Figwort Root Classic Formulas — Natural Herb Library

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Clears heat and cools the blood - Xuan Shen is a major herb for severe heat with sore throat, fever, toxicity, or blood-level heat that dries fluids and agitates the system.
Nourishes yin and generates fluids - unlike purely draining cold herbs, it replenishes depleted fluids while clearing heat, making it important in warm-disease, dryness, and post-febrile depletion patterns.
Softens hardness and dissipates nodules - it is classically used for scrofula, swollen glands, thyroid-region masses, and hard heat-toxin accumulations.

Qing Ying Tang - warm-disease formula where Xuan Shen nourishes yin while clearing nutritive-level heat.
Zeng Ye Tang - classic constipation-from-dryness formula pairing Xuan Shen with Sheng Di Huang and Mai Men Dong.
Xiao Luo Wan - hallmark nodule and scrofula formula combining Xuan Shen with Mu Li and Zhe Bei Mu.

Traditional herbology describes Xuan Shen as salty, sweet, bitter, and cold, entering the Kidney, Lung, and Stomach to clear heat, cool blood, nourish yin, and soften hardness.
Its classical throat reputation is strong enough that it appears repeatedly in formulas for painful swelling, loss of voice, and toxic heat in the upper burner.
The herb is also famous for the admonition against combining it with Li Lu in older incompatibility traditions.