TCM Herbs with Cold (Han) Properties

• Moisten the lungs, clear heat, and stop coughing - cough from dry lungs or lung heat, sore throat.
• Clear heat and calm the spirit - low fever, insomnia, restlessness, irritability in the aftermath of a febrile disease, palpitations from qi and/or yin deficiency.

• Clears heat, strongly relieve fire toxicity, reduces abscess - for intestinal abscess, toxic sores, ulcerations, swellings, snakebite (internal and external application).
• Clears heat and resolves dampness by promoting urination - lin syndrome, jaundice.

• 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.

• Cools blood and stops bleeding - blood in urine, nosebleed, vomiting blood, coughing blood.
• Clears heat and promotes urination - hot painful urination with edema and difficult urination.
• Clears heat from the stomach and lungs - nausea and thirst due to stomach heat or wheezing due to lung heat.

• Clears heat and relieves fire toxicity - dysentery due to damp-heat in the stomach or intestines.

• Clears heat and Cools Blood. Particularly useful for yin deficient fever, summertime fever in children, post partum fever, and within the recovery stage of a febrile disease
• Cools Blood and Promotes Urine. Xue Lin, especially before or after giving birth.
• Relieves toxicity. Toxic sores, swollen and painful throat, snake bite.

• Clears heat, relieves fire toxicity, expels wind, dries dampness - wind-heat or damp-heat sores, carbuncles, rashes with excessive pus, moist skin; also for damp-heat jaundice (only in combination).

• Drains heat, relieves fire toxicity, cools the blood and benefits the throat - warm-febrile disease, mumps, painful swollen throat.
• Damp-heat jaundice.

• Attack toxins, wears away sores - used topically for sores, carbuncles, scrofula.
• Breaks up blood stasis, disperses clumps - palpable non-moving masses.

• Avoid During Pregnancy.

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

• Clears damp-heat in the bladder - promotes urination, damp-heat lin.
• Expels parasites - intestinal parasites.
• Damp skin lesions - itching.

• Nourish yin, anchor yang - yin deficiency with fever, steaming bone, night sweats, often used when accompanied with internal liver wind symptoms.
• Invigorate blood, promotes menses, dissipates nodules - chest and flank accumulations causing pain, amenorrhea, malarial disorders with palpable masses, excessive menses due to heat in the blood.

• Disperses wind, clears heat - wind-heat with loss of voice, swollen and sore throat.
• Vents rashes - for early stage of measles with an incomplete expression of the rash.
• Clears eyes and removes superficial visual obstruction, wind-heat eye problems - red, painful, swollen eyes, blurry vision.
• Stops spasms and extinguishes wind - childhood febrile diseases in which wind causes convulsions, spasms, delirium or night terrors; tetanus (lockjaw).

• Avoid during Pregnancy.
• Avoid in cases of exterior deficiency.

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

• The is the dry fried version of Huang Bai.  For general indications see the Huang Bai page.  Dry frying helps to moderate the bitter and cold properties of this herb.

• Promotes urination, clears heat - edema, lin syndromes due to damp-heat, generally in the lower warmer.
• Solidifies the stool - diarrhea with damp-heat or damp-summerheat.
• Clears the eyes - liver and kidney deficiency (dry eyes or cataracts) or heat in the liver channel (red, painful, swollen eyes and sensitive to light).
• Lung heat - expels phlegm, stops cough.

• Avoid during Pregnancy.

• Clears heat, transforms phlegm, stops many types of cough (chronic, yin-deficient, difficult to expectorate phlegm, blood streaked sputum); best for cough with stifling sensation in the chest and upper abdomen (constrained qi).
• Clears heat, dissipates nodules due to heat - sores, swellings, scrofula, lung or breast abscess.

• Incompatible with Wu Tou.

• Promotes the movement of Qi and stops pain - flank, rib, abdominal pain due to liver qi stagnation or liver-stomach disharmony; hernial disorders, good w/heat signs.
• Clears heat, dries dampness, regulates qi, alleviates pain due to damp-heat stagnant qi - same symptoms as above.
• Kills parasites and stops pain - roundworms and tape worms (primarily for pain).
• Compare with Xia Ku Cao, Long Dan Cao, Zhi Zi for clearing liver heat function.

• Clears heat and relieves fire toxicity - heat in lungs, throat, urinary tract; sores and carbuncles.
• Clear heat and dries dampness - dysentery, lin syndrome, eczema.

• Clears heat, dries dampness, binds up intestines - chronic diarrhea due to damp-heat, with blood in the stool, chronic vaginal discharge due to damp-heat.
• Kills parasites - roundworms.

• 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.

• Drains heat and purges accumulations - high fever, profuse sweating, thirst, constipation, abdominal distention and pain, delirium, yellow tongue coating, full pulse which indicates intestinal heat excess or yang ming stage illness.
• Drains heat from the blood - blood in the stool from bleeding hemorrhoids or heat in the intestine; vomting blood or nosebleed accompanied by constipation; painful eyes or fire toxin sores due to heat in the blood level.
• Drains damp-heat via the stool - jaundice, dysentery, lin syndrome.
• Invigorates the blood and dispels blood stasis - amenorrhea, abdominal masses, fixed pain due to blood stasis (recent and long-term blood stasis).
• Clears heat and reduces fire toxicity - for burns, hot skin.

• Avoid During Pregnancy and During Nursing
• Avoid in exterior disorders and deficiency of qi and/or blood

• Clears heat, relieves toxicity - for any contagious febrile disease outbreak; also for fire toxin anywhere, but especially in the throat and lungs.
• Cools the blood, reduces blotches - skin eruptions due to heat in the blood, intense fever, irritability.

• Calms the liver, anchors floating yang, clears liver fire.
• Directs rebellious qi downwards - belching, vomiting, hiccough, wheezing.
• Cools the blood, stops bleeding - vomiting of blood, nosebleed.

• Releases both exterior hot or cold (depending on how it is prepared), also good for exterior disorders with underlying yin deficiency (due to its mild nature).
• Eliminates irritability, restlessness, insomnia following febrile disease.

• Avoid with nursing mothers - may inhibit lactation.

• Clears heat - heat patterns with irritability and thirst, mouth sores and swollen, painful gums due to heat in the heart or stomach channels.
• Promotes urination and clears damp-heat - lin syndrome, especially for heat in the small intestine channel with above symptoms and dark red tip on the tongue.

• Avoid during Pregnancy.

• Promotes urination and leaches out dampness - heat disorders with lin syndrome.
• Clears heat from the heart channel into the small intestine (expelled through the urine) - pediatric sleep disorders with heat signs at night accompanied by irritability and scanty urination; adult insomnia (heart fire with kidney yin deficiency).

• Clears damp heat, promotes urination - lin syndrome due to damp heat in the bladder.
• Expels dampness, stops itching - damp skin disorders, eczema, scabies, damp-heat in the external genitals.

• Do not combine with Hai Piao Xiao

• Drains Yin deficiency fire. Night sweats, steaming bone disorder, irritablity, thirst.
• Clears Lung Heat. Cough, wheezing.
• Clears Heat, Cools Blood. Nosebleed, vomiting blood, xue lin.
• Drain floating kidney fire. Toothache due to deficient fire.

• Drains liver heat, stops spasms an convulsions - high fever with convulsions and seizures.
• Clears lung heat - wheezing.
• Clears heat in the channels and promotes movement - swollen, painful joints with limited range of motion, sequelae of wind-stroke.
• Clears heat and promotes urination - hot painful urinary dysfunction, edema.
• Hypertension associated with liver yang rising.

• Cools the blood, stops bleeding in lower burner due to damp heat - bloody dysentery, bleeding hemorrhoids, uterine bleeding.
• Clears heat and generates flesh - topically for burns, carbuncles.

• Clears lung and intestinal heat, expels phlegm, discharges pus - thick, sticky, yellow phlegm, damp-heat with phlegm obstruction in the upper/lower jiao (lung/intestinal abscess).
• Clears heat, drains dampness - leukorrhea due to damp-heat.

• Promotes urination - lin syndromes (hot, xue, stone), edema without lin issues, constipation.
• Benefits the breasts - insufficient lactation, painful swollen breasts, breast abscess.
• Moisten and unblocks the bowels.

• Drains downward, guides out stagnation - constipation due to heat.
• Can also be used as a diet tea (1.5-3g).

• Avoid During Pregnancy, During Nursing, and During Menstruation

• Clears heat from the lungs and expels phlegm heat - thick sputum (difficult to expectorate), coughing up blood.
• Softens hardness and dissipates phlegm nodules - scrofula.
• Promotes urination - hot and stony painful urinary dysfunction.

• 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.

• Drains water downward, drives out congested fluid - fluid in the chest and abdomen, general edema; violent passing of water through the anus.
• Clears heat, reduces swellings - swollen, painful skin lesions due to damp-heat.

• Incompatible with Gan Cao
• Only for strong individuals.
• Toxic - nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain.

• Clears heat and transforms phlegm-heat - for heat-induced coughs with sputum that is thick and difficult to expectorate.
• Expands the chest and dissipates nodules - constriction, pain, lung abscesses, breast abscesses.
• The peel, Gua Lou Pi, clears and transforms phlegm heat - dissipates nodules, regulates qi - dry cough, throat, cough, difficult to expectorate sputum.

• Incompatible with Wu Tou.

• (See Gua Lou) - clears and transforms phlegm-heat, expands the chest.
• Moistens the intestines - constipation due to dryness along with other heat signs.
• Expels pus and promotes healing of sores (mastitis) - an adjunctive herb.

• Incompatible with Wu Tou (also Gan Jiang, Niu Xi).

• Kills parasites - tapeworms, roundworms, hookworms.
• Drains heat and relieves fire toxicity - wind-heat colds, damp-heat induced sores, carbuncles.
• Cools the blood and stops bleeding - bleeding due to hot blood, uterine bleeding.

• 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.

• Nourish yin, anchor yang - yin deficiency with ascending yang, night sweats, dizziness, tinnitus, steaming bone disorder.
• Liver and kidney yin deficiency - internal wind symptoms, facial spasms, hand and feet tremors.
• Benefits kidneys, strengthens bone - sore back, weak legs, slow skeletal growth in children.
• Cools the blood - stops uterine bleeding due to heat in the blood, excessive menses.
• Tonify blood, nourish the heart, calm the heart - anxiety, insomnia.

• Clears heat, reduces phlegm nodules - goiter, scrofula.
• Promotes urination (adjunctive herb) - reduces edema, particularly in the leg and floating type.

• Incompatible with Gan Cao.

• 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.

• Drains damp-heat - dysentery, sores.
• Clears deficient heat - yin deficiency heat symptoms.
• Clears heat and reduces childhood nutritional impairment - abdominal distention, afternoon fever, dysentery.

• Invigorates blood and dispels stasis - amenorrhea, wind-damp painful obstruction, traumatic injury.
• Clears heat and resolves dampness - damp heat jaundice, turbid vaginal discharge.
• Drains heat, transforms phlegm - cough due to lung heat, constipation.
• Discharges toxins - burns, carbuncles (topically).

• Avoid During Pregnancy

• Promotes urination, drains heat from the bladder - important herb for hot lin syndromes, also for damp heat generated diarrhea.
• Clears heat, summer heat (w/urinary difficult) and damp-heat through urine.
• Absorbs dampness (oozing eczema) - used topically for damp skin lesions.

• Drains damp heat from the lower jiao - thick-yellow leukorrhea, foul-smelling diarrhea, dysentery; damp-heat pouring downward or hot leg qi - red, swollen, painful knees, legs, and/or feet; damp-heat jaundice.
• Drains kidney fire with signs of yin deficiency - steaming bone disorder, night sweats, afternoon fever and sweating, nocturnal emissions, spermatorrhea.
• Drains fire, relieves toxicity - sores and lesions of the skin.

• Drains fire, relieves toxicity - high fever, irritability, disorientation, delirium, painful, red eyes, red tongue, sore throat, boils, carbuncles, abscesses.
• Clears heat, drains dampness - for damp-heat in the stomach or intestine, diarrhea or dysenteric disorder, vomiting and/or acid regurgitation due to stomach heat.
• Clears heart fire - irritability, insomnia.
• Clears heat and stops bleeding - nosebleed, blood in the urine, stool, vomiting due to hot blood.
• Topically for red, painful eyes and ulcerations of the tongue and mouth.

• Clears heat, drains fire, especially from the upper warmer - heat patterns with fever, irritability, thirst, cough, thick, yellow sputum, hot sores and swellings.
• Clears heat, dries dampness - damp-heat in the stomach or intestines, diarrhea, dysentery; damp warm-febrile disease with fever, stifling sensation in the chest, thirst with no desire to drink; damp-heat in the lower jiao - lin syndrome; damp-heat jaundice.
• Clears heat, stops bleeding - vomiting and/or coughing of blood, nosebleed, blood in the stool.
• Clears heat, calms the fetus - restless fetus due to heat.
• Sedates liver yang rising - headache, irritability, red eyes, bitter taste, flushed face.

• 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.

• Useful for damp heat patterns in the lower warmer, stones in the urine (damp-heat obstruction / painful urination).
• Eliminate fire toxins - sore throat, mumps.
• Useful in some cases of high fevers in infants.

• Avoid during pregnancy.

• Clear heat, relieve toxic fire - hot, painful swellings in the throat, breast, eyes; intestinal abscesses.
• Expel wind-heat - fever, aversion to wind, sore throat, headache; also for summer-heat.
• Clear damp heat from the lower jiao - dysentery, lin syndrome.
• Stem, Ren Dong Teng, is used for similar functions - abscesses, sores, damp-heat bi syndromes.

• This is the wine fried version of zhi mu.  For general usage information see the Zhi Mu page.  Frying helps to moderate the bitter and cold aspects.

• Disperses wind, clears heat (bitter, cold) - headache, fever.
• Clears liver and the eyes (sweet, cold) - wind-heat in the liver channel manifesting with red, painful, dry eyes or excessive tearing, or yin deficiency of the kidneys and liver with floaters, blurry vision, or dizziness.

• Avoid in qi deficiency with poor appetite/diarrhea.

• Clears heat, dries dampness - dysentery, leukorrhea, jaundice, sores.
• Expels wind, kills parasites, stops itching - for damp toxin skin lesions or infestations with chronic itching, seepage, and bleeding; genital itching and vaginal discharge.
• Clears heat, promotes urination - for damp-heat in the small intestine, lin syndrome, hot edema.

• Reduces phlegm, softens hardness - nodules in the neck, fullness in the chest due to phlegm.
• Promotes urination, reduces swelling - lower extremity edema (adjunctive herb).

• Drains heart fire - for warm-febrile disease where heat collapses into the pericardium channel causing confusion, delirium; insomnia and irritability due to excessive heart fire.
• Stops bleeding, binds the essence - vomiting blood, spermatorrhea.

• Avoid in patients with abdominal masses and/or constipation.

• Extinguishes wind, controls spasms and convulsions - spasms, convulsions, seizures, expecially in children with high fever.
• Calms the liver, anchors the yang - for liver yang rising, dizziness, headache, red eyes, photophobia, spasms, convulsions.
• Drains heat and fire - delirium, manic behavior, loss of consciousness, heat in the pericardium.

• Drains damp-heat from the liver and gallbladder channels - red, swollen, sore throat, eyes, and/or ears, sudden deafness, jaundice, pain, swelling or dampness in the genital region, or foul smelling vaginal discharge and itching.
• Clears ascending liver fire - headache, red eyes; liver wind-heat with fever, spasms, convulsions, flank pain.

• Clears heat, generates fluids - heat patterns with high fever, irritability, thirst.
• Clears lung heat - cough, thick yellow sputum.
• Clears stomach heat - vomiting, belching.
• Clears heat, diuretic - dark, scanty urine, xue lin, accompanied by thirst and irritability.
• Encourages rashes to the surface - for febrile disease with rashes that are incompletely expressed.

• Avoid in patients with spleen or stomach cold from deficiency.

• Drains fire and guides out accumulation - constipation, dizziness, red eyes, irritability; good for chronic cases.
• Kills parasites, strengthens stomach - roundworms and ringworms.
• Clears heat and cools the liver - epigastric discomfort, dizziness, headache, tinnitus, irritability, constipation, and fever due to heat in the liver channel.

• Avoid During Pregnancy and During Menstruation

• Dispels wind-hot-damp bi and spasms of the sinews.
• Cools the blood and reduces swellings - toxic sores, sore throat.

• Clears fire toxicity and cools the blood - damp-heat of fire toxin dysentery, hot or bloody lin syndrome.
• Clears damp-heat and treats sores - fire toxin carbuncles or sores, as well as red and white vaginal discharge.
• Antidote for wasp stings and snakebites.

• 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.

• Unblock the channels, disperse clumps - reduces swelling and alleviates pain.
• Abscess, yin-type ulcers, pain due to trauma, wind-damp obstruction.

• Moistens the lungs, stops cough - dry cough, coughing blood.
• Augments stomach yin, generates fluids - dry tongue and mouth.
• Clears heat and eliminates irritability due to yin deficiency or a warm-febrile disease in the ying level - particularly when symptoms are worse at night.
• Moistens the intestines - constipation.

• 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.

• Relieves toxicity, kills parasites, dry dampness, alleviate itch.
• Topical wash for scabies, ringworm, damp or damp heat rash.
• Swollen painful eyes, throat, and jaundice.
• Stops bleeding, alleviates diarrhea - chronic blood in the stool/urine, hemorrhoidal bleeding, nosebleed, bleeding gums, any external bleeding.
• Clears heat, expels phlegm, wind phlegm - irritability, delirium, convulsions, cough with thick sticky sputum.

• 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.

• Clears and disseminates lung qi - sore throat, hoarseness, phlegm-heat cough, constrained lung qi.
• Clears intestines and unblocks the bowels - constipation due to heat.
• Encourages expression of rashes (adjunctive herb).

• Clears heat and relieves fire toxicity - any heat, especially liver heat with red, swollen, painful eyes.
• Dissipates nodules and reduces abscesses - firm, hard sores, especially for breast and intestinal abscesses.
• Promotes lactation - due to heat.
• Clears heat, resolves damp - damp-heat jaundice, lin syndrome.
• Often used for treating breast cancer in TCM

• Cools the blood to stop bleeding - vomiting blood, nosebleed, coughing blood, blood in stool, uterine bleeding, any bleeding due to hot blood.
• Invigorates blood to dispel blood stasis - pain associated with blood stasis, especially chest and flank pain, trauma, joint pain, early stage of carbuncles.

• 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.

• Drains damp-heat - dysentery (bloody).
• Drains liver fire - eyes with redness, swelling, pain, or the formation of superficial visual obstruction.
• Clears wind-damp - painful hot obstruction.

• Cools the blood - can be useful for bleeding disorders, nosebleeds, bruising/blotches at the skin level.
• Clears heat/toxic heat - cough, particularly with yellow mucus, sore throat, mouthsores, mumps.
• Drains liver fire/calms liver wind - convulsions, clear summerheat affecting the liver system in particular.

• Use with caution in patients with cold in the stomach and/or very deficient spleen/stomach qi.
• Some patients may have skin allergic reactions to the herb.

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

• Clears summer heat - fever, headache, dizziness, stifling sensation in the chest.
• Clears deficient fever - unremitting fever or night fever with no sweating (from blood deficiency or sequel of febrile disease).
• Cools the blood, stops bleeding - purpuric rash, nosebleed due to heat in the blood.
• Malarial disorders - alternating fever and chills.

• Clears damp heat, promotes urination, unblocks lin syndrome - for any lin, especially xue lin.
• Breaks up blood stasis - amenorrhea due to blood stasis.
• Unblocks the bowels - constipation.

• Avoid during Pregnancy.

• The stem of the honeysuckle plant (Jin Yin Hua) - similar functions, abscesses, sores, damp-heat bi syndromes.

• Drains lung heat - cough, wheezing.
• Promotes urination, reduces edema - lung heat obstructing downward movement of lung qi, preventing water from moving - no sweating, facial and floating edema, fever, thirst, difficult urination.
• Recently for hypertension.

• Tonifies blood and enriches yin - dizziness, tinnitus, insomnia, premature graying of the hair.
• Constipation due to blood deficiency in the elderly, xiao ke due to yin deficiency.

• Expels wind, clears lung heat - wind-heat with fever, headache, sore throat; also for lung dryness causing dry mouth, dry cough, lung heat with thick and yellow sputum.
• Cools liver and clears the eyes - liver channel eye problems due to wind-heat or yin deficiency, red, sore, dry or painful eyes, floaters.
• Cools the blood and stops bleeding - mild cases of vomiting blood due to heat in the blood.

• Wind-damp bi especially in the upper extremities.
• Reduces edema.

• Clears heat, relieves fire toxicity, improves throat - painful, swollen throat.
• Clears the lungs - cough due to lung heat.
• Damp-heat jaundice.

• Drives out water through the urethra and anus - edema associated with severe constipation and urinary difficulty.
• Reduces sores and carbuncles (topically).

• Avoid during Pregnancy.

• Clears heat, relieves toxicity, improves the throat - painful, swollen throat due to fire excess, fire toxin, or phlegm-heat obstruction.
• Transforms phlegm, clears the lungs - cough, wheezing, and phlegm.

• Avoid During Pregnancy

• Clears Heat, Cools Blood. High fever, thirst, scarlet tongue, hemorrhage due to heat in the Blood.
• Nourishes Yin, Generates Fluids. Yin Deficiency with heat signs with injury to body fluids. Dry mouth, low-grade fever, constipation, throat pain from yin deficiency.
• Cools Ascending Heart Fire (HT, LV). Mouth and tongue sores, irritability, insomnia, malar flush.
• Wasting thirst disorder.

Spleen Deficiency, Yang Deficiency, Damp Phlegm, Digestion Difficulties.

• 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.

• Nourish yin, clear heat, generate fluids - severe thirst, parched mouth, intractable fever associated with yin deficiency (occurring from injury to fluids from warm febrile disease).
• Nourish stomach yin - dry heaves, stomach ache, xiao ke, shiny tongue with little coating.
• Brighten vision, strengthen lower back.

• Drains liver fire, descends rising yang - headache, dizziness, red eyes.
• Liver heat disturbing the vision - photophobia, pterygium, visual obstruction.

• Clears heat in the lungs - sore throat, cough, asthma, mastitis.
• Damp heat related rheumatoid arthritis, jaundice, pain and/or swelling in the eyes.

• Promotes urination, drains damp-heat from the bladder - hot, stone, xue lin.
• Clears heat and stops bleeding - vomiting, uterine bleeding.
• Clears the lungs, expels phlegm, relieves cough - lung heat, wheezing.

• This is the deep fried version of Gui Ban.  For more information see the Gui Ban page.  Deep frying helps to moderate the cold action of the herb.

• Clears and drains lung heat, transforms phlegm, moistens lung dryness.
• Drains heat, generates fluid (fluids injured) - thirst, irritability, wasting and thirsting disorder, cough, thick sputum.
• Relieves toxicity, expels pus - toxic hot carbuncles, breast abscess.

• Avoid during Pregnancy.

• Nourish kidney yin, clear lung heat - yin deficiency with heat signs in the upper warmer, dryness of mouth, thick or blood-streaked sputum that is difficult to expectorate.
• Moisten the lungs, nourish kidneys, generate fluids - lung and kidney yin deficiency, especially xiao ke, low grade afternoon fever, constipation.

• Clears and transforms phlegm-heat - difficult to expectorate sputum.
• Clears heat and arrests convulsions - spasms, convulsions due to phlegm-heat, especially in children.

• 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.

• Promotes urination and clears heat - for damp warm febrile disease or damp-heat lin.
• Promotes lactation.

• Breaks up and drives out blood stasis - wide variety of blood stasis such as abdominal masses and amenorrhea, numb and swollen tongue due to blood stasis.
• Renews joints, sinews, bones - contusions, fractures, lacerations.

• Avoid During Pregnancy

• Contain leakage of lung qi - stop chronic cough due to deficient lung.
• Binds the intestines, stops diarrhea - diarrhea, dysentery, chronic blood in the stool, rectal prolapse.
• Restrains leakage - nocturnal emission, spermatorrhea, excessive sweat, bleeding.
• Absorbs moisture, reduces swellings, relieves fire toxicity - topically for sores, ringworm, ulcerated skin, scars.

• Clears summerheat and generates fluids - thirst, dry heaves, scanty urine.
• Promotes urination and expels jaundice.

• Clears Heat, Relieves Fire Toxicity, Cools Blood, Arrests Tremors. Erythema, nosebleed, vomiting blood, delirium, convulsions, manic behavior, loss of consciousness.

Pregnancy, Yin Deficiency Fever, Incompatible (antagonist) with Chuan Wu Tou and Cao Wu Tou.

• Dispels wind-heat-damp bi - facial paralysis, hemiplegia.
• Calms the spirit, pacifies the liver - irritability, insomnia, liver yang rising, headache, dizziness.

• Benefits qi, generates fluids, nourishes yin - for yin deficiency with heat signs, weakness, irritability and thirst after a febrile disease.
• Nurtures lung yin and clears fire from the lungs - wheezing, coughing up blood streaked sputum, loss of voice due to lung yin deficiency.

• 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.

• This is Lu Gen in its fresh form.  See the Lu Gen page for all indications.  
• Xian Lu Gen is stronger in clearing heat, generating body fluids and promoting urination than the dried herb.

• Clears heat and alleviates spasms - high fever and convulsions in febrile disease.
• Topically to relieve fire toxicity, hot skin lesions.
• Red, painful eyes due to liver fire.
• Reduces swelling and pain - trauma, sprains, fracture, hemorrhoids.

• Clears Heat, Cools Blood. Bleeding, fever, dry mouth, purplish tongue.
• Nourishes Yin. Particularly for the sequel of warm febrile disease with constipation, irritability.
• Drains Fire, Relieves Toxicity. Swollen, red eyes, sore throat.
• Softens Harness (salty), Dissipates phlegm fire nodules. Swollen, sore throat, neck lumps.

Incompatible with Li Lu.

• Treats dysenteric disorders - chronic cold stagnation dysentery, alternating hard and soft stool; protozoan induced dysentery.
• Intermittent fever and chills - malarial disorders.
• Topically for warts and corns.

• Toxic to stomach, liver, and kidneys.

• Swellings in the throat
• Urinary tract infections, other bladder/kidney issues including cancer
• Used in folk remedies for diabetes
• Used for a range of liver disease including cancer
• Arthritis and other systemic inflammatory conditions

• 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.

• Promotes urination, drains dampness - edema, difficult urination, damp leg qi.
• Strengthens the spleen, stops diarrhea.
• Clears heat and expels pus - carbuncles, lung or intestinal abscesses.
• Expels wind-damp, relieves joint and muscle pain.
• Clears damp-heat - any damp-heat disorder at any level with greasy tongue coating and digestive problems.

• Promotes urination, drains damp-heat in the lower burner - urinary difficulty, edema, diarrhea.
• Drains deficient kidney fire - heat signs, dizziness, tinnitus.

• Clears and transforms phlegm-heat - acute lung heat with productive cough.
• Clears heat, dissipates nodules (better than Chuan Bei Mu - for phlegm-fire congealing and causing neck swellings, lung and breast abscesses and swellings.

• Antagonist with Wu Tou.

• Sedates the heart - tremor, palpitations, seizures, childhood convulsions.
• Clears the liver - blurred vision.
• Promotes healing, generates flesh - ulcers of the gums or throat.

• Clears heat, drains fire - high fever, irritability, thirst, and a rapid flooding pulse in patterns of excessive heat in the lungs and/or stomach; cough due to lung heat with thick yellow sputum.
• Nourishes yin, moistens dryness - deficiency of lung and kidney yin, night sweats, steaming bone disorder, irritability, afternoon or low-grade fevers, bleeding gums, five-center heat; also for kidney heat signs - spermatorrhea, nocturnal emission, high sexual desire.
• Generates fluids and clears heat - oral ulcers and inflammation due to yin deficiency, wasting and thirsting disorder.

• Avoid in patients with diarrhea from spleen deficiency.

• 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.

• Clears heat (Heart and Liver), eliminates irritability - heat patterns with fever, restlessness, insomnia, delirium, stifling sensation in the chest.
• Drains damp heat - lin (urinary dysfunction) syndrome due to damp-heat in the lower warmer, damp-heat and constrained liver and gallbladder causing jaundice, damp-heat in the gall bladder and triple heater channels of the face - eyes, nose, sores in the mouth and face.
• Cools the blood, stops bleeding - nosebleed, blood in vomit, stool, urine; (needs to partially charred).
• Topically for blood stasis due to trauma, reduces swelling.

• Avoid in patients with loose stools and/or loss of appetite due to cold from deficiency.

• Clears and transforms phlegm-heat - thick sputum, stifling sensation in the chest, coughing up blood.
• Clears heat from the stomach, stops vomiting (good choice for different types including morning sickness), aversion to heat, bad breath, yellow greasy tongue.
• Cools the blood and stops bleeding - to stop nosebleed and vomiting of blood.

• Clears Heat, Cools the Blood, Relieves Fire Toxicity while Venting Rashes. Encourages rashes to surface, often for fire toxin with very dark purple rashes.
• Topically. Clears damp heat, damp heat skin lesion, vaginal itching, burns.
• Moisten Intestines, Unblock Bowels. Heat in the blood with constipation.

• 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.