Bai Qu Cai (白屈菜; Bái Qū Cài; Latin: Chelidonii Herba; English: greater celandine herb) is the dried whole plant — stems, leaves, and roots — of a perennial herb of the poppy family, gathered in summer and dried whole, the pale stems with a yellow-orange juice that stains the fingers, which practitioners add to formulas when heat sits in the lung and cough keeps coming. It is cool, bitter, enters the Lung and Stomach channels, and its core actions are to clear heat and ease cough, and to resolve toxin and disperse swelling. The usual amount is 3–10 g in a decoction, with far smaller amounts in home teas. It goes into decoctions — no first, last, or wrapped step. It contains alkaloids, and the raw herb is used only in processed or measured practice — not for casual self-use.
It is not Ku Xing Ren. Bitter apricot kernel is also used for cough — it is warm and bitter, lowering the qi and easing cough, plus moistening the intestines; this herb is cool and bitter, clearing lung heat and resolving toxin, leaning to swelling and sores — one cool, one warm, opposite directions. It is not a general cough or sore herb; it acts within clear patterns. In cold cough with thin white phlegm, or in stomach-gut cold deficiency, using it on your own is a poor match. Persistent cough with fever or blood, or a child who is markedly unwell, needs a clinic first. Do not use it yourself for a long time.
It is used most often for three patterns:
- Lung-heat cough — dry harsh cough, a dry throat, scanty yellow phlegm, a red tongue with little coat
- Heat-toxin swellings — red swollen painful spots or sores with a heat feel
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Persistent cough with fever or blood, pregnancy, or nursing — seek care / skip it
Cool, bitter, and draining, it is not a daily "lung-clearing tea" to keep drinking. Cooling when there is no heat, or in a cold-stomach body, injures the middle yang instead of helping.
When heat gathers in the lung — a dry harsh cough, a dry throat, scanty yellow phlegm — or when heat-toxin shows on the skin — red swollen painful spots — the body needs a clear-and-resolve rather than a blind moistening or astringing. Bai Qu Cai is cool, bitter, and slightly toxic in nature. It clears the lung heat, eases the cough, resolves the toxin, and disperses the swelling, which is why it appears in Bai Qu Cai Ke Sou Fang (Greater Celandine Cough Formula)–type formulas. It drains more than it holds. In cold cough with thin white phlegm, or without heat-toxin, more makes it worse.
Bai Qu Cai is not a catch-all cough or sore herb. In cold cough with thin white phlegm, in pregnancy, or without heat-toxin, using it alone is a poor match. Whether it belongs in a formula, and at what dose, should be decided by a licensed Chinese medicine practitioner after pattern diagnosis.
