Sichuan fritillary

A tickling, unproductive cough that drags on for weeks after a chest infection, with a dry throat, a little sticky phlegm that is hard to raise, and worse at night

A weak, dry cough in an older or debilitated person with a red tongue and little coating, where harsher expectorants only irritate

Chronic cough with occasional streaks of blood in the sputum where the lung is dry and hot rather than cold and wet

Overview. Chuan bei mu is the small, pearl-white bulb of a fritillary that grows in alpine meadows and scrub at 3000 to 4500 meters in Sichuan, Yunnan, Tibet, Qinghai and adjacent Nepal. It is the most prized of the fritillary bulbs in Chinese medicine, cooling and moistening to the lung, and it is the herb of choice for the chronic dry cough that follows illness or accompanies lung yin deficiency. Several closely related species (Fritillaria unibracteata, F. przewalskii, F. delavayi, F. taipaiensis and F. wabuensis) are accepted as the same drug, and the whole group is under severe pressure from wild harvest.

Clinical Notes. Reach for chuan bei mu when the cough is dry, hot and chronic: the lingering post-viral cough, the elderly cough with a dry throat, the smoker with threads of blood in sticky sputum. It pairs beautifully with pears, either the classic steamed pear stuffed with powdered bulb and rock sugar or added to a pear and honey decoction, and with sha shen, mai men dong and bai he in yin-nourishing formulas.

Chinese Medicine Profile. Temperature: slightly cold. Taste: bitter, sweet. Channels: Lung, Heart. Actions: Clears heat and moistens the Lung; Transforms phlegm and stops cough; Dissipates nodules and reduces swelling; Relieves constraint in the chest.

Conservation. Wild populations are heavily overharvested and declining across the Hengduan Mountains and Himalaya; the species is under national protection in China, and only cultivated material should be used.