Lecture Notes: Herbs That Clear Heat

Introduction to Herbs That Clear Heat

• Purpose: Used to address interior heat within the body.
• Properties: Cold in temperature and bitter in flavor to clear heat and drain fire.
  • Sweet Flavor: Many herbs also have a sweet flavor to tonify yin and moisten dryness, which heat can damage.
• Cautions: Cold and bitter nature can damage the spleen (which favors warmth).
  • Contraindications: Avoid in patients with spleen qi deficiency.

Subcategories of Herbs That Clear Heat

1. Herbs That Drain Fire
2. Herbs That Cool the Blood
3. Herbs That Clear Heat and Dry Dampness
4. Herbs That Clear Heat and Resolve Toxicity
5. Herbs That Clear Heat from Deficiency

Theories of Febrile Diseases

• Cold Damage School: Derived from Shang Han Lun, deals with cold pathogens entering through skin and muscle and moving inward.
• Warm Disease School (Wenbing): Focuses on heat pathogens moving through the body via the nose and mouth.

Herbs That Drain Fire

• Qi-Level Heat/Yangming Channel Heat: Characterized by the "four bigs" - big fever, big sweat, big thirst, big pulse.
• Shi Gao (Gypsum Fibrosum):
  • Function: Clears heat from lungs and stomach, treats skin conditions.
  • Properties: Very cold, sweet, and acrid.

Herbs That Cool the Blood

• Ying and Xue Levels: Address deeper, intense heat with symptoms like night fever, restlessness, bleeding.
• Sheng Di Huang (Ramani Eratics):
  • Function: Clears heat, tonifies Yin, treats thirst and constipation.
  • Properties: Bitter and sweet, enters liver, heart, and kidney channels.

Herbs That Clear Heat and Dry Dampness

• Damp Heat Conditions: Digestive issues, jaundice, urinary problems, skin conditions.
• Three Huangs (Huang Qin, Huang Lian, Huang Bai):
  • Function: Each clears heat from different body sections (upper, middle, lower jiao).
  • Huang Qin (Scutellaria Radix): Clears heat from the upper jiao, lung heat, diarrhea, bleeding.

Herbs That Clear Heat and Resolve Toxicity

• Heat Toxicity Conditions: Skin infections, abscesses, boils, diarrhea.
• Jin Yin Hua (Honeysuckle Flower):
  • Function: Clears heat toxicity, treats abscesses, sores, wind-heat invasion.
  • Properties: Sweet flavor, dosage varies by use.

Herbs That Clear Heat from Deficiency

• Deficiency Heat Conditions: Tidal fever, night sweats, steaming bone disorder.
• Qing Hao (Artemisia Annua Herba):
  • Function: Clears deficiency heat, summer heat, treats malaria.
  • Properties: Bitter and acrid, enters kidney, liver, and gallbladder channels.

Closing

• Next Topic: Downward draining herbs.
• Summary: Comprehensive overview of herbs addressing various types of internal heat in traditional medicine.