Nature: sweet, cold
Enters: Lung, Spleen
Actions: Drains Lung heat (to the bladder); stops coughing, eases difficult breathing; promotes urination, reduces edema.
Indications:
• Lung heat: cough with copious phlegm and difficult breathing.
• Edema related to an excess syndrome.
• Lung heat obstructs the descent of Lung Qi, preventing water from moving and cutting off perspiration: floating edema, facial edema, swelling of the extremities, fever, thirst, difficulty in urination, floating pulse.
• Hypertension: moderately lowers blood pressure.
• Honey fry when using the herb for coughing and wheezing.
Hsu: Diuretic, sedative, hypotensive.
DY: Disinhibits urination and disperses swelling without damaging Yin; eliminates evils from the Qi division.
• With Chen pi to clear the Lungs and transform phlegm, rectify the Qi, stop coughing and calm asthma. For cough and asthma due to Lung heat with abundant yellow phlegm.
• With Di gu pi to clear the Yin and Qi divisions, to effectively clear heat and drain fire from the Lungs, eliminate deficiency fire damaging the Lungs, stop cough, and calm asthma. For the following indications, the combination is found in Xie Bai San:
– 1. Cough and asthma with expectoration of yellow, sticky, and thick phlegm, fever and thirst due to Lung heat.
– 2. Cough accompanied by evening fever or low but persistent fever with skin which is warm to the touch due to deficiency heat damaging the Lungs.
– For the above indications, honey mix-fried Sang bai pi should be used. This combination can treat both full and deficiency heat. The Lungs are a delicate viscus and are easily damaged by heat. Full heat easily damages Lung Yin, causing both full and deficient heat simultaneously. This pair addresses this situation very well. In case of full heat, add Huang qin, Pi pa ye, and Zhe bei mu. In case of deficiency heat, add Zhi mu and Mai men dong.
Dose: 6-15g