Fritillary Bulb (Bei Mu)

Traditional Use

Primary Actions

• Clears Lung Heat, transforms phlegm, and stops cough - used for dry or difficult cough with heat signs, scant sticky sputum, blood-streaked sputum, and chronic cough that reflects heat damaging Lung fluids.
• Moistens the Lungs while resolving phlegm - especially useful when both dryness and phlegm are present, making it gentler than colder bitter phlegm-draining substances that clear heat but do not protect fluids.
• Clears Heat and disperses nodules - classically used for scrofula, goiter, breast or Lung abscesses, and phlegm-fire masses that require both cooling and softening action.
• Relieves constrained phlegm with some upper-burner Qi stagnation - older formula traditions also use Bei Mu when coughing or throat obstruction is accompanied by chest or epigastric stifling.

Secondary Actions

• This record preserves the historical umbrella name Bei Mu rather than collapsing it into one later regional species, because classical texts often used the generic term before Chuan Bei Mu and Zhe Bei Mu were formally distinguished.
• In modern practice, generic Bei Mu prescriptions are usually clarified into species-specific materials, with sweeter Chuan Bei Mu favored for chronic dry cough and colder Zhe Bei Mu favored for hotter phlegm and harder nodules.

Classic Formulas

• Bei Mu Gua Lou San (贝母瓜蒌散) - classical dryness-phlegm formula in which Bei Mu moistens the Lung, transforms sticky phlegm, and helps stop cough with chest constraint and difficult expectoration.
• Bai He Gu Jin Tang (百合固金汤) - nourishes Lung and Kidney Yin while using Bei Mu to transform phlegm and stop chronic dry cough with heat signs or blood-streaked sputum.
• Yang Yin Qing Fei Tang (养阴清肺汤) - uses Bei Mu in throat and Lung-dryness disorders with cough, sore throat, and residual heat damaging fluids.
• Qi Ge San (七隔散) - includes Bei Mu for upper-burner phlegm and constraint affecting swallowing and the chest.

Classical References

• HISTORICAL IDENTITY NOTE: Me & Qi's historical review of Zhe Bei Mu explains that the earliest classical texts simply referred to Bei Mu without distinguishing Chuan Bei Mu and Zhe Bei Mu; the formal split emerged later in the Ming and Qing periods.
• The same Me & Qi historical summary notes that Zhe Bei Mu later came to be recognized as more bitter, colder, and stronger at clearing heat and dispersing nodules, while Chuan Bei Mu was considered sweeter, milder, and better for moistening the Lung and treating chronic dry cough.
• Because modern generic web references for 'fritillary bulb' redirect toward Chuan Bei Mu, the respiratory and moistening aspects in this record lean toward the classical shared core that modern sources now preserve most clearly in Chuan Bei Mu literature.