Heat-clearing herb

Heat-clearing herbs are a major class of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) botanicals characterized by "cold" properties and used to clear away interior heat, purge fire, relieve toxicity, dry dampness, and cool the blood. This category includes dozens of different herbs such as Scutellaria baicalensis (Huang Qin), Lonicera japonica (Jin Yin Hua), Forsythia suspensa (Lian Qiao), Isatis tinctoria (Ban Lan Gen), and Rabdosia rubescens (Dong Ling Cao). They are mainly employed for conditions described as “excess heat” in TCM, which may overlap with fever, infection, and inflammation in Western medicine. Mechanistically, many heat-clearing herbs have documented anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, and antimicrobial effects. They do not constitute a single molecular target but rather a therapeutic concept and diverse group of pharmacologically active plants used in proprietary formulas and clinical syndromes according to TCM theory[4][6][7].

Other names

Cooling herbsHCCH (heat-clearing Chinese herbs)Clear-heat herbsAntipyretic herbs

Reduce body temperature (antipyretic) Suppress inflammatory cytokines (e.g., IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α)[4] Antimicrobial action (inhibiting bacteria, viruses)[4] Modulation of immune response[4]