Heat Clearing Herbs

Drugs in this group are chiefly used to treat febrile diseases with high fever, dysentery of heat type, carbuncle, inflammatory swelling, boils, and various types of internal heat syndromes caused by endogenous heat due to deficiency of yin. Heat clearing drugs can be according to their chief effects into five five categories, namely, intense internal heat clearing drugs, heat and dampness eliminating drugs, heat clearing and blood cooling drugs, heat clearing and detoxicating drugs, and feficient heat clearing drugs. Intense internal heat clearing herbs and medicinals, with a bitter and sweet taste and cold nature, can clear heat and extinguish fire to treat acute febrile diseases with high fever, sweating, severe thirst, delirium, scanty dark urine, dry yellow tongue coating, and full forceful pulse. Heat and dampness eliminating herbs and medicinals can clear heat and eliminate dampness, to treat damp-heat syndromes. Accumulation of damp-heat in the intestines and stomach may cause diarrhea, dyscentery, hemorrhoids and fistula. Accumulation of damp-heat in the liver and gallbladder may cause hypochondriac distending pain, jaundice and a bitter taste in the mouth. Accumulation of damp-heat in the lower energizer may cause stranguria and profuse discharge of leukorrhea. Most heat and dampness eliminating drugs are bitter in taste to eliminating dampness, and cold in nature to clear heat. Heat clearing and blood-cooling herbs are mostly bitter, sweet and salty in taste and cold in nature. Therefore, they can clear away heat pathogens from yin and blood systems to treat diseases with skin eruption, various hemorrhagic diseases, persistent high fever, delirium, and coma caused by excessive heat in blood. Heat clearing and detoxicating herbs and medicinals are cold or cool in nature, so that they can clear internal heat and eliminate toxic substances to treat boils, carbuncles, erysipelas, skin eruption, sore throat, mumps and dysentery caused by toxic heat pathogens. Deficient heat clearing herbs and medicinals can clear deficient heat to treat fever due to deficiency of liver and kidney yin, hectic tuberculosis fever, persistent fever or nocturnal fever due to the wasting of yin and loss of body fluid caused by the retention of pathogenic factors at the late stage of febrile diseases.