Sichuan Lily Bulb

Traditional Use

Primary Actions

• Moistens the Lung and relieves dry irritative cough - regional sweet-lily material used in the same general sphere as Bai He for dryness, post-illness throat irritation, and mild blood-streaked or sticky sputum.
• Nourishes Yin and quiets restlessness - often taken as a soup or food-medicine ingredient when recovery, sleep, or emotional calm is the goal rather than forceful clearing or transformation.
• Supports convalescence and depleted fluids - especially when poor recovery after illness, dryness, and mild fatigue coexist and a gentler edible lily is preferred over harsher medicinals.
• Acts as a local substitute or culinary analogue to Bai He - preserving much of the same Lung-and-Heart nourishing direction while leaning more obviously toward food use.

Secondary Actions

• Chuan Bai He usually refers to regional sweet lily materials associated with Lilium davidii and especially the Lanzhou sweet-lily line, so its trade identity is less standardized than pharmacopeial Bai He.
• Because the bulbs are sweeter and less bitter than core medicinal Bai He, clinicians often view Chuan Bai He as gentler and more food-oriented even when the overall action profile remains Lung/Heart Yin support.

Classic Formulas

• Bai He Gu Jin Tang (百合固金汤) - when Chuan Bai He is used in place of generic Bai He, the emphasis stays on moistening Lung Yin, easing chronic dry cough, and relieving blood-streaked sputum.
• Bai He Di Huang Tang (百合地黄汤) - regional cooks and practitioners may use sweeter Chuan Bai He material when treating the restless, post-febrile Bai He Bing sphere through food-like preparation.
• Bai He Zhi Mu Tang (百合知母汤) - demonstrates the same Yin-restoring, deficiency-heat clearing direction that Chuan Bai He inherits when treated as a local Bai He substitute.
• Sweet lily soups with Sha Shen, Mai Men Dong, and Chuan Bei Mu - common convalescent pairings that highlight the gentler respiratory use of regional lily bulbs even outside highly formal prescriptions.

Classical References

• Me & Qi's Bai He identity section notes that Lanzhou lily and other sweet edible lilies are not the main pharmacopoeial medicinal source, which helps explain why Chuan Bai He sits in a gray zone between food ingredient, regional substitute, and medicinal lily bulb.
• Botanical and horticultural references commonly associate 川百合 with Lilium davidii and related western-China sweet-lily cultivars, distinguishing it from the more bitter medicinal Long Ya Bai He line.
• This library keeps Chuan Bai He as a separate regional record rather than collapsing it fully into Bai He because the source dataset imported both names and modern trade usage often differentiates them.