Pulmonary Herb, a traditional Chinese medicine, is the tender whole herb of the plant Double Butterfly in the Gentianaceae family. It grows in mountain slopes, fields, and damp areas. It is distributed in central and southern China, as well as southwestern China. Pulmonary Herb is mainly used to clear the lungs and relieve cough, detoxify and reduce swelling. It is used to treat lung heat cough, pulmonary tuberculosis with hemoptysis, lung abscess, nephritis, and boils and abscesses.
Pulmonary Herb is the tender whole herb of the plant Double Butterfly in the Gentianaceae family. It is harvested in early summer and dried.
Double Butterfly (Illustrated Catalog of Plants and Their Names) is also known as Cluster-Flowered Double Butterfly, Variegated Leaf Trailing Gentian, or White Deer Carrying.
It is a perennial twining herb. In the early stage, it has 4 basal leaves, 2 large and 2 small, arranged in a cross shape, ovate to elliptic, 3-7.5 cm long and 1.5-3.5 cm wide, with 3 main veins. The upper surface is green with pale yellow-green clusters, and the lower surface is purple-red, with a blunt or sharp tip and a gradually narrowing base, without a petiole.
The stem is slender and creeping, about 70 cm long, with opposite triangular narrow ovate to pentagonal lanceolate leaves, 2-5 cm long and 0.5-2 cm wide, with a slightly heart-shaped or rounded base and short stalk, with 3 veins. The flowers are large, single, and axillary; the calyx tube is 5-lobed, with linear lobes; the corolla is rose-purple, gradually tapering at the base, with 5 lobes at the apex, and the lobes have slightly protruding truncate appendages.
The capsule is long and spherical, pale reddish-purple, with a diameter of about 8 mm. It flowers from August to September.
Pulmonary Herb is mainly used to clear the lungs and relieve cough, detoxify and reduce swelling. It is used to treat lung heat cough, pulmonary tuberculosis with hemoptysis, lung abscess, nephritis, and boils and abscesses.
① Illustrated Catalog of Plants and Their Names: "Pulverize and apply to various toxins."
② Illustrated Compendium of Medicinal Plants: "Used to treat hemoptysis."
③ Folk Medicinal Herbs of Zhejiang: "Used to dispel cold and heat, treat pulmonary tuberculosis and lung abscess."
④ Flora of Jiangxi: "Used to stop bleeding from knife wounds."
⑤ Medicinal Plant Catalog of Guangxi: "Used to treat breast abscess, chronic diarrhea, and irregular menstruation."
