Sweet Wormwood Herb … Classic Formulas
Qing Hao · Herba Artemisiae Annuae
Primary Actions
- Clears deficiency heat and cools steaming-bone fever ... Qing Hao is a signature herb for lingering heat after febrile disease, tidal fever, and night sweats from Yin depletion.
- Clears summer-heat and checks malaria ... classical use includes alternating chills and fever, warm-weather febrile disorders, and low-grade heat with thirst and chest oppression.
- Cools heat from the Blood level ... the herb is also used for heat rashes, low-grade fever with internal heat, and other warm-disease patterns where residual heat remains.
Classic Formulas
- Qing Hao Bie Jia Tang ... the defining formula for lingering deficiency heat and steaming-bone fever after warm disease.
- Hao Qin Qing Dan Tang ... uses Qing Hao to clear constrained damp-warm and Shaoyang-Gallbladder heat patterns.
- Single-herb malaria use recorded by Ge Hong ... the classic cold-water extraction tradition that later helped guide artemisinin discovery.
Classical Text References
- Ge Hong's Zhou Hou Bei Ji Fang famously records wringing out the juice of Qing Hao in water for malaria, a preparation detail later cited in the artemisinin discovery story.
- Traditional herbology describes Qing Hao as bitter, pungent, and cold, entering the Liver, Gallbladder, and Kidney to clear deficiency heat and summer-heat.