What it is:
This herb is theroot of Scutellariabaicalensis Georgi(family Labiatae) ,produced mainly inthe provinces ofHebei, Shanxi andInner Mongolia,collected or autumn,dried in or stir-baked to charcoal.

Property:
Bitter inflavour, cold inproperty, acting onthe lung, gallbladder,stomach and largeintestine channels.

Effects:
Clearing away heatand dampness, purging fire, detoxicating,stopping bleeding,and preventingmiscarriage.

Used for:
1. Various damp-heat syndromes. Forthe treatment ofdamp-warm syndromewith fever, feelingof fullness in thechest, and greasytongue coating, itis often used withtalc and rice-paperpith, as in Decoction of Scutellaria andTalc (Huangqin Huashi Tang); for damp-heat syndrome with jaun-dice, it is often used with capejasmine fruit, and orientalwormwood; for thetreatment of damp-heat in the lower- jiao marked by difficult and painful micturi-tion, it is often usedwith rehmannia rootand akebia stem, asin Pill for Removing Excessive Heat from the Heart (Huofu Dan);for suppurativeinfections on thebody surface, it isoften used withtrichosanthes root,dahurian angelicaand so on.

2. Acute febrilediseases with suchsymptoms and signsas high fever,restlessness, yellow tongue coating, and rapid pulse. It is often used together with coptis rhizome and capejasmine fruit,as in AntidotalDecoction of Coptis(HuangJian FieduTang).In cases of alternate attacks of fever and chills, it is usually used with bupleurum root, as in MinorDecoction of Bupleurum (Xiao ChaihuTang).

3. Cough withyellow sputum due to heat in the lung.It is often used with mulberry bark and ophiopogon root, as in Decoction for ClearingAway Heat in the Lung(Qing Fei Tang).

4. Bleeding due to the invasion of blood by excessive heat, such as hematemesis,epistaxis, hematuria or hemafecia ,metrorrhagia andmetrostaxis.Carbonized scutellaria root can be used alone or together with dried rehmannia root andcogongrass rhizome.

5. Heat-syndromeduring pregnancy andthreatened abortion.It is often used withChinese angelica rootand white atracty-lodes, as in ChineseAngelica Powder (Danggui San).

Dosage andadministration:3-10g,decocted in water forand oral dose orprepared into the forms of bolus andpowder. For clearing away heat, it should be used unprepared;for preventing abor-tion, usually stir-baked; for hemostasis, stir-baked to charcoal.

Precautions:
It iscontraindicated in cases of cold syndrome of deficiency type.