What is Sang Bai Pi? Are Sang Ye, Sang Zhi and Di Gu Pi the same?
Official Sang Bai Pi (桑白皮) is the dried root bark of Morus alba. The pharmacopoeial name is Mori Cortex. Sang Ye is sweet-bitter-cold: disperses wind-heat, clears the Lung, moistens dryness and clears the Liver to brighten the eyes. Sang Zhi is slightly bitter and neutral: dispels wind-damp and benefits the joints. Di Gu Pi is sweet-cold: cools Blood, eliminates steaming, clears the Lung and downbears fire. Write Sang Bai Pi or honey-fried Sang Bai Pi. Use caution when the Lung is cold and without fire.
What are the TCM properties and traditional uses of Sang Bai Pi?
According to the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, Sang Bai Pi is sweet and cold, enters the Lung channel, and acts to drain the Lung and calm wheezing, promote urination and disperse swelling. It is used for Lung-heat wheezing and cough, edema with distention and scant urine, and swelling of the face, eyes and skin. Sweet-cold and Lung-draining, it suits Lung-heat congestion and water-qi that fails to move—not Lung cold without fire or wind-cold cough.
How do you choose raw versus honey-fried Sang Bai Pi? Can Sang Ye replace it?
Lung-heat wheezing and promoting urination more often use the raw bark. Lung vacuity with heat, when a milder drain is wanted, uses honey-fried Sang Bai Pi (honey-fry until not sticky). Mulberry leaf disperses wind-heat and clears the Lung; it cannot replace draining the Lung and promoting urination by equal weight.
What is the usual dosage? Can it be drunk daily as an antiwheeze diuretic tea?
The pharmacopoeial decoction dose is 6–12 g. It is not a four-season “Sang Bai Pi wheeze tea.” Without Lung heat, cold only injures the Lung. Wheezing and edema need a practitioner to name a short course; it does not replace asthma and cardiac-renal assessment.
What are the contraindications? Can it be used in pregnancy?
Use caution or avoid in Lung cold without fire and wind-cold cough. Use caution with copious urine. Pregnancy needs a practitioner’s assessment. Stop if loose stool and worsening cough appear. Dyspnea and generalized edema are emergencies.
Can Sang Bai Pi drain the Lung, calm wheezing, promote urination and disperse swelling?
It can help Lung-heat wheezing and water-qi edema. Lung-heat wheezing joins Lycium root bark, Licorice and rice in Xie Bai San. Edema with distention joins Poria peel, Areca peel, ginger peel and tangerine peel in Wu Pi San. It drains the Lung, calms wheezing, promotes urination and disperses swelling—not a specific for every asthma or every edema.
Can Sang Bai Pi be drunk daily as a cough, anti-edema or blood-pressure tea?
Lung-heat wheezing and facial swelling may enter a short formula; Lung cold only grows more injured as it drains. “Sang Bai Pi lowers pressure and disperses swelling” does not replace blood-pressure and cardiac-renal assessment. Draining the Lung, calming wheezing, promoting urination and dispersing swelling should name raw or honey-fried 6–12 g.
How do you choose among Sang Bai Pi, Sang Ye, Di Gu Pi, Ting Li Zi and Fu Ling Pi?
Mulberry root bark is sweet-cold: drains the Lung, calms wheezing, promotes urination and disperses swelling—Lung-heat wheeze and water-qi. Mulberry leaf is sweet-bitter-cold: disperses wind-heat, clears the Lung, moistens dryness and clears the Liver. Lycium root bark is sweet-cold: cools Blood, eliminates steaming and clears Lung fire—bone-steaming and Lung heat. Lepidium is acrid-bitter and very cold: drains the Lung, calms wheezing, promotes urination—fiercer. Poria peel is sweet-bland-neutral: promotes urination and disperses swelling. Lung heat with skin steaming favors Sang Bai Pi with Di Gu Pi (Xie Bai San); exterior heat favors Sang Ye; phlegm flooding may use limited Ting Li Zi; skin-water swelling favors Fu Ling Pi. They may be paired (Wu Pi San with Sang Bai Pi); Lung cold forbids large Sang Bai Pi and Ting Li Zi.
Which herbs is Sang Bai Pi combined with? What are the representative formulas?
Lung-heat wheezing joins Lycium root bark, Licorice and rice in Xie Bai San. Edema joins Poria peel, Areca peel, ginger peel and tangerine peel in Wu Pi San. Write Sang Bai Pi or honey-fried Sang Bai Pi 6–12 g.
How do you choose and store Sang Bai Pi?
Choose thick, white, tough, fibrous bark with a slightly sweet taste. Lots with much coarse outer bark, mold, moths or a bitter-astringent taste are discarded. Store ventilated and dry. Buy pharmacopoeial Sang Bai Pi; do not replace draining the Lung, calming wheezing, promoting urination and dispersing swelling with Sang Ye or Sang Zhi by equal weight.
