Bark of Amur Corktree

Traditional Use

Primary Actions

• Clears damp-heat from the lower burner - used for painful dark urination, leukorrhea, dysenteric diarrhea, jaundice, swollen painful lower limbs, and genital damp-heat where bitterness and coldness are needed to dry and drain downward.
• Drains deficiency fire from Kidney Yin deficiency - an important herb for tidal fever, bone steaming, night sweats, seminal emission, and lower-burner heat signs in formulas such as Zhi Bai Di Huang Wan.
• Resolves fire toxin and damp skin lesions - applied internally or externally for eczema, sores, hot toxic swellings, and damp-heat eruptions with redness, itching, oozing, or foul discharge.
• Directs heat downward from the intestines and bladder - especially useful when damp-heat causes tenesmus, foul diarrhea, or lower-abdominal burning that requires a strong descending bitter-cold approach.

Secondary Actions

• Often paired with Cang Zhu as the classic Huang Bai-Cang Zhu combination when damp-heat has sunk into the legs, knees, or lower burner.
• Its strong drying nature means it is often balanced with Yin-nourishing or Spleen-supporting herbs when deficiency and excess coexist.

Classic Formulas

• Er Miao San (二妙散) - the classic two-herb combination of Huang Bai and Cang Zhu for damp-heat pouring downward with red swollen legs, genital itching, and lower-burner inflammation.
• Bai Tou Weng Tang (白头翁汤) - from Shang Han Lun, where Huang Bai assists in treating toxic-heat dysentery with tenesmus, blood, and severe intestinal inflammation.
• Zhi Bai Di Huang Wan (知柏地黄丸) - the well-known extension of Liu Wei Di Huang Wan that adds Huang Bai and Zhi Mu to drain deficiency fire from Kidney-Liver Yin deficiency.

Classical References

• IMPORT NOTE: The XLSX source imported the pinyin as 'Huang Bi', but the standard TCM name for Cortex Phellodendri is Huang Bai (黄柏). This record preserves the slug while correcting the herbal identity.
• IDENTITY NOTE: This record is therapeutically identical to the later English-variant stub phellodendron-bark.json. The duplicate reflects an import naming split rather than a separate drug.
• Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing and later materia medica traditions established Huang Bai as a bitter-cold lower-burner herb for damp-heat, dysentery, jaundice, and deficiency fire patterns.