Excerpted from Bensky: Chinese Herbal Medicine Materia Medica

• Releases the exterior and assists the yang:  for exterior wind-cold regardless of whether it is relatively deficiency or excessive.*
• Warms and unblocks the channels and collaterals:  for wind-cold-damp painful obstruction.*
• Warms the yang and transforms thin mucus:  for lack of transformation of fluids due to yang deficiency with such symptoms as edema with urinary dysfunction or dizziness and palpitations, as in Five-Ingredient Powder with Poria (wu ling san) and Poria, Cinnamon Twig, White Atractylodes, and Licorice Decoction (ling gui zhu gan tang).*
• Assists the Heart yang and unblocks the yang qi of the chest:  for listless chest yang together with upward movement of phlegm and thin mucus and the loss of the orderly descent of the Lung qi with shortness of breath, chest pain, or palpitations, as in Prepared Llcorice Decoction (zhi gan cao tang).*
• Warms the channels, vessels, and collaterals:  removes painful obstruction and warms the blood vessels to remove stagnation and regulate the menses, as in Warm the Menses Decoction (wen jing tang) and Cinnamon Twig and Poria Pill (gui zhi fu ling wan).*
• Warms the middle and directs turbid yin downward:  for cold from deficiency of the middle burner, as in Minor Construct the Middle Decoction (xiao jian zhong tang).*