Excerpted from Bensky:  Chinese Herbal Medicine Materia Medica

• Opens up and disseminates the Lung qi, dispels phlegm, and benefits the throat:  for cough or wheezing with profuse sputum, throat pain, and loss of voice.  Can be used for cough with profuse sputum from either cold or heat.*
• Pushes out pus:  for expelling pus associated with Lung abscess or throat abscess.  The traditional disease of Lung abscess is marked by fevers, chest pain, coughing of yellow sputum with a fishy smell, along with coughing up of blood and pus.*
• Opens up and raises the Lung qi, while also directing the actions of other herbs to the upper regions of the body:  used not only to reinforce the actions of other herbs that clear and drain the upper burner, but also whenever the actions of a formula should be focused on the upper regions of the body.*

Jie Geng - Platycodon grandiflorum