Longstamen Onion Bulb Classic Formulas

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Unblocks chest Yang and disperses bound cold-phlegm - the defining herb for xiong bi patterns with chest tightness, angina-like pain, shortness of breath, white sticky sputum, or inability to lie flat because cold and phlegm obstruct the Yang of the chest.
Moves Qi and relieves fullness - used when stagnation extends from the chest into the epigastrium or intestines, producing stifling oppression, abdominal distention, or bearing-down discomfort.
Warms the Lungs and transforms cold-phlegm - especially useful when cough, wheezing, or chest obstruction reflect cold-turbid phlegm rather than hot or dry phlegm.
Relieves distention and pain in the bowels - classical sources also extend it to cold stagnation with diarrhea, dysentery, and tenesmus because it enters the Stomach and Large Intestine as well as the chest.

Gua Lou Xie Bai Bai Jiu Tang (瓜蒌薤白白酒汤) - from Jin Gui Yao Lue, the foundational chest-impediment formula in which Xie Bai warms and opens chest Yang while Gua Lou loosens phlegm and wine drives the action upward through the chest.
Gua Lou Xie Bai Ban Xia Tang (瓜蒌薤白半夏汤) - the stronger phlegm-heavy version for chest pain radiating to the back, copious white phlegm, and inability to lie flat, showing Xie Bai's classic role in severe phlegm-cold obstruction.
Zhi Shi Xie Bai Gui Zhi Tang (枳实薤白桂枝汤) - for marked chest fullness, upward surging Qi, and coexistence of cold, Qi stagnation, and some Blood stasis, with Xie Bai still serving as the key Yang-unblocking herb.

Me & Qi and Sacred Lotus both describe Xie Bai as warm, acrid, and bitter, entering the Heart, Lung, Stomach, and Large Intestine to treat chest impediment, cold-phlegm, and distention.
Jin Gui Yao Lue established Xie Bai as the key herb in the three landmark chest-impediment formulas that still anchor modern TCM use for chest pain and coronary-style obstruction patterns.
Later materia medica such as Ben Cao Gang Mu broadened the record to include diarrhea, lower stagnation, and pregnancy-related cold abdominal pain, but the herb's enduring identity remains its ability to open blocked Yang in the chest.