• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Tonifies the spleen and augments qi - spleen deficiency w/shortness of breath, fatigue, loose stools (si jun zi tong).
• Qi and/or blood deficiency w/irregular pluse or palpitations (Zhi Gan Cao Tang).
• Moistens the lungs and stops cough - heat/cold in the lungs (Ma Xing Shi Gan Tang).
• Clears heat and toxic fire (raw) - carbuncles, sores, sore throat due to fire toxin (internally or topically).
• Alleviates pain and stops spasms - abdomen or legs (Shao Yao Gan Cao Tang).
• Often used to harmonize and/or moderate characteristics of other herbs.
• Antidote for toxic substances (internally and topically).

• Avoid with excess dampness, nausea, vomiting.
• Incompatible with Gan Sui, Da Ji, Yuan Hua, Hai Zao (although used in some formulas with Hai Zao).
• If taken for long periods of time, may cause hypertension and/or edema.

• 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.

• 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.

• Promotes urination, drains heat from the heart through the small intestine - irritability with sores of the mouth or tongue, scanty urination, lin syndrome, edema.
• Promotes lactation, unblocks the blood vessels - insufficient lactation, less commonly for amenorrhea and bi-syndrome.

• Avoid during Pregnancy.
• Toxic - can lead to renal failure (aristolochic acid).

• 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.

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

• 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.