Stems square and frequently branched, 50-70 cm long, nodes slightly swollen; texture fragile, easily broken. Leaves simple, opposite, short petioled or nearly sessile; lamina crumpled and easily broken, when whole, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 3-12 cm long, 2-5 cm wide, with acuminate apex and cuneate-decurrent base, margin entire or undulate; the upper surface green, the lower surface greyish-green, glabrous on both surfaces. Odour, slight; taste, extremely bitter.

Influenza with fever, sore throat, ulcers in the mouth or on the tongue; acute or chronic cough; colitis, dysentery; urinary infection with difficult painful urination; carbuncles, sores, venomous snake bite.

1.Reducing intense heat to remove heat toxics:

To treat cough and dyspnea due to lung-heat, lung abscess or sore throat, it may be used in combination with Flos Lonicerae, Radix Scutellariae, etc.; to treat furuncles, carbuncles or skin pyogenic infections, with Flos Lonicerae, Flos Chrysanthemi indici, Rhizoma of Helminthostachys zeylanica (L.), Herba Oldenlandiae Diffusae, etc.

2.Reducing intense heat and resolving dampness:

The drug can be used to treat diarrhea or dysentery due to damp-heat, stranguria due to heat, eczema, etc. To treat, eczema, etc. To treat dysentery due to damp-heat, it can be used singly or in combination with Rhizoma Coptidis Radix Scutellariae, Herba Portulacae, etc.; to treat pain urination with dribbling, with Semen Plantaginis, Spora Lygodii, Folium Pyrrosiae, etc. having the effects of promoting diuresis and relieving stranguria; to treat eczema, the powder of the drug mixed with glycerin may be used.