Nature: sweet, bland, slightly cold

Enters: Lung, Kidney, Liver

Actions: Clears heat; cools the blood; drains Yin deficiency fire, including floating fire in the kidney channel; stops coughing.

Indications:
• Yin deficiency heat: tidal fever, night sweats, irritability, thirst, steaming bone disorder with sweating (if no sweating, use Mu dan pi).
• Lung heat (deficiency or excess): cough, asthma, wheezing.
• Kidney Yin deficiency fire: toothache.
• A strong decoction can be used as a dental analgesic. In one study of 11 patients with pulpitis, concentrated decoctions of Di gu pi effectively reduced the pain and inflammation in a mean time of one minute.
• Food retention and Yin deficiency: fever in children.
• Heat in the blood: hemoptysis, epistaxis, hematuria, hematemesis.
• Antipyretic. Less effect than aspirin.
• Lowers blood pressure. Especially for hypertension in classes I and II.
• Eczema and juvenile verruca plana: Di gu pi was shown to be beneficial when injected (no mention of the effect of oral administration).
• Malaria: in one study, Di gu pi and tea leaves given to malaria patients 2-3 hours before the onset of fever had a significant effect in 145 of 150 cases.
• Bensky/Gamble classifies this with herbs that clear heat and cool the blood.
Li: Can astringe sweats.
MLT: Topical: for fungal infection – use as a wash with Ye jiao teng, Ming fan, She chuang zi, Zi cao, Ku shen for genital itching, poison oak and ivy, and other rashes.
DY: Eliminates evils from the Yin division.
• With Sang bai 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.
Hsu: Hypotensive (vasodilator); hypoglycemiant; antibacterial; antipyretic.

Dose: 6-15g