Excerpted from Bensky:  Chinese Herbal Medicine Materia Medica, 3rd ed.

• Clears heat and drains fire:  for high fever, irritability, thirst, and a rapid, flooding pulse in patterns of heat from excess in the Lungs and Stomach.  Also for cough due to heat in the Lungs with expectoration of thick,  yellow sputum.*
• Enriches the yin and moistens dryness:  for exhaustion or deficiency of Lung and Kidney yin with such heat signs as night sweats, steaming bone disorder, irritability, afternoon or low-grade fevers, heat in the five centers, and bleeding gums.  Also for such Kidney heat signs as spermatorrhea, nocturnal emissions, and abnormally elevated sex drive.*
• Generates fluids and clears heat:  for oral ulcers and inflammation due to yin deficiency, and for wasting and thirsting disorder.*
• Ameliorates the dryness of tonifying or warming substances:  for circumstances when tonifying herbs, such as Astragali Radix (huang qi) , or warming herbs, such as Cinnamomi Ramulus (gui zhi) and Aconiti Radix lateralis preparata (zhi fu zi), are used, but there is concern that they not be too drying.*