Herbal Medicine Materia Medica”