TCM Herbs with Acrid Properties

• Warms the womb and stops bleeding - useful in cases of prolonged menstrual bleeding and uterine bleeding due to cold from deficiency patterns.
• Warms the womb and pacifies the fetus - restless fetus syndrome, lower abdominal pain (menstrual), vaginal bleeding as in threatened miscarriage, infertility due to cold womb.
• Used often as moxibustion for tonification and the movement of qi stagnation.

• Vigorously purges, warmly unblocks - severe cold accumulation in the interior leading to constipation and abdominal fullness and pain.
• Drives out water and reduces edema - ascites.
• Bursts clogged phlegm and improves condition of throat - difficult breathing due to phlegm in the throat, wheezing.
• Promotes healing of abscesses and ulcers - topically, accelerates ulcerating process.

• Antagonist with Qian Niu Zi
• Avoid in Pregnancy
• Toxic - very irritating to the skin and musous membranes

• Tonify kidneys, strengthen yang - impotence, male or female infertility, premature ejaculation, frequent urination, urinary incontinence, irregular menses, low back pain and weakness, cold and painful abdomen.
• Strengthen sinews and bones - back pain, muscular atrophy.
• Expel wind/damp cold - back and leg qi pain, bi syndromes.

• Transforms dampness - low appetite, greasy tongue coat, stifling sensation in the chest.
• Warms the middle warmer (stomach/spleen) and descends rebellious qi - vomiting due to cold from spleen/stomach qi deficiency or stomach cold.
• Transforms stagnation - fullness in the chest.

• Dries dampness, transforms phlegm, expels wind-cold, stops spasms - wind-phlegm affecting the head including wind stroke, facial paralysis, hemiplegia, migraines.
• Relieves toxicity, dissipates nodules - snake bite, scrofula.

• Toxic - Avoid during Pregnancy.

• Calms the liver, anchors the yang - headache, vertigo due to liver yang rising.
• Expels wind-heat, brightens the eyes - red, painful, swelling of the eye.
• Promotes the smooth flow of qi - chest/flank pain and distention, insufficient lactation.
• Expels wind - stops itching.

• Clears heat, relieves toxicity, and expels pus - intestinal abscess, sores, swellings.
• Dispels blood stasis, stops pain - for heat induced blood stasis, especially in the abdomen and chest; also for post-partum pain, post-operative pain.

• Warms the lungs, regulates qi, expels cold-phlegm - cough with copious and thin sputum, chest distention, pain due to accumulation of phlegm-cold, especially for chronic disorders.
• Dissipates nodules, reduces swelling, alleviates pain (both joint and body), yin type boils.

• Redirects lung qi down, expels phlegm - cough with copious sputum (but difficult to expectorate) and gurgling in throat, wheezing.

• Expels wind-cold, dampness
• Opens nasal passages, sinus congestion (particularly with green discharge), alleviates pain (especially in the head region)
• Resolve wind-cold symptoms especially with headaches (yangming - ST), supraorbital pain, congestion
• Useful for swollen gums and toothache

• Avoid in Yin/Blood deficiency
• Avoid in Heat in the Blood

• Dries dampness, transforms cold-phlegm, descends rebellious qi - cough with copious sputum especially due to dampness of spleen.
• Harmonizes stomach, stops vomiting due to lingering phlegm-dampness in the stomach.
• Dissipates nodules, reduces distension - phlegm in chest or neck or anywhere in the body, focal distention in the chest.

• Incompatible with Wu Tou.

• Clears heat, relieves toxicity, invigorates blood, reduces swelling - furuncles, sores, abscesses.
• Recently used for cancers and chronic hepatitis.

• Kills parasites - tapeworms, pinworms, roundworms, blood flukes, helps expel body of worms as well.
• Promote movement of Qi, reduce stagnation - drains down and unblocks the bowels, food accumulation, abdominal distention, constipation, tenesmus.
• Promote urination - damp phlegm and malarial disorders.

• Aromatically opens orifices, revives the spirit - fainting, convulsion.
• Clears heat, alleviates pain, dissipates nodules, alleviates itching - topically for pain, swelling of the throat, skin disease, eye disease (photophobia, excessive tearing), regenerates flesh.

• Expels wind heat particularly from the head region - fever, headaches, red eyes, cough, sore throat.
• Vents rashes - accelerates the activity of rashes towards the surface to quicken healing.
• Resolves LV Qi Stagnation - emotional issues, PMS, menstrual issues, pressure in chest or sides of body.

• May contribute to insufficient lactation in nursing mothers
• Avoid excessive sweating/use in weak patients or those who sweat easily
• May injure yin, use caution in yin deficiency patients

• Tonify Kidney, strengthen yang - impotence, premature ejaculation, cold and painful lower back.
• Stabilizes jing and reserves urine - enuresis, incontinence of urine, frequent urination, spermatorrhea.
• Tonify and strengthen spleen yang - cold deficient spleen diarrhea, borborygmus, abdominal pain.
• Aids kidneys to grasp lung qi - wheezing, asthma.
• Apply topically for alopecia, psoriasis, vitiligo.

• Expels wind-damp - bi syndromes, itchy rashes due to wind-damp.
• Harmonizes the stomach, transforms turbid dampness - vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, abdominal pain, borborygmus.

• Strongly dries dampness, strengthens spleen - low appetite, diarrhea, epigastric distention, fatigue, vomiting, greasy tongue coat.
• Expels wind-damp-cold (bi-syndrome) in extremities.
• Clears damp-heat from lower burner (combine with clear-heat herbs, however, as this has a warm nature (for example, Er Miao San) - vaginal discharge, swollen and sore joints.
• Induces sweating, release the exterior.
• Improves vision.

• Dries dampness, warms middle burner - damp-cold the spleen and stomach with abdominal distention, vomiting, diarrhea.

• Clears shao yang disorders and reduces fever - alternating chills and fever, bitter taste in the mouth, irritability, vomiting, stifling sensation in the chest.
• Relieves liver qi stagnation (often used with Bai Shao) - vertigo, menstrual disorders, chest and flank pain, the most common herb to treat stress, irritability, depression, etc.; also for liver and spleen disharmony - bloating, nausea, indigestion, flank pain.
• Raises yang qi in spleen and stomach deficiency patterns (often used with Sheng Ma) - prolapsed organ, diarrhea, hemorrhoids.

• Due to its rising and dispersing nature avoid in yin deficiency or liver yang rising.
• May cause nausea or vomiting - use a smaller dose if necessary.

• Checks malarial conditions.
• Induces vomiting to expel phlegm in the chest.

• Regulates Qi, improves transportive function of the spleen, relieves diaphragm - epigastric/abdominal distention, fullness, bloating, belching, nausea, vomiting (promotes movement of qi in general; specifically directing it downward - good for different types of nausea/vomiting).
• Important herb for drying dampness and the transformation of phlegm - coughs with stifling sensation in the chest/diaphragm, and copious viscous sputum (qi-level herb).
• Prevents stagnation - prevents cloying of tonifying herbs.
• Ju Hong is the red part of the tangerine peel - it is more drying and aromatic.

• Promotes the movement of Qi, alleviates pain - distention and pain in abdominal region due to cold from deficiency or blood stasis.
• Directs rebellious Qi downward - excess/deficiency wheezing, vomiting, belching, hiccups due to cold from deficiency of the middle jiao.
• Helps the kidneys grasp Qi - asthma and wheezing.

• Warms the middle warmer, disperses cold, alleviates abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea - spleen or stomach cold from deficiency patterns.
• Abdominal pain due to roundworms (auxiliary herb).

• Invigorate blood, promote movement of Qi - any blood stasis pattern, important for gynecological issues (amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, difficult labor, lochioschesis).
• Expels wind and alleviates pain - headache (temporal, vertex), dizziness, painful obstructions, skin issues.
• Headache - moves qi upward and alleviates pain; headaches due to wind, heat, cold, blood deficiency.

• Anchors and calms the spirit - restlessness, palpitations, insomnia, tremors, especially with yin deficiency and ascending yang, dizziness, vertigo.
• Tonify the kidneys and liver - improve hearing and vision.
• Helps kidneys to grasp the qi - chronic asthma.

• Releases exterior, induces sweating (early stages of wind-cold)
• Disperses cold, unblocks yang - abdominal pain, nasal congestion
• Apply topically for dispersing masses - abscesses, sores, etc.

• Avoid in exterior deficiency w/profuse sweating
• No honey in decoction

• Promotes the downward movement of Qi, reduces stagnation - food stagnation and qi obstruction w/epigastric and abdominal distention, belching, acid regurgitation, constipation.
• Expels damp, promotes urination - edema, dampness in the stomach and intestines.

• Tonifies the blood, regulates menses - pallid, ashen complexion, tinnitus, blurred vision, palpitations, irregular menses, amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea.
• Invigorates/harmonizes the blood, disperses cold - important herb to stop pain due to blood stasis - abdominal pain, trauma, carbuncles due to blood stasis, chronic bi.
• Moistens dry intestines due to blood deficiency.
• Reduces swellings, expels pus, generates flesh - sores.

• Warms middle warmer, directs rebellious Qi downward - cold in the stomach with vomiting, hiccups, abdominal pain, diarrhea.
• Warms kidney yang - impotence, leukorrhea due to Kidney yang deficiency.

• Antagonist with Yu Jin

• Dispels wind-cold-damp - bi syndromes, especially lower back and legs (acute/chronic).
• Shao yin stage headache and toothache.

• Tonify liver and kidneys, strengthen sinews and bones - weak, painful knees and lower back, fatigue, frequent urination.
• Promotes smooth flow of qi and blood circulation.
• Calms the fetus - for cold deficient kidney patterns with bleeding during pregnancy, prevents miscarriages from deficiency.
• Recently used for dizziness from liver yang rising (hypertension).

• Breaks up blood stasis, promotes movement of Qi, alleviates pain - abdominal pain, dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea, abdominal masses, epigastric masses due to blood stasis.
• Dissolve food stagnation, accumulations.

• Do Not Use During Pregnancy

• Regulates and soothes liver Qi - rib pain and distention, belching.
• Harmonizes the stomach and strengthens the spleen - epigastric pain and distention, lack of appetite, belching, vomiting.
• Dries dampness and transforms phlegm - chronic cough with phlegm and chest pain (weak, not well suited for acute conditions).

• Expels exterior heat - headaches, body ache, strong diaphoretic (rare in cool and acrid herbs), may be used alone.
• Unblocks muscle level, vents rashes - accelerates rash at early stage.
• Expels water, reduces swelling - hot superficial edema in the upper body accompanied by urinary difficulty.

• Avoid in cases with profuse sweating.
• Avoid in cases of exterior deficiency.

• Restores devastated yang - extreme cold limbs with abundant cold symptoms.
• Assists heart yang to unblock vessels and improve circulation, tonifies kidney yang to augment fire and avoid loss of the basal yang.
• Warms fire and assists yang - any problem associated with weak heart, spleen, and/or kidneys.
• Disperses cold, warms the channels, alleviates pain - wind-damp-cold bi, cold blocking organs, channels, sinews, bones or blood vessels.

• Avoid during Pregnancy.
• Avoid in yin deficiency with false cold and true heat.

• Warms the middle and expels cold - warms spleen and stomach both in conditions of excess due to externally contacted cold, as well as cold from deficiency due to yang qi deficiency.
• Rescues devastated yang, expels interior cold - very weak pulse and cold limbs.
• Warms the lungs and transforms phlegm - lung cold with thin, watery or white sputum.
• Warms the channels, stops bleeding - hemorrhage of various types, especially for uterine bleeding (must be due to cold - chronic and pale in color, with cold limbs, soggy pulse).

• Expels wind-cold, vertex headaches (teeth/jaw pain)
• Dispels wind and dampness - useful for wind-cold-damp bi-syndromes and/or acute lower back pain from wind cold
• Resolve dampness effecting stomach/spleen

• Avoid in Blood and/or Yin Deficiency

• Warms the middle warmer, alleviates pain - epigastric/abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, hiccup due to cold in the middle warmer.

• Releases muscles, clears heat - exterior disease in subcutaneous region and muscles (governed by spleen and stomach) - fever, headache, stiffness in the back and the neck.
• Nourishes fluids, alleviates thirst - stomach heat, externally-contracted heat.
• Vents measles - accelerates rash at early stages.
• Alleviates diarrhea - diarrhea or dysenterial disorders due to heat; may be used for spleen deficiency diarrhea if combined with other herbs.
• Alleviates symptoms of hypertension - headaches, dizziness, tinnitus.

• Expels wind-damp-heat - diffuse aches and pains, thirst, yellow, greasy tongue coat.
• Promotes urination and reduces edema (facial or systemic) with wheezing or leg qi.

• Toxic - can lead to renal failure.

• Releases muscle layer and adjusts ying and wei qi levels
• Useful in wind-cold-damp bi syndromes to warm channels and disperse cold
• Resolves blood stagnation particularly from cold - dysmenorrhea
• Unblocks yang qi in the chest - shortness of breath, chest pain, palpitations
• Resolve edema and accumulation of cold phlegm

• Avoid in wind-heat and/or empty heat conditions
• Avoid in heat in the blood, particularly w/vomiting

• Dispels wind-cold-damp bi such as stiff joints, lower back pain, sore knees, cramping of muscles and sinews.
• Disperses cold and alleviates pain - epigastric and abdominal pain and diarrhea due to cold in the spleen and stomach.

• Dispels wind-damp (hot or cold), unblocks the channels - bi syndromes, especially in the lower back and/or knees or spasms of the extremities.
• Promotes urination, reduces edema - superficial edema due to dampness.
• Itchy skin - lesions, scabies.

• Promotes urination, reduces edema - lower extremity edema, borborygmus, abdominal distention, ascites from lower jiao damp accumulation.
• Expels wind-damp-heat, alleviates pain - fever, red, swollen, hot, painful joints.

• Drains fire and expels summer-heat - high fever, irritability, thirst, yellow tongue coat associated with summer heat.
• Burns and sores, throat and oral ulcers (topically).

• Avoid in cold cases arising from spleen or stomach deficiency.

• Invigorate blood, unblock menstruation - blood stasis patterns w/amenorrhea, abdominal pain, post partum dizziness, lochioschesis, abdominal masses.
• Dispels blood stasis, alleviates pain - blood stasis wounds and pain, carbuncles, dark purplish erythema, rash, chest pain due to blood stasis.

• Avoid During Pregnancy

• Promotes movement of Qi, transforms dampness, resolves stagnation - dampness in spleen/stomach, food stagnation, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal distention (*important herb for this).
• Warms and transforms phlegm and directs rebellious lung Qi downward - wheezing, phlegm with coughing, stifling sensation in the chest.

• Avoid During Pregnancy

• Aromatically transforms turbid dampness - abdominal distention, nausea, vomiting.
• Harmonizes middle burner, stops vomiting due to dampness.
• Releases the exterior (wind-damp-cold, summer heat), stomach flu.

• Useful for gastrointestinal disorders related to damp heat - pain, dysentery, enteritis.  Liver involved symptoms such as jaundice.
• Diarrhea from summerheat.
• Cools the blood and stops bleeding - nosebleeds, bleeding in the urine, uterine bleeding.
• Useful to clear heat from the liver and benefit the eyes - glaucoma, cataracts, pinkeye.

• Use with caution in pregnancy.

• Extinguishes liver wind, stops spasms and convulsions - childhood convulsions or facial paralysis, seizures from liver-wind or wind-phlegm-heat.
• Expels wind, stops pain - headache, red eyes, sore, swollen throat from an OPI or liver wind, loss of voice.
• Transforms phlegm, dissipates nodules - phlegm-heat scrofula and other phlegm nodules.
• Expels wind and stops itching.

• Invigorate blood, unblock menses - chest and abdominal pain, amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, pain and swelling due to trauma.
• Promote the movement of Qi, alleviate pain - epigastric and/or abdominal pain.
• Expel wind, promote movement of blood - wind damp painful obstruction w/blood stasis (particularly in the shoulders).

• Disperses blood stasis, stops bleeding - internal injuries due to trauma, fracture.
• Invigorates blood, promotes qi movement - epigastric and abdominal pain.

• Opens up and disseminates lung qi, expels phlegm - cough (wind-heat/cold), benefits the throat (sore, loss of voice).
• Promotes discharge of pus.
• Guides other herbs to the upper body.

• Expels wind and releases the exterior - useful for either wind-cold or wind-heat
• Useful for boils, carbuncles, etc. in the initial stages
• Resolve itching (wind-heat in the blood level), may be used topically
• Stops bleeding, blood in stool (secondary herb), uterine bleeding

• Avoid in measles and/or w/open sores
• Caution with exterior deficiency
• Avoid with liver wind patterns

• Opens the Orifices and Transforms Phlegm - Seizures from high fevers, strong psychiatric illnesses, loss of consciousness and/or very muddled thinking, tinnitus, deafness.
• Stagnant energy in the chest, abdominal distention, bloating.
• Wind damp related arthritis.

• Use with caution in patients with yin deficiency or yang rising.

• The red part of the tangerine peel (chen pi) - it is more drying and aromatic.

• Redirects qi downward and stops coughing - cough and wheezing from many different etiologies, most often used for different types of cold.
• Frying in honey enhances moistening function of the lungs - good for dry cough.

• Reduces food stagnation, transforms accumulations - distention, belching with a rotten smell, acid regurgitation.
• Descends lung qi, reduces phlegm - chronic cough or wheezing due to excess syndromes.

• Avoid in cases of Stomach Fire.
• Avoid during Pregnancy.

• Clear heat and toxins, dissipates nodules - carbuncles and hot sores, neck lumps.
• Expel wind-heat - fever, slight chills, sore throat, headache.

• Clears the lung, relieves fire toxicity, and improves the throat - fire toxin affecting the throat causing painful, swollen throat, loss of voice, cough due to lung heat.
• Topically to stop bleeding, particularly in the oral cavity and lips.

• Clears the lungs, transforms phlegm - cough, wheezing due to either lung heat or lung deficiency accompanied by heat signs, as long as there is phlegm clogging the lungs.
• Hypertension, bleeding hemorrhoids.

• Contains Aristolochic Acid.

• Induce sweating to release the exterior, disperse cold
• Disperse lung qi, wheezing
• Promote urination and reduces edema

• Not for long-term use as sweating will weaken the qi
• Use cautiously in deficiency condition
• May cause and/or contribute to hypertension, insomnia, mental restlessness

• Disperses wind, clears heat - wind-heat especially with headache or eye pain.
• Wind-heat in the liver channel - excessive tearing, red-painful-swollen eyes, floaters.
• Drains damp, expels wind - supporting herb for stiff, numb, cramping, and/or heavy limbs.

• Avoid in cases of Stomach Qi Deficiency.
• Avoid in headaches or eye problems that arise from yin/blood deficient heat.

• Purges accumulations, guides out stagnation - heat in the stomach and intestines with constipation; moistens dryness and softens hardness.
• Clears heat, reduces swelling - red, swollen, painful eyes, mouth, and/or throat; red, swollen skin lesions including breast problems.

• Avoid during Pregnancy, while nusrsing, during menstruation.
• Avoid in the elderly.
• Avoid in cases of excess heat.

• Absorbs fluid, reduces swelling, stops bleeding.

• Clears Heat (excess and deficient), Cools Blood. Nose bleed, bloody sputum or vomit, subcutaneous bleeding, frequent and profuse menses due to heat in the Blood.
• Clear Deficient Fire. Yin deficiency patterns such as steaming bone disorder after a warm-febrile disease particularly those without sweating.
• Clears Liver Blood Stasis. Amenorrhea, abdominal masses, bruises.
• Clears Rising Liver Fire. Headache, eye pain, flank pain, flushing, dysmenorrhea.
• Drains Pus, Reduces Swelling. Used topically for non-draining sores. Used internally for intestinal abscess.

Avoid in Pregnancy, Excess Menses due to Blood moving action.

• Promotes the movement of Qi, alleviates pain - stagnant qi of the stomach and/or spleen causing lack of appetite, abdominal pain, distention, nausea; liver or gallbladder qi stagnation causing flank pain, distention.
• Regulates stagnated Qi in the intestines - diarrhea, abdominal pain (common herb to treat tenesmus).
• Strengthens the spleen and prevents stagnation, used with tonifying herbs to reduce side effects.

• Expels wind-heat (acrid), benefits throat - fever, cough, sore, red, swollen throat.
• Clears heat (bitter, cold), relieves toxicity, vents rashes - red swellings, carbuncles, mumps, acute febrile rashes, early stages of measles with incomplete expression.
• Moistens intestines (rich plant oil - slippery) - constipation due to wind-heat (cold nature of the herb).

• Avoid in qi deficiency, diarrhea, lack of excess heat.
• Avoid when open sores and/or carbuncles are present.

• Aromatically transforms middle burner dampness - stifling sensation in the chest, nausea.
• As it has a neutral property and doesn't cause dryness it can be used for damp-heat conditions - halitosis, excess saliva.
• Summer heat with nausea.
• Often used with Huo Xiang.

• Stops bleeding (external and internal) - traumatic injury, uterine bleeding, vomiting blood, nosebleed, coughing blood, blood in urine or stool.
• Invigorate blood, dispels stasis - chest pain, postpartum abdominal pain, menstrual pain due to blood stasis.

• Avoid During Pregnancy

• Re-directs rebellious lung qi downward, expels phlegm - coughing, wheezing with thick sputum due to heat in the lungs.
• Releases wind-heat from the exterior w/cough and copious phlegm.

• Drives out water - for heat accumulation in the stomach or intestines, severe constipation, abdominal distention, urinary difficulty (water is expelled through urine and stool).
• Unblocks the bowels and removes accumulations - constipation due to accumulation and stagnation of damp-heat in the stomach and intestines.
• Drives out phlegm and congested fluids - cough, wheezing, chest fullness.
• Expels intestinal parasites and reduces food stagnation - roundworm or tapeworm infestations and food stagnation.

• Antagonist with Ba Dou
• Avoid during Pregnancy.
• Toxic, may cause nausea, vomiting.

• Release exterior, disperse cold - useful with wind-cold and damp associated body/joint pain
• Guiding herb for the GV and Tai Yang Channels

• Avoid in Blood and/or Yin Deficiency
• Avoid with Exterior Deficiency

• Dispels wind-damp bi and cramping, especially in the extremities, for acute/chronic, cold/hot conditions.
• Clears deficient heat - fever, steaming bone disorder.
• Jaundice due to acute damp-heat.
• Counteracts drying action of other herbs that dispel wind-damp - moistens intestines for dry constipation.

• Relieves toxicity, kills parasites - external wash for scabies and syphilitic chancres.
• Expels water and unblocks the bowels and bladder.

• Spreads liver Qi and breaks up stagnation - liver Qi stagnation symptoms such as distention and pain in the chest, breast, and/or hypochondriac regions; hernial pain.
• Reduces food stagnation - pain in the epigastrium.
• Dries dampness and transforms phlegm - malarial disorders w/phlegm, dampness, and breast abscesses.
• Raises blood pressure.

• Extinguishes liver wind, stops tremors and convulsions - liver wind phlegm patterns with spasms, acute/chronic childhood convulsions, tetanus, seizures, tremors, very effective!.
• Fire toxic nodules - topically on toxic sores, swellings.
• Unblocks the collaterals - painful headaches.

• Do not use during pregnancy.
• Avoid in Cases of Internal Wind with Blood Deficiency.

• Binds the intestines, stops chronic/daybreak diarrhea due to cold from spleen and kidney deficiency.
• Warms the middle burner, moves Qi - alleviates pain in abdomen, vomiting due to cold from deficiency of the spleen and stomach.

• Warms the kidneys and fortifies yang - aversion to cold, cold limbs, weak back, impotence, frequent urination; also for waning of spleen and kidney yang with abdominal pain and cold, reduced appetite, diarrhea; wheezing due to failure of the kidneys to grasp the Qi.
• Leads floating yang back to its source - upward floating of deficient yang; flushed face, wheezing, severe sweating (like oil), weak and cold lower extremities, deficient and rootless pulse (false heat-true cold, or heat above-cold below).
• Disperses deep cold, warms the channels, alleviates pain due to cold causing qi or blood stasis; amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea.
• Encourages generation of Qi and blood.

• Antagonist with Chi Shi Zhi

• Invigorate blood, dispel blood stasis, alleviate pain - trauma, carbuncles and swellings, chest and/or abdominal pain.
• Relax the sinews, invigorates the channels, alleviates pain - bi syndromes, rigidity, spasms.
• Reduces swellings, generates flesh - topically for sores, carbuncles, traumatic injury.

• Avoid During Pregnancy

• Breaks up blood stasis, promotes movement of Qi, alleviates pain - amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, post partum abdominal pain, abdominal masses.
• Dissolves food stagnation, accumulations.

• Avoid During Pregnancy

• Transforms dampness, stops vomiting - nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea.
• Promotes movement of Qi, strengthens stomach.
• Calms the fetus, morning sickness.
• Prevents tonifying herbs from causing stagnation. (See also Bai Dou Kou, Yi Zhi Ren)

• Opens the orifices, revives the spirit, unblocks closed disorders (a wide variety of problems that impair consciousness) - heat entering the pericardium, convulsions, delirium, stupor fainting, closed disorders, tetanic collapse, phlegm collapse, seizures.
• Invigorates the blood, dissipates clumps, reduces swelling, alleviates pain - toxic sores, carbuncles, fixed masses, channel obstructions due to trauma.

• Do not use during pregnancy.

• Reduces food stagnation, strengthens stomach - stomach cold with food stagnation or accumulation, with epigastric and abdominal fullness or distention, lack of appetite, borborygmus, and diarrhea.
• Aids in mineral digestion and absorption.

• Release the exterior, wind-cold, regulate ying and wei qi
• Warms the middle jiao - stomach cold/vomiting
• Alleviates coughing, warms lung
• Reduces toxicity of other herbs

• Avoid w/heat in LU or ST
• Use cautiously in patients with hypertension

• Releases the exterior, vents muscles - accelerates the early stages of skin rashes, headache from wind-heat (forehead - stomach channel).
• Clears heat, relieves toxicity - toxins in the upper or superficial areas, swelling, painful, sore gums, lips, and/or throat.
• Raises yang, lifts spleen qi sinking (strong than Ge Gen) - for middle qi deficiency leading to shortness of breath, fatigue, prolapse of stomach, uterus, or rectum.
• Serves to guide other herbs upwards.

• Avoid in cases of yin-deficient heat, upper-excesses and lower deficiencies.
• Avoid with fully erupted measles.
• Avoid in patients with breathing difficulties.

• Opens the orifices, vaporizes phlegm, quiets the spirit - sensory orifice disorders due to phlegm, deafness, dizziness, poor memory, dulled sensation, seizures.
• Harmonize the middle warmer, transform turbid damp, abdominal pain.
• Wind-cold damp - painful obstruction, trauma and sores.

• The most important herb to clear internal heat, especially in the qi and yang ming levels.
• Clears heat, drains fire (heavy, descending) - high fever with no chills, excessive thirst, sweating, flooding and big pulse (the "4 bigs"), irritability, red tongue with yellow coat.
• Clears excess lung heat - cough, wheezing, fever, thick yellow sputum.
• Clears blazing stomach fire - headache, toothache, painful and swollen gums.
• Topically for eczema, burns, ulcerated sores; may also be taken internally.

• Avoid in patients with a weak stomach, weak pulse, and yang deficiency.
• Avoid in cases with heat from yin deficiency.

• Opens the orifices, penetrates through turbidity - for closed disorders, phlegm blockages, epidemic toxic disease, especially cold disorders.
• Pain in the chest and abdomen.

• Stops coughing and wheezing, redirects the qi down, dissolves phlegm - cough and wheezing w/copious phlegm, especially for difficult exhalation, stifling sensation in the chest.
• Moistens the intestines - constipation due to dry intestines.

• Promotes Qi movement, alleviates pain - chest and abdomen pain.

• Dries dampness and expels phlegm - cough and distension in the chest, extremely drying.
• Disperses wind-phlegm in the channels and stops spasms - dizziness, numbness, facial paralysis, spasms in the hands and feet, stroke, seizures, lockjaw.
• Reduces swelling and alleviates pain (topically).

• Avoid during Pregnancy.

• Drains lung heat, reduces phlegm, calms wheezing - excess type wheezing and coughing with excess sputum and gurgling sound in the throat.
• Moves water, reduces edema - facial edema, fluid accumulation in the chest and abdomen, urinary difficulty.

• Tonify kidneys, strengthens yin, secures essence, reserves urine - impotence, nocturnal emission, premature ejaculation, tinnitus, frequent urination, sore painful back, vaginal discharge.
• Tonify kidney and liver, improves vision - liver and kidney yin and yang deficiency patterns with dizziness, tinnitus, blurred vision, floaters, etc.
• Strengthen the spleen and kidneys - resolve diarrhea.
• Calms the fetus - important herb for habitual and/or threatened miscarriage.

• Dispels wind-damp and unblocks the channels, relieves pain.
• Fish bone lodged in the throat.
• Focal distention and accumulation in the middle burner.

• Extinguishes wind, stops spasms and convulsions - lock jaw, seizures, acute/chronic childhood convulsions.
• Dissipates toxins and nodules - sores, carbuncles, neck lumps, snake bite.
• Unblocks the collaterals - painful headaches.

• Do not use during pregnancy.

• Dispels wind-cold-damp, strengthens the sinews and bones, chronic bi due to liver and kidney deficiency generating weak sinews (motor function development delays in children, elderly).
• Transforms damp, reduces swelling - urinary difficulty, edema, damp-cold leg qi.

• Promotes the movement of Qi, alleviates pain by warming and dispersing - flank, chest, epigastric, abdominal pain, hernia, menstrual pains due to cold constraint and qi stagnation.
• Warms the kidneys - frequent urination or incontinence due to kidney yang deficiency and cold from deficiency of the bladder.

• Warms the middle, disperses cold, relieves constraint in the liver channel and alleviates pain - headaches, nausea, cold hernia in the liver channel region.
• Redirects stomach Qi downwards - due to liver and/or stomach disharmony.
• Warms the spleen and expels damp cold, stops diarrhea.
• Leads fire downwards - mouth/tongue canker sores (externally applied to canker sores).

• Supporting herb for exterior cold, useful when primary symptoms are head/body aches, particularly with dampness and/or KD Yang Deficiency
• Dispels wind, disperses cold, alleviates pain
• Transforms phlegm - wind-cold w/cough
• Unblocks Qi - nasal congestion

• Avoid in Qi Deficiency w/profuse sweating
• Avoid in yin deficient cough
• Avoid in blood deficiency headaches

• Clears liver and brightens the eyes - ascending liver fire with red, painful, swollen eyes, headache, dizziness (stronger than Mi Meng Hua, Jue Ming Zi, Qing Xiang Zi in clearing heat).
• Clears heat and dissipates nodules - neck lumps, scrofula, lipoma, goiter, swollen glands due to phlegm fire.
• Hypertension accompanied by liver fire or yang rising.

• Avoid in patients with stomach or spleen deficiency.

• Stops bleeding due to cold, heat, excess, or deficiency patterns - vomiting blood, coughing blood, nosebleed, bleeding gums, blook in the urine, uterine bleeding.
• Alleviates diarrhea, dysentery.
• Kills parasites.

• Tonify kidney, strengthen yang - impotence, urinary incontinence, nocturnal emission, infertility due to cold womb (woman) or cold jing (man).
• Expel cold, eliminate damp - bi with generalized pain, pain and/or weakness in the bones and sinews, lower back and knee pain, cold abdomen.

• Spreads and regulates the Qi, soothes the liver - hypochondriac pain, epigastric distention, disharmony between the liver and the spleen.
• Regulates menses, alleviates pain (by resolving liver qi stagnation) - dysmenorrhea, irregular menses.

• Expels summerheat and transforms dampness
• Promotes urination, reduces swelling - edema

• Avoid in exterior deficiency w/sweating

• Spreads liver Qi, warms the kidneys, expels cold, alleviates pain - cold hernial disorders, lower abdominal pain due to cold.
• Regulates Qi and harmonizes the stomach - stomach cold with abdominal pain, indigestion, reduced appetite, vomiting.

• Unblocks the yang Qi and disperses cold phlegm - damp-cold bi of the chest due to cold turbid phlegm preventing the flow of yang qi - chest, flank, or upper back pain, dyspnea, coughing, wheezing, stifling sensation in the chest.
• Promotes the movement of Qi and Blood, alleviates pain - epigastric fullness, distention, abdominal pain, chest pain due to blood obstructing the heart channel.
• Directs Qi downward, reduces stagnation - damp stagnation in the large intestine (dysenteric disorders).

• Expels wind-cold
• Sinus Headaches
• Unblocks nasal passages

• Avoid in Yin Deficiency Heat

• Relieves toxicity, kills parasites, stops itching, inflammation, abscess.
• Topically - scabies, ringworm, dam rashes.
• Kills parasites - accumulation symptoms with roundworms.
• Dries dampness, expels phlegm - wheezing, seizures, malarial conditions.

• Generally, Avoid Using This Herb.

• Tonify liver and kidney, strengthen sinews and bones - lower back and/or knee weakness and pain, stiff joints.
• Tonify without causing stagnation.
• Stops uterine bleeding, calms the fetus - bleeding during pregnancy, threatened miscarriage.
• Promote blood circulation, alleviate pain, generate flesh - traumatic injuries in the lower back and legs, external conditions such as sores.

• Redirects lung qi downward, expels cold-phlegm - wheezing and copious sputum.
• Stops vomiting, rebellious qi - from cold due to deficiency of stomach or spleen.

• Invigorate blood, alleviate pain - pain from blood stasis and trauma, dysmenorrhea.
• Promotes movement of Qi and alleviates pain - chest pain, abdominal pain, menstrual pain, hernial disorders, epigastric pain.

• Avoid during Pregnancy.

• Drains fire and relieves toxicity - furuncles, carbuncles, sores, swollen throat, wind-fire causing red eyes.

• Clears liver and improves vision - night blindness, cataracts.
• Childhood nutritional impairment.

• Avoid during Pregnancy.

• Invigorates blood and regulates menses for gynecological issues - PMS, abdominal pain, irregular menses, abdominal masses, infertility, post partum abdominal pain w/lochioschesis, stasis from blood deficiency.
• Promotes urination and reduces swelling - acute systemic edema.

• Avoid during Pregnancy.

• Warms the kidneys, retains essence, holds urine - spermatorrhea, frequent and copious urine, urinary incontinence, dribbling urine.
• Warms the spleen, stops diarrhea - cold spleen or stomach patterns with diarrhea, cold abdominal pain, excess salivation, thick/bad taste in the mouth.

• Main herb for Jaundice.
• Clears damp heat from the liver and gallbladder - relieves jaundice (either damp heat or cold).
• Clears heat, shao yang syndrome (intermittent fever and chills, bitter taste, stifling sensation in the chest, flank pain, dizziness, nausea).

• Not for Deficiency Jaundice (pale yellow skin, normal urine, soggy pulse (middle jiao qi deficiency, not from dampness).

• Tonify kidney yang - impotence, spermatorrhea, frequent urination, poor memory, painful and cold lower back and knees.
• Expel wind-damp, cold - spasms, cramps, joint pain, numbness in limbs.
• Strengthen yin and yang, harnesses liver yang rising - dizziness, low back pain, irregular menses from liver and kidneys and subsequent liver yang rising.

• Invigorate blood, break up stasis - used topically and internally for traumatic pain, and to speed healing process of chronic sores.
• Promotes movement of Qi - liver qi stagnation, menstrual pain, chest, flank pain.
• Clears heat, cools blood - hot phlegm obstructs heart orifices with symptoms like anxiety, agitation, seizures.
• Benefits gallbladder - jaundice.

• Avoid during Pregnancy.

• Moistens intestines, unblocks the bowel - constipation due to qi stagnation in intestines.
• Promotes urination and reduces edema in the legs.

• Clears heat and toxins, reduces swellings and abscess - for lung abscess or lung heat cough with thick, yellow-green sputum.
• Relieves toxicity and expels pus for toxic sores (internally and topically).
• Drains damp-heat, promotes urination - diarrhea, lin syndromes.

• Drains water downward, drives out congested fluid - cathartic and diuretic - fluids in the chest and abdomen.
• Kills parasites - topically for ringworm.

• Incompatible with Gan Cao.
• Avoid during Pregnancy.
• Toxic - may cause tremors and difficulty breathing.

• Calms the spirit, quiets the heart - insomnia, palpitations, anxiety, restlessness.
• Expels phlegm from the lungs, clears the heart orifices - copious sputum, mental confusion, seizures.
• Reduces abscesses, dissipate swellings - boils, sores, painful breasts.

• Dispels phlegm - phlegm nodules, coughing with copious but difficult to expectorate sputum, strongly dispels phlegm.
• Opens orifices and revives the spirit - sudden loss of consciousness with facial paralysis or seizures due to excessive phlegm.
• Dissipates clumps and reduces swellings.

• Avoid during Pregnancy.

• Reduces swellings, discharges pus, invigorates blood, reduces abscesses - for early stages of swollen sores to encourage suppuration or to burst.
• Expels wind, kills parasites - leprosy and ringworm.

• Avoid during Pregnancy.
• Do not use with ulcers that have already burst.

• Promotes movement of blood and menstruation - pain due to blood stasis obstructing menses, post partum abdominal pain from stasis.
• Invigorates blood and dispels blood stasis - topically and interally for pain and swelling from traumatic injury or abscess.
• Promotes urination - post partum edemc or lin, systematic or facial edema.

• Avoid during Pregnancy.

• Breaks up Qi stagnation, reduces accumulations, transforms phlegm - epigastric or abdominal pain and distention or indigestion w/focal distention or gas.
• Directs qi downward and unblocks bowels - frequently used for abdominal pain and constipation by accumulation and stagnant Qi.
• Transforms phlegm and expels focal.
• Used with Qi tonifying herbs for the prolapse of organs.
• Raises blood pressure.

• Avoid during Pregnancy.

• This is the honey fried version of Yuan Zhi.  See the Yuan Zhi page for more usage information.

• Clears heat and fire toxicity - hot swellings, red, swollen eyes, throat, and/or ears; mumps.
• Clears hot sores - sores and abscesses of the head and/or back.

• Dispels blood stasis and promotes healing of bones and sinews - swellings due to trauma, fractures.

• Avoid during Pregnancy.

• Release the exterior, disperse cold - wind-cold w/fever
• Resolve qi stagnation, open chest - vomiting, nausea
• Calm restless fetus - morning sickness
• Seafood poisoning - alone or in combination w/other herbs