What it is:
This herb is the rhizome of Anemar- rhena asphodeloides Bge. (family Liliaceae), grown mainly in the provinces of Hebei and Shanxi. Dug out in spring or autumn, dried in sunlight after cutting off the rootlets, sliced, and used unprepared or stir-baked with salt water.

Property:
Flavour and channel tropism: bitter and sweet in flavour, cold in property, acting on the lung, stomach and kidney channels.

Effects:
Clearing away heat, purgine fire, replenishing yin essence, moistening the viscera, and promoting the production of body fluid to quench thirst.

Use For:
1. Epidemic febrile diseases with symptoms of high fever, dire thirst, full and forceful pulse, etc. It is often used with gypsum and others, as in White Tiger Decoction (Baihu Tang).

2. Cough due to heat in the lung or dry cough with thick sputum due to deficiency of yin. It is often used with fritillary bulb, known as Powder of Anemarrhena and Fritillary (Ermu San).

3. Hyperactivity of fire marked by hectic fever due yin deficiency, vexation and night sweat. It is often used with phellodendron bark and rehmannia root, as in Pill of Anemarrhena, Phellodendron and Rehmannia ( Zhi BaiDihuang Wan).

4. Diabetes due to yin deficiency with manifestations of thirst, poly- dipsia, polyuria, etc. It is often used with trichosanthes root, ophiopogon root and pueraria root, as in Decoction for Promoting the Production of Body Fluid (Yuye Tang).

Dosage and administration: 6-12g, dropped in water for an oral dose.

Precautions: This drug is cold and moistening in property and can loosen the bowels, therefore it is improper to use it in cases of loose stools due to defi- ciency of the spleen.