Willowleaf swallowwort

A wet, rattling cough with a full chest and abundant white or yellow sputum, where the patient is not weak and the phlegm must come up

Cough after a cold that has become productive and stubborn, treated with bai qian, bai bu and zi wan together

Overview. Bai qian is the slender, yellowish-white rhizome and root of a swallowwort that grows along stream banks and damp ground in the lower Yangtze provinces of Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangsu and Hubei; the glaucous-leaved Cynanchum glaucescens is an accepted alternative source. The roots are dug in autumn and dried. Botanists have moved the plant into Vincetoxicum, but the pharmacopoeial name remains Cynanchum stauntonii. It is a phlegm-dispelling cough herb of moderate temperature, so it serves in both cold and hot patterns provided phlegm is present.

Clinical Notes. Bai qian earns its place by going downward. When lung qi rebels upward with phlegm, giving cough, a full chest and wheezing, it settles the qi and brings the phlegm up, and because it is only slightly warm it can be turned either way: with sang bai pi, ting li zi or huang qin for phlegm-heat, or with ban xia, zi su zi and gan jiang for cold phlegm.

Chinese Medicine Profile. Temperature: slightly warm. Taste: acrid, bitter. Channels: Lung. Actions: Directs Lung qi downward and stops cough; Dispels phlegm and relieves wheezing from phlegm obstructing the Lung.