What it is:
This herb is theripe fruit of Tricho-santhes Kirilowii Maxim. or Trichosan-thes rosthornii Harms(family Cucurbita-ceae), produced mainly in the provinces ofHebei, Henan, Shandong and Anhui. The whole fruit is hung and dried in the shade after being havested. Its peel and seeds can used separately as herbs and arerespectively called trichosanthes peel and trichosanthes seed.

Property:
Sweet in flavour, cold in property, acting on the lung, stomach and large intestine channels.

Effects:
Clearing away heat, resolving sputum, promoting the flow of qi to soothechest oppression,subduing swelling to treat carbuncles, and moistening the bowels to relieve constipa-tion.

Used for:
1. Cough due tolung-heat withsymptoms of yellow and thick sputum, unsmoothexpectoration,fullness in the chest, dry stools, etc. It is often used with scutellaria root andarisaema treated with bile, as in Bolus for Clearing Heat and Phlegm (Qingqi HuatanWan).

2. Chest pain due to obstruction of qi in the chest. It is often used with macrostem onion, pinellia tuber andwhite wine, namedDecoction of Tricho-santhes, Allium and Pinellia (Gualou Xiebai Banxia Tang). For accumulation ofphlegm-heat in thechest manifested asfeeling of fullnessand stuffiness in the chest and hypochon-drium with tenderness, it is often used with pinellia tuber andcoptis rhizome, named Minor Decoction forRelieving Stuffiness in the Chest (XiaoXianxiong Tang).

3. Carbuncles ofbreast and pulmonary abscess. For red selling with burning pain at the beginning of acute mastitis, itis often used withdandelion and honey-suckle flower; for pulmonary abscess withpurulent and bloodyexpectoration, it is often used with houttuynia. 4. For drynesssyndrome of theintestines withconstipation, it isoften used with hemp seed and bush-cherry seed.

Dosage andadministration:10-20g of the entire fruit; 6-12g of the fruit peel; 10-15g of the seed; decocted in water for an oral dose. For obstruction of qi in the chest andsubcutaneous swelling or abscess, it is better to use the entire fruit; for cleaning heat, resolving sputum and promoting the flow of qi to soothe the chestoppression, it ispreferable to usethe fruit peel; forloosening the bowels and relieving consti-pation, the seed should be the choice.

Precautions:
It is antagonistic to aconite.