Category:Diaphoretics

A diaphoretic is a herbal medicine that induces or supports sweating, traditionally used to break a fever, to clear acute viral and febrile illness, and to support detoxification through cutaneous elimination. The Western clinical herbalist tradition distinguishes the stimulating diaphoretics (which produce active sweating; ginger, yarrow, peppermint, prickly ash) from the relaxing diaphoretics (which reduce sympathetic peripheral vasoconstriction and allow the body to release built-up heat; elderflower, boneset, catnip).

The clinical use is documented across essentially every traditional medicine system. The Western febrifuge tradition runs from the Greco-Roman use of warm aromatic infusions through medieval European herbalism (the elderflower-yarrow-peppermint combination is the classical "cold and flu tea") to the contemporary herbal-practitioner repertoire. The TCM tradition has a parallel "release-the-exterior" category of herbs (Jie Biao) used in early-stage wind-cold or wind-heat patterns: Ma Huang (ephedra, the warming diaphoretic; restricted in Western jurisdictions); Sheng Jiang (fresh ginger); Gui Zhi (cinnamon twig); Bo He (peppermint, the cooling diaphoretic); Sang Ye (mulberry leaf); Ju Hua (chrysanthemum). The Ayurvedic swedana tradition uses internal diaphoretic herbs (ginger, fennel, coriander, cumin) and external sweating techniques (warm-oil massage with sweat-induction).

The pharmacology of the diaphoretic effect involves cutaneous vasodilation (allowing heat loss), stimulation of eccrine sweat glands (the active sweating component), and central thermoregulatory effects (the febrifuge-by-cooling mechanism). The aromatic-volatile-oil-containing herbs produce diaphoresis through skin-irritation reflex when taken as hot infusions; the stimulating diaphoretics produce diaphoresis through cardiovascular stimulation as well.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), elderflower (Sambucus nigra flowers), peppermint (Mentha × piperita), ginger (Zingiber officinale), boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum), catnip (Nepeta cataria), Indian peppermint (Mentha arvensis), prickly ash (Zanthoxylum americanum), basil (Ocimum basilicum), holy basil (Ocimum tenuiflorum; cross-listed), the TCM Jie Biao herbs (cinnamon twig Gui Zhi, ginger Sheng Jiang, mulberry leaf Sang Ye, chrysanthemum Ju Hua, kudzu Ge Gen, ephedra Ma Huang), and the Ayurvedic warming spices used as swedana inducers.

The boundary of this category is "herb whose principal or important action is induction of sweating." The pharmaceutical antipyretics (paracetamol, the NSAIDs) act on central thermoregulation rather than peripheral diaphoresis; they are listed under their primary categories. Herbs with secondary diaphoretic action whose principal indication is elsewhere (ginger as digestive carminative, peppermint as digestive antispasmodic) are listed under their primary indication category with cross-reference.

This category page is an encyclopedia article about its subject. The actual index of herbs belonging to the category is generated automatically by the wiki engine, from category-membership declarations on the individual herb pages, and appears at the foot of the page below the references.